Maryland never really competed at Duke and dropped another tough road game, 77-56. If you wondered how the week long layoff caused by the historic snowfall that cancelled the Virginia game would effect the Terps you had your answer in the first ten minutes of the game as they went down 20-6 only hitting three field goals in the first 9 minutes and turning the ball over five times. Greivis Vasquez was out of sync in the opening minutes and none of his teammates looked much better. Cliff Tucker came off the bench to score a quick six points and keep Maryland within shouting distance but went 2/9 the rest of the game. Landon Milbourne had his worst game of the season and it would have made little difference if had never made it out of snowy Washington. Eric Hayes was uncharacteristically weak with his ball handling and made several unforced turnovers leading the team with four. Sean Mosley had several good looks that he never converted and did a dreadful job on defense. Jordan Williams and Dino Gregory helped to make Brian Zoubek look like Bill Russell as the stiff and unskilled center scored 16 points and grabbed 17 rebounds in just 22 minutes. That is perhaps the most appalling part of this 21 point rout. Williams looked overwhelmed by his first trip to Cameron Indoor and struggled particularly in defense. He wasn’t a big factor in the half court offense. This game should explode the myth that Dino Gregory is a good defensive player. He was easily outplayed by Mason Plumlee and Zoubek and was little help in stopping Duke from grabbing 20 offensive rebounds.
Vasquez managed to right himself in the 2nd half to finish with 17 points (7/12 shooting) and 7 rebounds but none of his teammates were able to do much of anything. In a battle of the role players Maryland was dominated. Outside of Vasquez the rest of the team shot 16/49 (32.6%) including 0/10 from 3-point range. Duke’s strategy seemed to be to key on Vasquez and make someone else beat them. It turned out that no one on Maryland could.
