Terps are hard to figure out so far

The fall semester is over, but when it comes to the Terrapin men's basketball team, we really haven't learned that much.

Nine games are already in the books. Games against good teams, bad teams and average teams. Home games, road games and games played at neutral sites.

But what do we have here?

Can we honestly say we know what this team is capable of?

Not with the persistent stretches of inconsistent play, when the Terps look dominant for five minutes and then look inadequate for the next five.

"This team is good," guard Sean Mosley said. "We just gotta work on all the things that we're doing bad right now."

Can we honestly say we know what the most effective starting lineup and playing rotation is going to be?

Not when Jordan Williams emerged as a developing force against Villanova and then only played nine minutes Saturday against Eastern Kentucky.

"They had a weird team," coach Gary Williams said. "They didn't have anybody that kind of matched up with Jordan."

Do we even know who the Terps' best player is this year?

Not when Greivis Vasquez struggled through most of eight straight games before a much better performance Saturday when he finally showed signs of his trademark swagger.

"I'm the crazy guy that plays at Maryland," Vasquez said. "That's who I am. I'm going to be myself from now on."

A lot of strange stuff happened during the Terps' 83-72 win over the Colonels on Saturday, and even more was said after. The victory probably created more questions than it answered.

An academic semester is admittedly an arbitrary landmark in the middle of a basketball season — except of course for student fans and for Dino Gregory, who came back from what appeared to be a semester-long suspension.

November, December and January are the months when college basketball teams figure out their identities, and the Terps still have plenty of time to discover theirs.

But it is an odd situation — not necessarily positive or negative, just odd — that after an entire month of the regular season there are still so many unknowns.

"We'll go from here," Williams said. "We need to take care of business now. We're in a lot better shape now than we were last year at this time."

A major reason why we don't know the Terps' true identity is that Gregory just played his first game Saturday after missing the first eight for his infamous suspension for violating an unspecified team rule.

Gregory started and played 33 minutes, but Williams said Gregory played more than expected because Eastern Kentucky didn't have a true post player for normal starter Williams to guard.

The Colonels threw some unconventional defensive alignments at the Terps and relied heavily on outside shooting. It just wasn't the type of game for the bruising Williams.

But that doesn't mean Williams won't play a lot of minutes in the future, and either way it's hard to gauge how the Terps are going to handle their frontcourt rotation going forward.

When the Terps play more traditional teams with a deeper stable of big men, they are going to have to use both Williams and Gregory extensively.

The Vasquez conundrum is the other situation that leaves everything up in the air.

He played well Saturday after a slow start and his removal from the starting lineup for being late for a team shootaround, but he needs to keep it up.

If Vasquez is not the Terps' best player, the Terps aren't going to go far.

At this point we know the Terps are 6-3, they have some flaws, and all of their goals for this season remain on the table.

The Terps have nine games before the first day of classes for the spring semester.

They need to figure out their rotation, Vasquez needs to keep playing well, and they need to be more consistent on both ends of the floor.

Maybe then we'll know who they are.

schimmel@umdbk.com