By his own admission, Greivis Vasquez will be a marked man tonight.
The sophomore guard claims to be the center of Illinois’ frustration, a year to the day after he came off the bench to score 17 points off the bench in Maryland’s 72-66 win in Champaign, Ill.
“I don’t think they like me at all,” Vasquez (Montrose Christian) said. “I can’t remember what I did, but I can’t wait. I know they’re pretty hungry. They remember last year. The crowd has to get excited; it’s going to be a big game. We went in there and beat them in their place. That was tough. They’re going to try to do the same thing.”
Maryland (4-2) hosts Illinois (4-1) at 7:30 tonight at Comcast Center as part of the Big 10/ACC Challenge. The Fighting Illini are coming off a strong showing at the Maui Invitational, where they defeated Arizona State and Oklahoma State, but fell to Duke, 79-66. Illinois is led by forward Brian Randle (11.8 ppg, 4.4 rpg) and center Shaun Pruitt (11.2 ppg, 8 rpg).
Vasquez, who averages a team-high 17.7 points per game, poses the biggest problem for Illinois, but the Terrapins’ biggest concern is rebounding and how to stop a team that averages 40 rebounds, including 15.2 on offense.
“If you look at their stats, they’re one of the better offensive rebounding teams in the country,” Maryland coach Gary Williams said. “We have to figure out a way to keep them off the glass. Any time you play a good offensive rebounding team, that means they’re crashing a lot of the guys to the glass. If you can rebound, that means we can run going the other way.”
In Maryland’s case, that’s a good thing. The Terrapins been more successful running an up-tempo offense than when they play in a slower, half-court set, largely because it takes time to teach seven freshman the nuances of running a set offense.
“Right now, it’s starting to come along a little easier,” senior forward James Gist said. “The guys are starting to stick with the plays, because a lot of the time during the game, guys think they can take their man off the dribble, or they might think they’re open enough to take a shot. We’ve been turning the ball over that way. Coach is just trying to get us to stick to the offense more.”
