At point guard, lots of options and questions for men's basketball

With 16.9 seconds left and the game on the line Wednesday night, coach Gary Williams made a surprising decision: He called on No. 21.

Last season, with a different No. 21 on his roster — former Terrapin men's basketball star Greivis Vasquez — crunch-time decisions were no-brainers.

But with Vasquez graduated and his jersey number up for grabs, freshman guard Pe'Shon Howard snatched at No. 21. To even Howard's own surprise, he might have also grabbed something else against College of Charleston: his coach's confidence.

After pulling down a defensive rebound against the Cougars with the Terps down one, the freshman looked to the coach for a play call, but Williams signaled for a timeout. Howard thought his time on the court was over.

Williams had other ideas.

"Coach looked at me and said he saw the confidence in me, so he just said, ‘Go with it,'" Howard said.

The freshman ably showed the confidence and clutch play that are quickly making him a key piece in the Terps' uncertain point-guard situation, which will again be on display Sunday against Maine (0-0). After looking to feed the ball to well-defended center Jordan Williams underneath the basket, Howard instead took the game-winning fadeaway shot himself.

"I was joking around with Pe'Shon after the game, saying it must be his number," Jordan Williams said. "Last year, Greivis, with that number, he loved taking the shots like that, too. Something about that number makes you want to take those big shots."

The Terps (2-0) entered the season without Vasquez and Eric Hayes, who had served as the team's go-to ball-handlers for the past two years.

Senior Adrian Bowie started the Terps' first two games at point guard, but he struggled early in the season opener against Seattle, picking up two fouls and committing three turnovers in the game's first three minutes. Bowie played just 12 minutes and scored nine points against the Redhawks, and Wednesday, he played 28 minutes and ended with the same number of points.

After the shaky start against Seattle, Gary Williams said Bowie's job was not in jeopardy.

"He's starting because he's been the best player at that position, not because he's a senior," Williams said. "And he's playing well."

But since making their debuts after replacing Bowie against the Redhawks, both Howard and freshman counterpart Terrell Stoglin have shown promise and production that could prove difficult to leave on the bench.

But the two also face a steep learning curve. Stoglin's smooth ball-handling was evident in a 15-point performance against Seattle, but he had three turnovers in eight minutes against College of Charleston. Howard, too, has thrown errant passes and lost control of his dribble, prompting his share of exasperated reactions from Williams.

"They're going to try some passes that they probably got away with in the past that won't at this level," Williams said. "But you learn."

When Howard got the ball for the Terps' last play against College of Charleston, he showed his coach's lessons have already started sinking in.

"I didn't want to turn it over because every time I turn it over, I'm not going to lie, I get a little scared looking at the sideline," Howard said. "But I took care of the ball and got a good shot off, and I was just glad it went in. I started to celebrate, and then I thought, we have practice on Friday, and we've got Maine on Sunday, so we've got a long way to go."

kyanchulis@umdbk.com