COLLEGE PARK - To a man, starting with their coach, the Maryland Terrapins freely admitted that last night's performance in a most unusual men's basketball season opener fell way short on style points.
Maryland did not step crisply into a new era, did not begin life as a defending national champion with the best of days, by any stretch of the imagination. After watching the pre-game unfurling of a banner honoring its first NCAA title, a team marked by so much youth and so many new, undefined roles did not christen Comcast Center with the dazzling show that a sellout crowd of 17,950 craved.
But after two laborious hours that featured offensive spurts and breakdowns, defensive muscle and soft spots, smart plays and senseless moments, the Terps did what they have done so often in recent years. They won convincingly.
And in the aftermath of a 64-49 victory over Miami (Ohio), a contest in which the 12th-ranked Terps were good enough to dominate in stretches but sloppy enough to keep the crowd and its coach on edge, Maryland sounded relieved and eager to get on with the business of learning how to win and look better doing it.
"I think we found out what it was like to be defending champions, in terms of how a team gets ready to play against you, what it means for them to say they played well against you," said Maryland coach Gary Williams. "Hopefully, we learned quite a bit from that.
"It's hard to get too excited about how we played. We've got to get more consistent. We made some great plays, but we made some bad plays, too. It looked like we thought we could do whatever we wanted out there when it came time to score. It doesn't work that way against a team that is playing hard against you. I think we paid for that."
Facing a RedHawks team (0-2) that was two days removed from a 27-point blowout at Purdue, the Terps, featuring four new starters and five new faces, learned a few lessons, indeed.
Despite facing an opponent that gave away considerable size - no Miami starter and only one player on its roster is listed at taller than 6 feet 6 - the RedHawks battled Maryland to a standstill on the boards.
Despite limiting Miami to 29.1 percent shooting, the Terps executed poorly enough on offense to manage only 32 points in each half. Part of that could be attributed to Miami's milk-the-shot-clock approach on offense. Part of it pointed to poor shot selection by the Terps, who converted 39.2 percent of their attempts.
Not that this game was ever in doubt. Led by seniors like guards Drew Nicholas and Steve Blake and center Ryan Randle and fueled by promising freshmen like forwards Travis Garrison and Nik Caner-Medley, Maryland was never in danger of losing control.
Maryland's best weapon was its full-court pressure defense, which the Terps used primarily to take a 32-21 halftime lead. With a spark from Randle, they stretched the margin to 48-28 with 13:22 left in the contest. The Terps would lead by as many as 23 points late in the affair, before Williams - who was his old, testy, animated self for much of the evening - cleared his bench.
"People have to understand we have three guys [from last year's team] in the NBA who made great individual plays for us. Maybe we can't do that this year," Williams said. "We have to be a better half-court team offensively. We were playing as defending champions [for the first time] today. Hopefully, we got that out of our system and we'll be a looser team as time goes by."
The bright spots were numerous. The Terps forced 22 turnovers and made 22 of 30 free throws. Nicholas led the Terps with 16 points and four steals, and had 12 points in the first half. Randle recovered from a tentative start to finish with a career-high 15 points and five rebounds. He had nine points in the first seven minutes of the second half.
Blake countered a rough shooting night (2-for-8, nine points) with eight assists and a turnover-free second half. And in his first collegiate game, Garrison (eight points, six rebounds, 22 minutes) outplayed Tahj Holden, his senior counterpart, who did not score for 28 minutes and wound up with six points and two rebounds in 21 forgettable minutes.
Miami forward Danny Horace had 17 points and 12 rebounds, both game highs. Backup guard Josh Hausfeld added 11 points and made half of the RedHawks' six three-pointers, which gave Miami a glimmer of hope at times.
"We just weren't solid. I didn't feel like there was a good flow to the game," said Blake, the lone returning starter who played both guard positions, as freshman John Gilchrist contributed 11 minutes at the point. "We need to get tougher, get hungrier. We have to defend what we won last year."
The way Nicholas sees it, last night was about a program turning the page in a whole new world. It was about first-time college players getting a taste of the pace of a different game. It was about career backups like himself beginning to understand the energy and drive required of a starter. There is much to learn, but the Terps did pass the first test.
"A lot of guys came into the locker room looking down. ... Let's put this in perspective," Nicholas said. "We just won our first college basketball game as a team. We didn't have our best night, but it was a win for us. We have five new guys. It was a good enough effort. We just need to get better and move on."
