Win one, Lose one: The Norm

As you can see, I've really been slacking off lately and enjoying the holidays/winter break. Also, there wasn't much going on last week and between having already completed a bowl preview/being very upset about Maryland men's basketball, I found that the material was a little depleted.

However, Maryland had a BIG day today, playing in both a basketball game and a bowl game. One win, one loss. It's life.

MARYLAND V. DELAWARE: MEN'S BASKETBALL

So Part I of my day was spent in College Park, watching the Terps take on my mother's alma mater, Delaware and the Fightin' Blue Hens. My pregame ritual consisted mostly of praying that we would not drop another home non-conference game (Note the level of anger after the Ohio and American losses on this site).

Well, thank goodness they came through, winning 76-46. I stayed for every minute; I'll watch a game when the Terps can actually execute.

Observations:

- Witness four starters in double digits. The only one who didn't have double digits (Eric Hayes)
actually had a better game than the stats suggest, generally taking care of the ball, grabbing 7 rebounds and not being such a liability on defense. Meanwhile, Greivis Vasquez and James Gist actually took their mantles of leadership today: Gist had a double-double and 5 blocks (and the nasty, nasty dunk to the left) while Gravy had 18 points, 8 assists and 6 rebounds, going 7-for-11 from the field, plus 3 steals. Who said we should bench him? He's heating up, big-time.

- Rebounding went very well. The Terrapins held a 32-board advantage. When the bigs mishandled the balls, our guards were usually in position to grab the ball (Hayes, Vasquez and Adrian Bowie all got over five). Turnovers and inconsistent 3-point shooting are still glaring problems: They gave up 16 turnovers and only Vasquez made threes.

- Let's not forget, Delaware is a really terrible team. None of their players seemed particularly good at anything and they didn't really seem to have any kind of defensive plan of any kind. We honestly just bullied them and took their lunch money. FUN FACT: Delaware also lost to Ohio University. Maybe we should start a club.

But, as they say, a win is a win. The best thing we can take out of this is confidence and experience of being in rhythm and executing plays properly. I still think the tight zone will be problematic for Maryland, as their shooting is still suspect and you can't always expect Gist and Bambale to show up and dominate.

MARYLAND V. OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY: FOOTBALL

Well, you can't win 'em all.

I think Maryland was a heavy underdog to win this matchup with good reason - Oregon State is a good team. In the game, their passing game and the pretty poor composure of injury-replacement quarterback Sean Canfield left much to be desired, but their defense came to play. Our strength, the run, was completely taken away in the 21-14 loss. The score was close, but the level of play was not.

Observations:

- Maryland rushed for what I'm sure is a season-low 19 combined yards. Yuck. Meanwhile, OSU simply ran us over, gaining 275 yards on the ground. And it wasn't as if we weren't getting to them - let's just say that Coach Friedgen should stress tackling in the offseason. Some of what I saw was pretty poor. I mean, shouldn't you know how to wrap up if you're going to start? Diminutive rushers Yvenson Bernard and James Rodgers broke defenders through like Earl Campbell clones. I'm not doubting the talent, but they definitely should've been taken down much earlier on several of their long runs.

- Napolean Dynamite lookalike Chris Turner (feel free to click and compare) had an OK day, going for 205 yards and two TDs and two INTs. As average as he was, he wasn't helped by his wideouts (excluding Darrius Heyward-Bey, who almost broke the century mark and hauled in a 63-yard pass that'was actually a really nice burn). Lots of fingers will be pointing to the wet weather, but I saw an awful lot of drops when the ball hit both of the receiver's hands. The rule tends to be if it hits two hands, you catch it.

Otherwise, well, at least it was close. We came out strong, but finished poorly, like many games this season. I think our level of play just about corresponded to where we ended up. 6-7 is not pretty, but neither was watching the Terps for most of this season. Too many injuries, poor fundamentals and an anemic passing offense couldn't equal a successful season. Try again next year!

By the way, in case you haven't heard, we may have some decent help next year. Former Terp wideout coach James Franklin makes a triumphant return to Maryland as O-ccordinator. As Recruiting Report notes, he's a two-time top-25 Rivals.com recruiter. Cool, right? Maybe we'll stop losing football recruits to Illinois. Also, this means Friedgen will no longer have to call plays. I think that makes us all breathe slightly easier.

Overall, a decent day: Both teams essentially did what they were expected to. For football, good luck next year and for basketball - let's keep playing at that level.

Go Terps!

Photo Credits: Washington Post, Baltimore Sun

THE Emerald Bowl Preview

Hey Terp fans, it's time to end the sabbatical. I'm back and ready for a countdown to this San Francisco showdown downtown.

Yeah, you liked that.

For those of you still comatose from finals, wake up! It's the last hurrah for football season! I know about 95% of you dear readers didn't think we would even get to play a game in December but we are. I also know that 99% of you aren't going to San Francisco, but it's OK, sometimes you get a better view on TV. At least that's what I'm hoping.

