*** Official Maryland vs #13 IOWA STATE Game(day) Thread ***
- Thread starter CycloneRulzzz
- Start date
Here's my way too detailed scouting report on Maryland:
Much like Bama, they are led by a senior 6'5" shooting guard who is very athletic and dynamic. They have some good young guards around him (a freshman went for 31 last night) and much more depth inside than Bama had.
They are a solid team that should finish upper-middle of the pack in the Big10 and make the tournament. So far this season, there really isn't a weakness in their game, but a very questionable ASU team is the best team they played, and they had to end on a 7-0 run to beat them. They gave up 12 three-pointers to two ASU subs in that game, but I didn't get to watch it so I'm not sure if that was a defensive flaw or not.
Both teams are top-10 so far this year is not sending their opponents to the free throw line, so expect a clean game with out too much fouling or free throws. Just like last night, being aggressive on offense will be a key for this team.
Maryland's star player is 6'5" senior Dez Wells. He played his first year at Xavier before transferring to Maryland, and has been lights out this year, shooting 54% from the field and 5-8 on 3pters. He hasn't gotten to the line much this year, but did last year. This will be another Naz assignment with BDJ backing him up.
Their star last night was Top 50 freshman Melo Trimble who put on a show going 4-6 from deep and getting to the line 14 times. I think he's the de facto point guard for this team, but is more of an off guard. They don't seem to play a pure point - at least from a statistics perspective. I'm guessing Monte draws Melo and he cools down quite a bit from last night.
Their other guard is 6'4" senior Richaud Pack, who played a very limited role his first two years at Florida International, then transferred to North Carolina A&T for last year and is a graduate transfer this year. He leads the team with 3 assists per game, can hit a 3 (~1/game) but hasn't looked to score much this year. I would guess BDJ would take him, and he certainly has the ability to go off if the defense focuses on Wells and Trimble (like Cooper last night).
Their PF is 6'8" junior Jake Layman who averages 13 points and 5 boards. He's been very efficient on offense this year, shooting 16-20 inside the arc and 4-8 from outside. He's not a great rebounder or a shot blocker.
The starting C is 6'11" sophomore Damonte Dodd, who is a great shot blocker, but doesn't look to score. He's blocked 10 shots through 4 games, averaging less than 20 minutes per game. He does rebound well, he had 5 offensive boards against ASU. I expect we'll see some Edozie against him to spell the smaller guys.
Their key subs are all freshman:
Dion Wiley: a Top 100 guard, he can shoot the ball from deep and score, but isn't as polished as Trimble.
Jared Nickens: a 6'7" wing who has taken 14 threes and only 6 twos through 4 games. Maybe he plays some '4' to combat our athleticism inside
Michael Cekovsky: 7'1" center project. He fouls a lot, but can block a shot or score inside. Would be fun to see him and Tsalbo go at it, but that probably won't happen this game.
One note on their two shot blockers: We are currently second in the nation having 1% of our shots blocked so far this season. That probably has to do with competition more than anything else, but it will be something to watch.
Much like Bama, they are led by a senior 6'5" shooting guard who is very athletic and dynamic. They have some good young guards around him (a freshman went for 31 last night) and much more depth inside than Bama had.
They are a solid team that should finish upper-middle of the pack in the Big10 and make the tournament. So far this season, there really isn't a weakness in their game, but a very questionable ASU team is the best team they played, and they had to end on a 7-0 run to beat them. They gave up 12 three-pointers to two ASU subs in that game, but I didn't get to watch it so I'm not sure if that was a defensive flaw or not.
Both teams are top-10 so far this year is not sending their opponents to the free throw line, so expect a clean game with out too much fouling or free throws. Just like last night, being aggressive on offense will be a key for this team.
Maryland's star player is 6'5" senior Dez Wells. He played his first year at Xavier before transferring to Maryland, and has been lights out this year, shooting 54% from the field and 5-8 on 3pters. He hasn't gotten to the line much this year, but did last year. This will be another Naz assignment with BDJ backing him up.
