Terrapins ready for energetic Zags
LAHAINA, Maui – The thing University of Maryland coach Gary Williams remembers most about the 82-68 whipping Gonzaga put on his young Terrapins two years ago is how hard – and smart – the Bulldogs played.
That veteran-laden GU team featured five seniors, including eventual West Coast Conference player of the year Blake Stepp, and finished 28-3 after winning 20 consecutive games at one point in the season, breezing through the WCC with a perfect 14-0 record and climbing as high as No. 3 in the Associated Press Top 25 poll.
“They really knew how to play,” Williams recalled on Sunday. “It’s great having a bunch of veterans like that, but sometimes it’s hard to get them to play together because they all have their own individual issues by the time they’re seniors.
“Mark (Few) did a great job with that team, because they really played well together. And like every Gonzaga team, they played with a lot of energy. Of course, I also remember Stepp making about six 3s against us in that game – all from about 25 feet.”
Stepp is no longer a concern. But Williams expects to see the 9th-ranked Bulldogs (1-0) exhibit that same kind of energy and savvy today, when they challenge his Terrapins (1-0) once again in a 2 p.m. (PST) showdown in the opening round of the 2005 EA SPORTS Maui Invitational at the Lahaina Civic Center.
“They always come out and play, that’s what I like most about Gonzaga,” he said. “They play hard no matter what the situation.”
And considering how much the situation has changed since the two teams last met in the BB&T Classic in Washington, D.C., back in early December of 2003, Few figures his Zags had better play that way again or risk losing touch with Williams’ much-matured Terrapins in a hurry.
“Maryland is really, really good,” GU’s seventh-year head coach said. “When we beat them before, they were a really young team. But now those guys have all matured, and they’re probably more experienced than we are.”
In each of the past two seasons, Maryland has had only one scholarship senior on its roster.
“But we have three this year,” Williams noted. “And they all play.”
In addition, the Terrapins return two other part-time starters from last year’s 19-13 team that finished 7-9 in the Atlantic Coast Conference and advanced to the semifinals of the National Invitation Tournament before losing to South Carolina.
And junior guard D.J. Strawberry, the son of former Major League Baseball star Darryl Strawberry, is back after missing the final 18 games of the 2004-05 season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament.
The best of the Terps’ returning seniors is Nik Caner-Medley, a 6-foot-8, 240-pound forward, who averaged 16 points and 6.2 rebounds as a junior. Chris McCray, a 6-5 senior guard, averaged 14.1 points and 4.3 rebounds last winter, and Travis Garrison, a 6-8 senior forward, averaged 10.1 and 6.5.
“I’m not real thrilled about the (first-round) matchup,” Few admitted. “But I don’t think anybody here is.”
Williams certainly figures his Terrapins could do better than to draw a Gonzaga team that boasts four returning starters, including preseason All-American Adam Morrison.
“He’s special,” Williams said of Morrison, the Zags’ 6-8 shooting guard, who averaged a team-high 19 points as a sophomore last year, “because he’s got that movement all good players have. He never stops on the court. Whether he’s setting a screen, coming off a screen or going to the offensive glass, whoever’s playing him better be ready to run for 40 minutes, because that’s what he brings to the table.”
Williams is also impressed with the Zags’ 6-9, 269-pound senior center, J.P. Batista.
“He reminds me of some of the guys in our league,” Williams said. “Both Williams at Duke (Shelden) and Wake Forest (Eric) have that kind of size.”
The Bulldogs will probably again be without senior small forward Erroll Knight who continues his recovery from athroscopic surgery on his left knee. But Few said he expects Josh Heytvelt, his highly touted 6-11 redshirt freshman forward, to make his GU debut this afternoon after sitting out the Zags’ season-opening win over Idaho on Friday to give his sore left foot an few extra days of rest.