On to the matchup: It's the Maryland Terrapins (6-6) vs. the Oregon State Beavers (8-4) in The House that Barry Built on Dec. 28 at 8:30.

The bottom line is these teams do not know each other at all. It's demonstrated particularly in this quote from an Oregon newspaper, which may or may not be true depending on Oregon State academics:

"I'm really looking forward to playing Maryland," senior center Kyle DeVan told a media gathering. "I don't even know where that is. Do you want to point that out on the map for me?"

Yes, Kyle, I can. Maryland is the machine-gun looking state on the Eastern Seaboard squashed between Virginia and Pennsylvania. Crabcakes and football: That's what Maryland does. Tell me about Oregon - I always thought it was a mythical land at the end of a trail in some computer game.

But no matter where Oregon is or if anyone actually lives there, we are playing the Oregon State football team next week and Fridge will have to have his boys prepared. I was doing some reading on OSU (you can look up some of this info here and here) and this is the No. 3 team in the Pac-10 conference, which is really saying something. On the other hand, Maryland is the No. 6 team in the ACC, which is really saying nothing.

A few things that stick out about OSU:

- They have the No. 2 run defense. Yes, that is in the country. The good news: We already played the No. 1 run defense (Boston College) and ran on them. But Oregon State is also the No. 12 defense overall. The Oregonian's Paul Buker says, "The overriding attribute of this group is speed," and goes on to compare them to the mighty Pete Carroll defense. High praise indeed.

- The Beavers have won 6 of their last 7 games. The one loss? To No. 13 USC. They're pretty hot right now.

- The Beavers are No. 3 in sacks. Aren't you praying All-American Andrew Crummey and Jaimie Thomas can play? Me too.

- They have a completely underrated back in Yvenson Bernard, who has over 1,000 rush yards and 12 touchdowns in 10 games. I'm hoping the Terps respond to this more like they did against Ray Rice (97 yds, 1 TD) than Steve Slaton (137 yds, 3 TDs). Some running backs you can only hope to contain.

- Their coach, Mike Riley, has posted a 3-0 record in bowl games.

This is a really good team that somehow got matched up with the battered and embattled Terrapins. Our best hope is that they somehow underestimate us, and I get the feeling they won't. This is not a big-name program and they play every game hard because they have to.

That doesn't mean there aren't a couple positives:

- Bernard is injured and might not be 100% for the game. Plus, Lance Ball has as many rushing touchdowns as Bernard. Keon Lattimore has one more.

- Our coach, Ralph Friedgen, is 3-1 in bowl games and, as we saw last December, the team is usually very prepared.

- We will be facing another sophomore quarterback in Lyle Moevao. He's actually more similar to Chris Turner than you might think - he replaced an injured starter, gained the trust of the team, didn't put up huge numbers (556 yds and 2 TDs), and reeled of three wins. Now he's the legit starter. But I'm not sure if Riley will make him do anything more. I think you need to be able to throw on us to beat us. Will he?

- We aren't terrible at defense as we rank 28th in scoring D nationally. Oregon State is No. 35 in that particular category.

- The Terps are ranked No. 26 in strength of schedule and Oregon State is No. 30. Maybe that's relevant?

- We'll have time to recover from the ridiculous amount of injuries we sustained this season.

- We have giant-killer potential, as we beat then-No. 10 Rutgers and then-No. 8 Boston College during the regular season. If we come out swinging with an open playbook, there's no telling what we could do. The Beaver's biggest win is against then-No. 18 Oregon in OT, sans Dennis Dixon.

I think that the best thing that can happen for Maryland is to be counted out as the underdog in this matchup. We've seen again and again that this team feels that they are better than their record and they win games when they absolutely have to. They can knock off big teams, and they will have to bring that ability to the game to be able to win.

I see they stack up a little unevenly, but given the X-factor type nature of the Terps and reserving my right to be optimistic, I'll give the Terps a narrow win.

PREDICTION: Maryland wins it, 30-28.

I've been waiting for a golden opportunity to post this video. Since this is the biggest game of the year and since it appears that basketball might not get a postseason this year, now seems to be the time.



I hope that pumps you guys up! Go Terps!

San Fran, Here come the Terps!

The world-famous Diamondback reported today that the Terps have a "nine in 10 chance" of being invited to the Emerald Bowl, according to the bowl executive Gary Cavalli.

Reaction:

- Well, I certainly can't afford to go, but good luck!

- The Terps will face a Pac-10 team, which should be a great test for the program. The Terps already proved last year that they could roll with Purdue and the Big Ten in the Champs Sports Bowl; now it's time to play one of the elite conferences. Who are the candidates? The Pac-10 is a mess right now, with literally half the teams fighting for a share of the conference championship. The most likely candidates are UCLA, Cal and Oregon State. We really can't talk about opponents until after this weekend.

- Finally, we get to see what we can do when we're actually healthy.

- San Fransisco, check out the wonderful fans you'll be bringing in:


Go Terps!