After time expired at Comcast Center last night, senior forward James Gist thrust his hands skyward to celebrate his team's thrilling victory. But guard Greivis Vasquez stood on the opposite side of the court and tossed his hands up in a vastly different gesture. He breathed a sigh of relief and shrugged his shoulders, seeming thankful just to have barely avoided an upset.
"It's ugly," Vasquez said. "It's a win, but it's not what you want. It's not good enough."
Despite eking past the Huskies to improve to 3-0, the Terps again struggled to score and were plagued by sloppy turnovers, even on their home court against clearly overmatched opponents.
All night, the Terps struggled to run an effective half-court offense and never fell into a scoring rhythm. Even though Northeastern only scored seven points in the final 10 minutes of the first half, the Terps couldn't pull away and their halftime lead was only six.
Through their three victories, the Terps are averaging only 74.3 points per game and Gist is the only player to reach double figures in every game he's played.
"It's too slow," coach Gary Williams said of the Terps' attack. "There's not a sense of urgency. We ran some really good stuff for 10 minutes of that game. But that's not enough. You have to do that for 35 or 40 minutes, and it's going to have to come pretty quick."
The problems running the offense may fall on the shoulders of Vasquez, who made just four of his 16 shots has been openly displeased with his overall performance this season.
"I'm mad at myself and I've got to pick it up," Vasquez said. "I've got to be the man. I'm doing a poor job leading the team right now."
It's not Vasquez's fault alone that the point totals are so low - senior forward Bambale Osby went 1-9 from the floor and committed five turnovers. And as a team, the win marked the second straight game that the Terps have finished with more turnovers than assists.
Pair the under-producing offense with a staggering turnover total, and the Terps are in trouble. The team's season-high 23 turnovers last night brought the three-game total to a whopping 65.
"I'm disappointed in the way we're handling the ball," Williams said. "There's turnovers that aren't being forced that we turn the ball over in situations when it's like we're not tough enough with the ball, we're not sharp enough with the ball. It looks sloppy out there to me as a coach. We've got to figure out a way to improve it; that's for sure."
Regardless of exactly where the blame falls, the stymied scoring touch puts enormous pressure on the Terps' defense. So far, the team has responded, holding each of its three opponents to less than 73 points. Osby finished with half of his team's 12 blocks, and Williams said the defense "has probably saved us the last two games."
The balance has to change almost overnight, though. Next on the docket is No. 2 UCLA, whom the Terps will face Monday in Kansas City. The Bruins will pose a much tougher challenge on both ends of the court, and relying on blocked shots won't cut it against the nation's elite.
As Williams said to his team in the locker room last night, the most important thing is that the Terps are undefeated. But if his squad can't find answers to their offensive miscues and unexplainable turnovers, he won't be able to say that for long.
gbassdbk@gmail.com
Be the first to comment on this article!
Log in to be able to post comments.