Their star last night was Top 50 freshman Melo Trimble who put on a show going 4-6 from deep and getting to the line 14 times. I think he's the de facto point guard for this team, but is more of an off guard. They don't seem to play a pure point - at least from a statistics perspective. I'm guessing Monte draws Melo and he cools down quite a bit from last night.
Their other guard is 6'4" senior Richaud Pack, who played a very limited role his first two years at Florida International, then transferred to North Carolina A&T for last year and is a graduate transfer this year. He leads the team with 3 assists per game, can hit a 3 (~1/game) but hasn't looked to score much this year. I would guess BDJ would take him, and he certainly has the ability to go off if the defense focuses on Wells and Trimble (like Cooper last night).
Their PF is 6'8" junior Jake Layman who averages 13 points and 5 boards. He's been very efficient on offense this year, shooting 16-20 inside the arc and 4-8 from outside. He's not a great rebounder or a shot blocker.
The starting C is 6'11" sophomore Damonte Dodd, who is a great shot blocker, but doesn't look to score. He's blocked 10 shots through 4 games, averaging less than 20 minutes per game. He does rebound well, he had 5 offensive boards against ASU. I expect we'll see some Edozie against him to spell the smaller guys.
Their key subs are all freshman:
Dion Wiley: a Top 100 guard, he can shoot the ball from deep and score, but isn't as polished as Trimble.
Jared Nickens: a 6'7" wing who has taken 14 threes and only 6 twos through 4 games. Maybe he plays some '4' to combat our athleticism inside
Michael Cekovsky: 7'1" center project. He fouls a lot, but can block a shot or score inside. Would be fun to see him and Tsalbo go at it, but that probably won't happen this game.
One note on their two shot blockers: We are currently second in the nation having 1% of our shots blocked so far this season. That probably has to do with competition more than anything else, but it will be something to watch.
I expect us to clamp down on Wells, and let Monte take Trimble one-on-one. He may get his points, but he'll have to work for it.
The player will try to make score is likely Richaud Pack, the third guard who hasn't scored much this year. I expect the help will come from him, much like Cooper last night. We'll see if that follows the same ******.
CycloneErik
Well-Known Member
I've searched a little for their boards and what I found out there will make your eyes bleed compared to CF. Not a single decent board that I could find. It just further proves that CF is the best message board in existence.
Turtles are slow, but steady. They'll be here. If we were playing the Jackrabbits, they'd probably have arrived.
Nice overview. I'm a little worried about Layman shooting over the top of us, but it's always a good sign for us when our opponent doesn't have a dominant big.
I am so happy there is a starting time of 8:30pm tonight. I would have missed most of it otherwise. I wonder who in their wisdom set up the schedule to correspond with mine this year?
Nice preview.
I did watch some of the ASU/Maryland game last night. The Terrapins have of a lot individual talents and they can go on scoring stretches but they didn't look totally comfortable playing together yet and indifferent on the defensive end. They like to get out and run and have some size in the post with a number of player 6'8" and above. They seemed to want to score in the paint using thier height and guard penitration.
IMO The key to this game could be outside shooting and possible foul trouble for UM. UM allowed a lot of shots from deep wide open with out really even running out on the shooter. In contrast, only Trimble was their only threat from outside last night making 4 of 6, while all the rest of their team went 2 of 7. Maryland didn't really attempt to play their reserves deep with 4 players over 31 minutes (5th playing 26). Obvious implication they won't be able to press up defensively in fear of foul issues thus, could be the reason for the defensive indifference I saw. (Think of the 2012-13 ISU team's defense excluding Babb.)
UM does have some good players so I doubt ISU will be able run away with a lead early. This should be a fun free flowing game a lot like last night. If both teams play as they did last night I'd expect a comfortable win of 8-9 points for ISU, with the definite possiblily of more if ISU is getting open three's.
