Maryland, Georgetown, UVA, VT Basketball Preview

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The four horsemen of college basketball, so to say, in the DC metro are Maryland, Georgetown, Virginia, and Virginia Tech.  Unfortunately, none of the four had specifically special seasons last year and all are returning key pieces that could provide them with the extra spark to win in March.

MARYLAND

It amazes me how people wanted to jump all over Gary Williams last year.  For the record, here are his numbers at Maryland: 11 straight NCAA tournies from ‘94-’04 (13 in 20 years). 2 conference championships.  1 national championship.  65% win percentage at Maryland and 54% in conference.  In 1989 when the school was on probation and their program had no direction, Coach Williams didn’t bat an eye that he couldn’t win and couldn’t compete in the ACC.

His teams play hard and win in the toughest conference in America.  During the 20 years Williams has been at Maryland, UNC has 3 national championships, Duke has 3 national championships and haven’t had much downtime in their programs.  Even Georgia Tech went to the Final Four one year.

All that said, I will grant you that 3 in the past 5 years, the Terps have failed to make it to the NCAA tournament.  I contribute that to the fact that Williams and his staff made some recruiting errors.  I’m not passing judgement, just stating that they signed kids who were not playing for the name on the front of their jerseys.  It takes a couple years to restore discipline and accountability after mistakes like that and the ACC takes no prisoners.

So now in 2010, a year after a solid finish in the ACC and bolstered by the return of Greivis Vasquez, the Terps should be contending this year.  I’m not as excited about Duke (question marks at a ton of spots) and Georgia Tech (Favors is great, but that doesn’t always mean you win in the ACC) as the pundits are, so I expect Maryland to be contending.  They win if they can score in the post and rebound to alleviate some pressure off Vasquez - if not they’ll be middle of the pack.

GEORGETOWN

Much respect to John Thompson III.  This is my lasting impression of the Hoyas – 2007 NCAA first round in Winston Salem, NC.  I was a GA for Texas Tech and we had just lost to Boston College in the first round and we see the Hoyas get off the bus to get ready to play Belmont.  Each player gets off the bus in a full suit.  Georgetown was a 2 seed I think.

This is what that says about Georgetown – Thompson is in charge and his players respect him, in 2007 no less!  See, I know the older Thompson made his guys do the same thing, but there are not many teams in America now that can get their guys to do it.  Many will “compromise” with coaches or just flat out make a mockery of doing something they’re asked to do.  So, just like Maryland, I see a team that made some recruiting mistakes when they took kids looking to make the jump to the league and not win for Georgetown.

Don’t get me wrong, I know Greg Monroe is eyeing the league, but here’s my argument:  Greg is not eyeing the league in NOV, DEC, JAN, FEB and MAR.  Jeff Green didn’t eye the league during the season.  The league will be there.  Personally, I have been around Greg Monroe while I spent the past two years at UNO.  He is a good kid, he came to the Lakefront over the past two summers to workout and being at Georgetown is not too big for him.  I think the “soft” label is pre-mature considering he is a sophomore.  I mean, he’s good but when we think of impact freshman, we are corrupted to think that they have to be King James, Kevin Durant or Michael Beasley.

Monroe’s perimeter is where I am concerned for the Hoyas in the Big East.  Lots of Big East teams have great guards and Georgetown has solid ones.  Along with the perimeter concerns, I am worried that JT3 offense looked un-JT3-like last year.  Maybe Summers thought the offense was all about him, I don’t know.  Lastly, the Big East is just unfair.  I am not sure G-Town can climb to the top of the league, but I expect they’ll ride the broad shoulders of Monroe to a 8th or better finish and be on the brink of a return to the tourney for the 4th time in 6 years.

VIRGINIA

The last relevant player from UVA was Sean Singletary.  You need about 2 more relevant and 2 more role to be able to compete in the ACC.  The best thing about UVA these days is Tony Bennett, the coach who, even at his young age has led the charge to change dressing attire in college coaching.  Beyond his gift for dressing well, he immediately becomes one of the best overall coaches in the ACC.  (Instead of ranking, I’ll rate each coach real quick:  Al Skinner BC: B, Oliver Purnell CU: B+, Coach K DUKE : A, Leonard Hamilton FSU : C+, Paul Hewitt GT : C+, Gary Williams UMD: A-, Frank Haith The U: C, Roy Williams UNC: A+, Sidney Lowe NCSU: D+, Tony Bennett UVA: B, Seth Greenberg VT: C, Dino Gaudio – C+).

Washington State is very comparable to UVA in terms of basketball within the PAc-10.  That is why it was a good move for Bennett.  He will recruit his kids, kids that want to play in the motion-based, blocker-mover offense with some twists.  Systems definitely work in the ACC – Skinner, Williams, Lowe all run a variety of “Flex” and two of the three are immensely successful.  Carolina has their secondary break with super studs running the show.  Duke has gotten away from its system of “Duke Motion” and moved into pulling a lot of things from the NBA, from dribble-drive systems.  Clemson has the break-neck transition and hi-lo offense.  Anyway, Bennett’s team, while full of upperclassmen is not the team he is going to win with.  That team is a couple years away when he recruits kids that will not be as talented as Duke, UNC and Wake but will play hard and play smart.  Anything above a bottom third of the ACC is great for Bennett this year.

VA TECH

Preface: Bob and Blake, don’t get your feelings hurt.

I’m in Dallas recruiting in April of 2008 and I bump into Seth Greenberg at lunch.  I proceed to kiss his butt for a bit and then say “Bob Ritchie was my teammate at Braddock long ago.”  SG: “Oh, Bob is one of my favorite all-time walk-ons I’ve ever had the chance to coach.”  So I’m thinking to myself, man, this guy is cool.  He likes Bob, I like Bob.

Well, that’s about where our similarities end.  Without delving into too many details, I am biased towards Va Tech and Greenberg.  While I hold ill-will towards the coach, the team is decent and Greenberg has done a 100X better than any of his predecessors so I will give him that much.  Too often guys in sports have an inflated view of themselves.  Right off the bat, I can think of Terrell Owens.  His inflated view has led him to become a great receiver in the league, but has also destroyed the teams around him.  Most of the time, I would not say this about a coach, but Greenberg has done what he can do at Tech.  His ultra-ego is evident in his every move, but it got results for Tech they are not accustomed to having.

I don’t know if Tech can ever be “great” in basketball in the ACC, but Greenberg has given them much respect.  His turnaround job is fantastic, given where he started.  In my personal opinion, he would be better off going to another rebuilding job like Depaul, Rutgers, St John, etc and bringing respect back rather than trying to compete for ACC championships at Tech.

Jeff Allen and Malcolm Delaney will make it tough for opponents, just as Tech has done since playing in the ACC.  But, that won’t mean they’ll finish anywhere close to the top of the mountain.

udothedishes . . .

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