Terps through with tough patch

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. - One win is all it took to make the Terrapin men's basketball team's pedestrian nonconference schedule a roughshod ride.

By upsetting Michigan State in their first game of last weekend's Old Spice Classic, the Terps (4-2) set themselves up to play two additional games against ranked competition instead of playing Oklahoma State and either Siena or Wichita State.

The Terps didn't look good in those following two contests - losing to No. 5 Gonzaga 81-59 and to No. 20 Georgetown 75-48 - but the pair of smacks they absorbed could ultimately help them later in the year.

"We're in the tough part of our schedule, there's no doubt about it, but we'll find out a lot about our team with the way we play Wednesday night," coach Gary Williams said.

There will be no more ranked teams to contend with until ACC play begins, so the Terps have an eight-game stretch in the meantime to really define the type of team they can be.

The upcoming slate is not exactly a murderer's row. Wednesday's opponent, Michigan, is a bit of a conundrum, having beaten then-No. 4 UCLA on a neutral floor before needing overtime to dispatch lowly Savannah State on Saturday.

After hosting the Wolverines, the Terps play a mediocre George Washington squad at Verizon Center in the BB&T Classic. Then there are six straight home games against low and mid-major conference teams, matchups which would be major disappointments if the Terps were to lose.

With the difficult part of the nonconference schedule almost out of the way, the Terps have a good opportunity to rack up some wins before the rigors of conference play begin.

"Nobody's played a tougher schedule than us so far this year," Williams said. "I'm disappointed with the way we played [against Georgetown], but we did get a win over a top five team at the time. [Against] Gonzaga we played OK, and [against the Hoyas] we didn't play. You'd like it to go the other way, obviously."

While going 1-2 against three ranked teams is a satisfactory effort for the Terps, the regression they displayed is cause for apprehension. Interestingly enough, the Terps' three opponents got worse and worse according to the pre-tournament rankings (although those have obviously changed now), while the Terps looked worse each passing game.

They played nearly flawlessly to begin the tournament against Michigan State - great ball movement resulted in 17 assists compared to 10 turnovers; high shooting percentages from the field, three-point line and free-throw stripe; and a courageous defensive effort that held the Spartans to 62 points.

"We just played overall great defense as a team," guard Eric Hayes said after that game.

But all of that went out the window when they were outmatched and outsized by Gonzaga and then Georgetown, which looked far more precise on both sides of the ball. And their inability to get stops on defense took them out of their game offensively, as well.

During the final eight non-conference games, the Terps likely won't look as physically overmatched as they did against Gonzaga and Georgetown. But their success will be contingent on their consistency and ability to do the small things when they are struggling from the floor.

"Whenever you have that situation when you're not shooting well," Williams said, "you can fight through it by being really aggressive defensively and running a better offense, and we didn't do that [against Georgetown] to make up for it."

"The thing about basketball is, you don't have a week to get ready," the 20-year Terp coach said. "You have two days to get ready for a Michigan team that's already beaten UCLA."

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