Maryland’s Greivis Vasquez skies over Wake Forest centerDavid Weaver. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)
Wake Forest guard L.D. Williams’s vaunted defense couldn’t stop Maryland’s Greivis Vasquez from picking up 22 points in last night’s big upset over Wake Forest — a win that cleared the Terps for the conference championship and redeemed a close loss against the Demon Deacons earlier in the month.
So what made the difference between last night’s 75-64 Maryland triumph and Wake Forest’s 2-point squeaker on March 3? The performance behind the charity stripe. Maryland drastically changed its approach in the paint in the eleven days between the two games, improving from a meek 2 for 2 performance at the line on the third to a hard-charging 21 of 26 last night. That was the most significant difference of all: Maryland played with the discipline and precision that has helped make it ninth in the nation in free-throw percentage.
Greater physical play was evident on both sides of the floor: Maryland’s stingy defense held Wake Forest to 22 of 74 field goals (a measly 29.7 percent), the Demon Deacons’ worst shooting percentage of the season. From beyond the arc, the Deacons hit an abysmal 3 of 25. At the same time, Maryland played a team game, sharing the rock and racking up 16 assists.
With a win against N.C. State and number two seed Wake Forest in the ACC tournament so far, the Terps may have done enough to impress the selection committee. (At the very least, they’ve made up for a miserable loss against Virginia to close out the regular season.) With a win against Duke this afternoon, Maryland will be a shoo-in for the brackets — and stand a shot at claiming the conference’s tournament crown. But in order to get past Duke, Maryland will need to rise above their inexperience. A team with more sophomores than juniors and only one senior, the Terps must show focus. They’ll need to especially exploit size differentials (the Terps squad is, well, kinda short) in order to get to the free-throw line, and they’ll need to make every free throw count — just like they did against Wake. It would certainly help if Duke is still rattled from a near loss to Boston College last night — but if I were the Terps, I wouldn’t count on that.
