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The year after Title teams Maryland, Indiana find follow-up rough goingPosted: Wednesday February 12, 2003 2:14 PM
The Maryland Terrapins' visit to Atlanta this past Sunday couldn't have gone more differently than their previous one. Instead of playing in front of 53,000 at the cavernous Georgia Dome, the Terps crammed into cozy Alexander Memorial Coliseum with its 9,191 spectators. Instead of Juan Dixon drilling one big shot after another, he sat in the front row signing autographs. And instead of capturing the national title, Maryland lost to Georgia Tech to fall out of first place in the ACC. The Terps' title game opponent last spring, Indiana, hasn't made it back to the Peach State yet, but the Hoosiers have had their own share of humbling road trips lately, most notably at lowly Northwestern. As both the Hoosiers and Terps are finding out, the only problem with reaching the top of the college basketball world is that you can only go down from there. The Terps, who raised talk of another Final Four trip when they blew out Duke last month, stand 14-6 after consecutive losses to Virginia and Georgia Tech. The Hoosiers, who reached the top 10 early in the season by exacting revenge on Maryland and beating Virginia, Purdue and Illinois, have skidded to 14-8 with a five-game losing streak. "We're human," Maryland coach Gary Williams said of his team after the Georgia Tech loss. "People are spoiled [by last year]. We're a very different team this season." How different? Last year's Terps lost only four games all season. This year's Terps have certainly shown flashes of greatness, but they've also made painfully clear their limitations. While guard Drew Nicholas (17.8 points per game) has made an impressive leap from role player to go-to guy, he's also Maryland's only consistent scoring threat. On the few occasions he goes cold, as he did against the Yellow Jackets on 6-of-19 shooting, the Terps are susceptible to long scoring droughts. Star point guard Steve Blake is still more comfortable distributing than shooting, although he does the latter pretty well (40.6 percent 3-pointers). Meanwhile, Maryland's defense is often suffocating but occasionally just plain absent, allowing the Cavaliers and Yellow Jackets to shoot a combined 53 percent (17-of-32) on 3-pointers, 52 percent from the field. "We're just not working hard enough," said Nicholas. "We've just got to get back and work harder in practice. It's about each guy taking responsibility and stopping his man." Indiana coach Mike Davis says his players are working plenty hard. In fact, for a man who wears his emotions on his sleeve, Davis was surprisingly upbeat after last Saturday's overtime loss to Michigan State. He attributes the skid largely to the fact that freshman star Bracey Wright, the Hoosiers' leading scorer (17.4 points per game), has been hobbled by a back injury, and was encouraged by his first 20-point game in a month against the Spartans. But the drought has also exposed the deficiencies of Wright's supporting cast, many of whom were probably playing above themselves earlier in the season. Senior forward Jeffrey Newton, albeit improved, still does not take full advantage of his size inside, and center George Leach has yet to diversify his largely defensive game. Meanwhile, shooters Tom Coverdale and Kyle Hornsby have experienced dry spells. "We miss [last year's stars] Dane Fife and Jared Jeffries a lot more than we thought we would," said Davis, who began the season saying this team was better than last year's but now speaks of a more modest goal: finishing .500 in the Big Ten. "My first two years here as a coach, we only had one team each year to shoot 50 percent or better [against us]. Out of the last five games we've had four teams at that mark, so defensively we really have to tighten up and play a lot better for us to win." From his standpoint, Fife -- who attended the Northwestern debacle -- told the Indianapolis Star News the Hoosiers are "not physical enough and they have to get smarter." The good news is, both teams still have plenty of time left in the regular season to right their ships. The bad news is, their schedules don't get any easier. While Maryland doesn't have to worry about reaching the NCAA tournament as much as Indiana, its seeding may hinge on how the Terps fare in an upcoming three-game stretch against Wake Forest, Duke and North Carolina. Indiana, after hosting Big Ten co-leader Michigan on Wednesday, faces a brutal three-game road trip to Wisconsin, Iowa and Illinois having won only once in seven previous road contests. "We've just got to take it one game at a time," said Davis. "Hopefully we can come back and play the way we played at the beginning of the season." "Every team goes through parts of its schedule where it's not where you want it [to be]," said Williams. "It's up to us to get out of that."
