Intensity and aggression are the early focus for the Maryland men?s basketball team. Yes, coach Gary Williams wants his new players to learn his system. And yes, he wants his players, young and old, to mesh together and form a basketball synergy.
But after a public intra-squad scrimmage on Wednesday, Williams said the thing his team needs most this time of year is conditioning.
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“The best kind of conditioning you can do is to play basketball,” Williams said. “We went harder today. We had cramps, which is good because it shows they are working pretty hard, and we probably tried to runa little bit more today.”
The Terps? first exhibition game is this Wednesday, and their first regular-season game is Nov. 7 against Hampton in the 2K Sports College Hoops Classic. Williams admitted it is the earliest he can remember starting the season, but he is happy with the progression in the defense he saw in the scrimmage.
“We were tougher defensively, but we fouled too much,” Williams said. “There is a tendency to equate aggressiveness and fouling with playing better defense. Now, we have got to not foul and play at the same tempo.”
Junior transfer Bambale Osby is trying to make a smooth transition from playing forward at Paris (Texas) Junior College to playing for the Terps. So far, he said he thinks the transition in the rigors of the Atlantic Coast Conference is going well.
“When I was at New Mexico, back when I was a freshman, practices were pretty intense,” Osby said. “But this is the ACC. It is just a whole other monster. It is hard, but I think I can get it.”
Veteran guard D.J. Strawberry is no stranger to playing in the ACC. He knows that the young players need a taste of that high level of play before the season starts.
“We definitely have to have stuff like this,” Strawberry said of the scrimmage. “The young guys don?t know what it is to play at the ACC-type level, and for right now, we have to bring that intensity level to those guys. … Everybody is just learning trying to come together and gel together.”
INTENSE BUT SLOPPY
» Terps coach Gary Williams was happy that the team was shooting aggressively in the scrimmage, but he knows the percentages have to rise. Freshman guard Greivis Vasquez led the team with 24 points, but Maryland shot 46 percent from the field overall.
» The Terps were overzealous with their defense, registering 57 combined fouls in the simulated game.
» In free-throw percentage, Maryland had a bad day, going 34 for 56 (61 percent) at the line, down from the 72 percent they averaged last season.