Maryland did not step crisply into a new era, did not begin life as a defending national champion with the best of days, by any stretch of the imagination. After watching the pre-game unfurling of a banner honoring its first NCAA title, a team marked by so much youth and so many new, undefined roles did not christen Comcast Center with the dazzling show that a sellout crowd of 17,950 craved.
But after two laborious hours that featured offensive spurts and breakdowns, defensive muscle and soft spots, smart plays and senseless moments, the Terps did what they have done so often in recent years. They won convincingly.
And in the aftermath of a 64-49 victory over Miami (Ohio), a contest in which the 12th-ranked Terps were good enough to dominate in stretches but sloppy enough to keep the crowd and its coach on edge, Maryland sounded relieved and eager to get on with the business of learning how to win and look better doing it.
"I think we found out what it was like to be defending champions, in terms of how a team gets ready to play against you, what it means for them to say they played well against you," said Maryland coach Gary Williams. "Hopefully, we learned quite a bit from that.
"It's hard to get too excited about how we played. We've got to get more consistent. We made some great plays, but we made some bad plays, too. It looked like we thought we could do whatever we wanted out there when it came time to score. It doesn't work that way against a team that is playing hard against you. I think we paid for that."
Facing a RedHawks team (0-2) that was two days removed from a 27-point blowout at Purdue, the Terps, featuring four new starters and five new faces, learned a few lessons, indeed.
Despite facing an opponent that gave away considerable size - no Miami starter and only one player on its roster is listed at taller than 6 feet 6 - the RedHawks battled Maryland to a standstill on the boards.
Despite limiting Miami to 29.1 percent shooting, the Terps executed poorly enough on offense to manage only 32 points in each half. Part of that could be attributed to Miami's milk-the-shot-clock approach on offense. Part of it pointed to poor shot selection by the Terps, who converted 39.2 percent of their attempts.
Not that this game was ever in doubt. Led by seniors like guards Drew Nicholas and Steve Blake and center Ryan Randle and fueled by promising freshmen like forwards Travis Garrison and Nik Caner-Medley, Maryland was never in danger of losing control.
Maryland's best weapon was its full-court pressure defense, which the Terps used primarily to take a 32-21 halftime lead. With a spark from Randle, they stretched the margin to 48-28 with 13:22 left in the contest. The Terps would lead by as many as 23 points late in the affair, before Williams - who was his old, testy, animated self for much of the evening - cleared his bench.
"People have to understand we have three guys [from last year's team] in the NBA who made great individual plays for us. Maybe we can't do that this year," Williams said. "We have to be a better half-court team offensively. We were playing as defending champions [for the first time] today. Hopefully, we got that out of our system and we'll be a looser team as time goes by."
The bright spots were numerous. The Terps forced 22 turnovers and made 22 of 30 free throws. Nicholas led the Terps with 16 points and four steals, and had 12 points in the first half. Randle recovered from a tentative start to finish with a career-high 15 points and five rebounds. He had nine points in the first seven minutes of the second half.
Blake countered a rough shooting night (2-for-8, nine points) with eight assists and a turnover-free second half. And in his first collegiate game, Garrison (eight points, six rebounds, 22 minutes) outplayed Tahj Holden, his senior counterpart, who did not score for 28 minutes and wound up with six points and two rebounds in 21 forgettable minutes.
Miami forward Danny Horace had 17 points and 12 rebounds, both game highs. Backup guard Josh Hausfeld added 11 points and made half of the RedHawks' six three-pointers, which gave Miami a glimmer of hope at times.
"We just weren't solid. I didn't feel like there was a good flow to the game," said Blake, the lone returning starter who played both guard positions, as freshman John Gilchrist contributed 11 minutes at the point. "We need to get tougher, get hungrier. We have to defend what we won last year."
The way Nicholas sees it, last night was about a program turning the page in a whole new world. It was about first-time college players getting a taste of the pace of a different game. It was about career backups like himself beginning to understand the energy and drive required of a starter. There is much to learn, but the Terps did pass the first test.
"A lot of guys came into the locker room looking down. ... Let's put this in perspective," Nicholas said. "We just won our first college basketball game as a team. We didn't have our best night, but it was a win for us. We have five new guys. It was a good enough effort. We just need to get better and move on."