University of North Carolina Athletics
Maryland Game Guide
February 26, 2011 | Men's Basketball
Feb. 26, 2011
By Lauren Brownlow
The Basics
No. 19 North Carolina (21-6, 11-2) will face Maryland (18-10, 7-6) in an attempt to hang on to second place in the ACC. The Tar Heels are 17-3 since starting the season 4-3 and have won four straight and nine of 10. Carolina is coming off of a 75-63 win at NC State on Wednesday night. Maryland, who was playing at the same time that night, beat Florida State 78-62 at home. The Terps have won two straight. Carolina leads the all-time series against Maryland, 114-75, but the Terps have won four of the last five meetings. Carolina had won five straight before that. Maryland's current streak of three in a row is the second-longest since 1966 by the Terps (they won four straight from 2002-03). Carolina is 54-17 in Chapel Hill against Maryland but just 15-8 in the Smith Center. Maryland's eight wins there are the most by any other team besides Duke (11).
Game Time: Maryland at North Carolina, 7:45 PM, Fox Sports Net
Last Time: Carolina lost to Maryland in College Park on February 7, 2010 by a score of 92-71. Maryland led by as many as 16 in the first half and went up by 13 early in the second half before a 12-2 Carolina run cut it to three points with 15 minutes left, and Carolina kept it close for awhile. Then Maryland mounted a 25-7 run to take a 22-point lead with 5:45 to go and didn't look back. Carolina shot just 37.7% in the game to 51.5% for Maryland, including 12-of-23 from beyond the arc for the Terps. Marcus Ginyard led Carolina with 17 points, Deon Thompson added 16, Will Graves had 11 and Ed Davis had ten points and a team-high 16 rebounds. Greivis Vasquez led Maryland with 26 points while Eric Hayes added 16 and Landon Milbourne had 15.
Radio Coverage: Tar Heel Sports Network coverage will begin at 6:45 PM.
At The Game
Listening to the Tar Heel Sports Network at the game: The in-stadium frequency in the Smith Center will be FM 92.7. That station will have a non-delayed feed of WCHL 1360, the local affiliate.
Watching At Home
Turn down the sound: If you're watching the game at home while listening to the radio or over the computer via Carolina All-Access, there will inevitably be some delay. For the reason - and a possible solution - click here.
A full list of THSN affiliates can be found here.
Fox Sports Net coverage: The game will be available on Fox Sports Net. Tim Brando, Mike Gminski and Jenn Hildreth will have the call.
Storylines
Who can score from two?: These teams are so similar it's eerie. Maryland averages 78.1 points; Carolina averaged 77.0 points. Maryland allows 65.6 points; Carolina allows 66.7 points. Maryland's opponents shoot 39.8% and Carolina's shoot 39.7 percent. Both hold opponents to exactly 32.2% from beyond the arc. Both struggle from the free-throw line; Maryland is shooting 67.3% while Carolina is shooting 65.7%. Maryland averages 13.8 turnovers; Carolina averages 13.3. Maryland averages 6.9 steals and 4.5 blocks while Carolina is averaging 6.5 and 5.4. There are two important differences, though - Carolina is shooting 45.1% from the floor (31.7% from three) on the season while Maryland is shooting 48% from the floor and 34.6% from three. Believe it or not, there are actually two ACC teams that score a lower percentage of their points from beyond the arc. One of them is NC State and the other is Maryland; the Terrapins score just 17.8% of their points from three; just five Division I schools out of 345 score a lower percentage from three. Maryland gets 62% of its points from inside the arc, second in the nation according to Ken Pomeroy. Second is NC State (60.7); the Wolfpack have hit 46-of-105 (43.8%) in two games against Carolina but did score a whopping 73% of their points against the Tar Heels from two-point range. And all other ACC opponents have scored just 44% of their points against Carolina from two-point range. Carolina has played four teams ahead of Maryland in two-point shooting percentage and held them to a combined 61-of-147 (41.5%); all four shot 52% or better from two-point range and Carolina beat all but one of those teams (Duke, 22nd nationally at 52.2 percent).
Maryland is 23rd nationally in two-point defense, allowing just 43.6%. (Carolina is 28th at 43.9%.) The Tar Heels have played five teams ranked higher than the Terrapins in that category and have a 2-3 record against those teams (though three - Texas, Kentucky and Minnesota - came out of conference and Minnesota was fairly early). All of those teams allow 43.3% or less from inside the ac and Carolina has shot 46% or higher against all but one (Minnesota) and 49% or higher against all three. Carolina hit 46.3% of its two's against the No. 1 two-point defense, Texas (39.5% allowed) and against the No. 3 two-point defense, FSU, Carolina hit 63.4%. Kentucky is 5th, allowing 41%, and Carolina shot 49% against the Wildcats. While Carolina's three-point woes have been well-documented, though, the two-point woes have not and those are more important. In ACC play, Carolina shot 50% or higher in seven of its first nine ACC games and six straight, starting with Kendall Marshall's first start against Clemson. Between the first Clemson game and the Duke game, Carolina shot 55.4% in those six games. But in the last four, Carolina has shot just 45.3% from inside the arc. Maryland is trending in the opposite direction; the Terps shot 46.8% from two in the first five ACC games (they went 2-3 in those games) and have shot 51.9% in the last eight games (they have gone 5-3). One team could get hot from three but both make their living inside the arc.
