FIVE BURNING QUESTIONS FOR THE TERRAPIN MEN'S BASKETBALL TEAM

How will the Terps cope with a lack of experience in the frontcourt?

When James Gist and Bambale Osby graduated last spring, the Terps lost their second- and third-leading scorers, as well as their top two rebounders and shot blockers. And the only player they were able to fetch for a frontcourt replacement was freshman Steve Goins, who is not yet developed enough to play big minutes at an ACC level.

That means the Terps will rely on sophomores Braxton Dupree and Jerome Burney to make a quantum leap from their shaky freshman seasons.

Dupree suffered from poor conditioning and did not appear in the Terps' final five games before the NIT last season. But he lost 20 pounds over the summer and now says, "The way I feel on the court is entirely different than last year."

Burney showed he could be a spark defensively, but he will need to include some production offensively to merit a starter's minutes.

"He's been working hard, and he's in great physical condition," coach Gary Williams said. "All those things are good, but then it comes to the games. Can you play? And you don't know that until it comes to the games."

One player who Williams knows can play is junior Landon Milbourne, who started at small forward last season but will be asked to step into the power forward position some this year.

"I don't have any problem with it; I played center in high school, so I like to bang a little bit with the inside guys," Milbourne said. "I think it would be a good opportunity for me on the offensive end."

The Terps were 3-3 (including losses to American and Ohio) in games in which Gist and Osby combined for fewer than 20 points last season. Dupree and Burney can't be counted on to combine for 20 each night, but with Milbourne in the paint, that's a reachable mark for the frontcourt.

How will Williams find time for his batch of talented guards?

With a year under their respective drawstrings, sophomores Adrian Bowie and Cliff Tucker figure to improve drastically, a typical evolution for a second-year player. We saw it last year when the team's three sophomores, Greivis Vasquez, Eric Hayes and Milbourne, all beefed up their scoring averages by at least five points per game.

But with no graduating guards and a talented freshman in Sean Mosley entering the mix, how can Bowie and Tucker logically expand their roles?

There are only 200 minutes per game for Williams to divide between his players, and there's little reason to believe either Vasquez (team-high 37 minutes per game last season) or Hayes (33.4 mpg) will see much of a decrease in time on the floor.

Playing with four guards - a method Williams employed when coaching at American and one he's not afraid to use again this season - may be the only way to get the most talented players out of their warm-ups and into the action.

"You have to look at your talent and see how to get the best players on the court the most times," Williams said.

From a cursory look at intrasquad scrimmages, it appears the underclassmen will be tough to keep off the court. Bowie has improved his outside shooting and ballhandling, while Tucker has been a tour de force scoring the basketball. And Mosley, though just 19 years old, has carried himself like a veteran.

Can the Terps prevent the types of damaging losses they suffered last season?

Like the creepy baggage assistant in that Southwest Airlines commercial, sometimes the Terps looked lovely last year (see victory at No. 1 North Carolina), but at other times they displayed their ugly "hidden fees" side (see losses at home against American and Ohio).

There is little logic to explain why a team could beat the very best one night and succumb to mediocre mid-majors the next.

"It's been true for the last couple years in college basketball; you're seeing some scores and saying, 'How could that ever happen?'" Williams said. "Players today have a tendency to judge their opponents a lot more. I remember when it was, when you're playing somebody who was supposed to be not as good as you were, you'd try to beat them by 50. Now it's, maybe, 'I can get by by playing 60, 70 percent.'"

This Terp team won't be able to get away with coasting at 60 or 70 percent. If it wants a realistic shot to be dancing in March, it must take care of business against the weaker nonconference teams.

"You have to compete every day, no matter who you're playing against," Williams said. "It's one thing saying it; it's another thing doing it. I think our guys felt like we lost a couple of games we maybe shouldn't have lost. That can make a big difference at the end of the season."

Do the Terps have a legitimate shot to make the NCAA Tournament?

It used to be a foregone conclusion that when the calendar turned to March, the weather warmed up, flowers began to bloom, and the Terps headed to the NCAA Tournament. It happened for 11 straight years under coach Williams.

But in three of the past four seasons, the Terps have had to settle on the NIT - a less-than-rosy consolation prize for a university with such rich basketball tradition.

This season, most pundits aren't even predicting the Terps to be on the tournament bubble come March. A chaotic offseason left the Terps with a young, inexperienced team. Even the most optimistic fans can't just assume that the Terps will succeed in the ACC and reach the Big Dance.

But the talent is there for these guys to shock some people. Williams is too feisty to just let his team roll over without delivering a few punches of its own.

"When you enter a season with guards like Vasquez and Hayes, you can't rule out the possibility of making it," The Sporting News' Mike DeCourcy said.