A year later, a dominant defense

Amid all the questioning and hand-wringing about his team's ability to replace three talented seniors who made up more than half of last season's scoring, Gary Williams never wavered. Inevitably, the Terrapin men's basketball coach affirmed and reaffirmed this year, the points would come.

They wouldn't be through Eric Hayes' perimeter shooting or Greivis Vasquez's drives to the rim or Landon Milbourne's baseline jumper. The graduation of the Terps' three biggest stars from their ACC regular-season championship team made sure of that.

Instead, on a team still searching for options to fill the staggering offensive vacuum left by last year's seniors, the Terps have proved their best offense is a good defense.

From the moment his team stepped into Comcast Center for the team's first practice in October, Williams preached its importance to a team he knew was more oriented toward stopping opponents than outscoring them.

Forward Dino Gregory admits that at first, the team didn't buy into the philosophy that Saturday afternoon. But in what Williams called a "gradual process," the Terps have become one of the premier defensive teams in the country, limiting teams such as Penn State and Virginia to season lows in scoring and shooting.

When the Terps (14-7, 4-3 ACC) welcome No. 5 Duke (19-2, 6-1) back to College Park tonight, they'll pit their ever-improving defense against the most proficient offense in the conference and one of the best in the country.

"We stressed from the beginning of practice that we needed to be the type of team that could shut people down for a while," Williams said. "I want to be a better defensive team on March 1 than we are right now. It's constantly working at it."

While the loss of Vasquez, Hayes and Milbourne deprived the Terps of three established scorers, it afforded the team a more athletic and quicker lineup this season. With Gregory and guards Adrian Bowie and Cliff Tucker inheriting larger roles, the Terps' effectiveness in running Willams' trademark 1-2-1-1 press and dogged man-to-man defense has been evident.

The improvement wasn't immediate, as the Terps gave up more than 70 points in three of their first five games. But when they traveled to Penn State for the ACC-Big 10 challenge Dec. 1, the Terps held the Nittany Lions to just 39 points on 20 percent shooting from the field. Before that night, the fewest points Penn State had scored all season was 64.

"We saw how good we can be on the defensive end and what it could do for us to win games," Gregory said. "We didn't buy into it like [Williams] wanted us to but as the year progressed we did."

The Terps also limited Virginia to a program-low in points at John Paul Jones Arena and rank among the nation's finest in field-goal percentage defense. According to Ken Pomeroy, a college basketball statistician, the Terps have the second-best defense in the country, behind No. 3 Texas.

"It's how you play as a five-player unit on the court," Williams said. "It takes a long period of time to get to when you're talking at the right times, when you're helping properly, when you can get back to your man."

In Duke, the Terps have an opportunity to prove their wares against one of the nation's top attacks. The Blue Devils lead the ACC in scoring offense, field goals, free throws and 3-pointers made. Despite the loss of freshman phenom point guard Kyrie Irving earlier this season to a toe injury, Duke still has two of the best players in the nation with guard Nolan Smith and forward Kyle Singler.

In their first meeting, a 71-64 loss in Durham, N.C., the Terps held the Blue Devils to 40.3 percent shooting, including 28.6 percent from beyond the arc, but second-half offensive shortcomings undid their defensive intensity.

"We just come out flying around," guard Sean Mosley said. "Come out with a hand up because you know they have great shooters on the team."

"They just played a really strong, aggressive, physical, game," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said after their Jan. 9 meeting. "They were very good, I mean really good."

Since then, the Blue Devils have lost two games. Both came against teams — Florida State in mid-January and St. John's on Sunday — able to defend the 3-point line and play physically in the post, something the Terps are keen on doing tonight.

And with postseason play just a month away, a win against Duke would give the Terps their season's first signature victory. While Williams insists there is no extra emphasis given when facing Duke than any other team, the team knows the importance of playing stiff defense.

Should the Terps win, it likely will come from exactly what the 22-year coach highlighted at the beginning of the practice more than three months ago.

"We're playing defense," Gregory said. "That's our bread and butter."

ceckard@umdbk.com