Names To Know
Kendall Marshall: The freshman point guard has had to adjust first to getting almost all of the minutes, and then to teams covering him as if he will pass rather than shoot. In the Duke game, he was 3-of-11 for 9 points and added six assists and just one turnover. But in the last four games, while he has adjusted properly on his shot, he has 23 assists to 15 turnovers. Those are still very solid numbers, except for the fact that he has ten turnovers to 12 assists in the last two games and he had 127 assists to 48 turnovers in the first 25 games. But he has still shot 15-of-32 in the last four games and 13-of-15 from the foul line, averaging 11.3 points in that span. Despite the added minutes, he has been solid in the second half, shooting 8-of-16 from the floor and averaging 7.0 points in those 17.8 second-half minutes. Carolina just needs him to take better care of the ball, but these last two games seem much more like an aberration than any kind of trend in terms of that. But Maryland will be a tough test. Carolina's starting point guards have 26 assists to 12 turnovers in five games against Maryland since '07 and counting only Carolina's losses, the starting point guards have 20 assists to 12 turnovers in four games. A Carolina point guard has shot over 50% against Maryland once in the last five games and that was Ty Lawson, who had 21 points on 6-of-10 shooting (4-of-5 from three) and added six assists, four steals and no turnovers in 25 minutes in a Carolina win in '09. Larry Drew II was 0-for-6 last year in College Park and even Lawson was 21-of-46 in his career. But this is a new Maryland team and a new Carolina team, and it doesn't much matter as long as Marshall can get his teammates involved. Carolina has been held to fewer than 20 assists in three out of the last five meetings with Maryland (all losses).
John Henson: He is the real wild card for Carolina when it comes to this matchup. He's athletic enough to help protect the paint against a Maryland team that certainly prefers to score there, but he's certainly at a significant size disadvantage against Maryland's Jordan Williams. But there's no arguing how much of a difference he makes. John Henson played 30 of 40 minutes against BC; while he was in the game, the Eagles made 10-of-43 shots (just 3-of-18 two-pointers) and scored 34 points, mostly on hitting 7-of-25 three's. So over half of the shots the Eagles took - 58% - were from three. When Henson was out of the game, BC shot 4-of-9 in those ten minutes and scored 12 points, attempting (and missing) just two three's. That can't be coincidental; Henson's absence makes things a lot easier on the interior. He had just two blocks in the game but it's hard to block three-pointers. Against NC State, he had six blocks and while the substitution information wasn't available, it was obvious from watching it what an effect he had, particularly on guards penetrating. If there's a complaint about Henson, it's that his offense has slipped - he has averaged 7.0 points in the last two games (after averaging 14.5 in the previous six) on 6-of-18 shooting (he had shot 37-of-60 the previous six). But he has averaged 13.5 rebounds in the last two games and 12.1 in the last eight, adding 28 blocks in the last eight games as well. After turning it over four times at Duke, he has five in the last four games and has committed just five fouls (he had six against FSU and Duke combined). Carolina needs him on the court but defending Jordan Williams and the savvy veteran Dino Gregory down low won't be easy.
Jordan Williams: Double-doubles are supposed to be a rarity, but the 6-10 sophomore forward/center has made them commonplace. In fact, it's rare for him to not have a double-double - in 28 games, he has 21 double-doubles. In ACC play, he has nine double-doubles in 13 games and the Terps are 2-2 when he doesn't notch a double-double. That happened in Maryland's two most recent road games, when he shot 10-of-21 from the floor and averaged 14 points and 8.5 rebounds. But Williams has been brilliant all year and in the conference, ranking 5th in league-only scoring (17.5), 1st in rebounding (11.2) and 2nd in field goal percentage (54%) behind Tyler Zeller, but Zeller has taken 34 fewer shots. Williams has also been beastly on both the offensive and defensive glass, averaging 3.2 offensive boards in league play to go with a league-high 7.9 defensive rebounds. He has averaged "just" 9.4 rebounds in the last five games, if that's any consolation for the Tar Heels, and he has collected just four offensive rebounds in the last four games after collecting 96 in the first 24 (4.0 per game). Last year against Carolina, he had eight points on 4-of-9 shooting and added six rebounds; he also didn't attempt a foul shot. It didn't matter much as the Terrapins rolled, but this will be toughest challenge yet for Tyler Zeller and John Henson down low. Williams is probably stronger than anyone they have faced and just as skilled, if not more so.
Terrell Stoglin: The 6-1 freshman guard has had his good games and then struggled in others, as most freshmen do. But he has really found his way in the last few games, averaging 19.2 points on nearly 60% shooting in the last five games. He has also made 7-of-13 three's, 27-of-30 foul shots and added 6.0 assists per game to 2.4 turnovers. In his first 23 games, he averaged nine points on 42.1% shooting (25.6% from three) and added 61 assists to 47 turnovers. He also attempted just 2.3 foul shots per game in the first 23 and has averaged 6.0 attempts over the last five. Like most freshmen, he doesn't play as well on the road in conference, averaging 10.7 points on 38.5% shooting (3-of-21 from three) and has 25 assists to 18 turnovers. But in his last two road games - both Maryland losses, but still - he has averaged 19.5 points on 12-of-19 shooting and added 2-of-4 three's, making 13-of-15 foul shots and dishing out 13 assists to six turnovers. He had 12 assists to 12 turnovers in his first four ACC road games and had made just 1-of-17 three's. Stoglin is gaining confidence, a dangerous proposition for Carolina, and everyone guarding him must try to stay out of foul trouble and not let him get going early.
Lauren Brownlow is the executive editor of Tar Heel Monthly.
Follow the THM staff on Twitter.