Coaching shuffle sets in soonUCLA's 71-70 victory at Georgetown last Saturday ended one beleaguered coach's long losing streak but prolonged another's. While a relieved Steve Lavin raised his arm in triumph following the Bruins' first win since Jan. 4, the 5-14 coach's fate has been sealed for some time now. While the same cannot be said of Hoyas counterpart Craig Esherick, John Thompson's longtime former assistant hasn't done himself any favors by losing eight of nine since his infamous postgame tirade against Big East officials. Georgetown is in last place in the league's West Division and will likely miss the NCAA tournament for the fourth time in Esherick's five seasons. Predecessor Thompson went 20 times in 27 seasons -- hence the unrest. Meanwhile, as the hot seat intensifies on sidelines across the country, other coaches who might be starting to sweat include: St. John's Mike Jarvis, whose Red Storm will likely miss the Dance for the second time in three years; Charlotte's Bobby Lutz, whose team is an uncharacteristic 8-12; Clemson's Larry Shyatt, headed toward another finish at or near the ACC cellar; and Fordham's Bob Hill, the NBA slickster who never seemed to fit in the first place and whose fourth Rams team is a dismal 2-19.
Jacket stinging the ACCThere's a reason Georgia Tech coach Paul Hewitt calls his shooting guard B.J. Elder "college basketball's biggest secret." While his two vaunted freshmen, big man Chris Bosh and point guard Jarrett Jack, draw national attention, few outside the ACC have noticed the sophomore Elder routinely dropping 20-plus points on the league's top teams and shooting a league-best 41.5 percent from three-point range. All the while he's bottling up the opposition's top perimeter threat on defense. In nine ACC games, Elder is tied for fifth in league with Duke's Dahntay Jones and J.J. Redick at 17.2 points per game. In six games against ranked teams, that number goes up to 19.5. "He's a great shooter, he can take it to the rack," said teammate Bosh. "If you don't pay attention to him, he's going to burn you." The combination of Elder and Marvin Lewis (also 41.5 percent on 3-pointers) outside, the intimidating Bosh (16.0 points, 9.4 rebounds) inside and the flashy Jack (6.0 assists) at the point makes for an exciting offense, especially at home, where the Jackets are 11-0. Unfortunately, the same act hasn't played on the road, where they're the exact opposite, 0-7. Starting with Wednesday's game at N.C. State, they need to start picking up some road wins, or an NCAA berth might not be plausible for the 12-8 squad.
Worth notingDuke guard Chris Duhon's erratic play has drawn Mike Krzyzewski's wrath. Not only did the junior lose his starting spot for the North Carolina game last week but he is no longer the Blue Devils' sole captain, with Krzyzewski tapping Dahntay Jones and Nick Horvath on Monday. ... Cincinnati's Bob Huggins lifted his team's two-game locker room ban following the Bearcats' upset of Oklahoma State, but players still must bring their own practice gear. ... Utah and BYU are quickly turning the Mountain West into a two-team race. Following big road wins Monday -- the Utes at Wyoming, the Cougars at Colorado State -- the teams are two games up on the rest of the league at 6-1. Utah's victory was Rick Majerus' 400th. ... Crank-callers, presumably Oregon fans, bombarded Cal's players at their hotel room the night before their 86-65 victory Saturday in Eugene. "It was the worst thing they could have done," said Bears guard Brian Wethers. "They fired us up." ... Ball State guard Chris Williams has now had 48- and 39-point performances this season, along with five games of 27 or more. ... Last Sunday against Boston, Binghamton's Nick Billings became only the second player this season to block 10 shots. Notre Dame's Jordan Cornette was the first. Stewart Mandel covers college sports for SI.com. Got a comment, question or scoop for Stewart? Click here.
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