Holy hell Maryland got their butts kicked last night. UCLA came in to College Park and put an absolute beat down on the Terps like they owed them money. 87-60 is a dreadful score, but it looks even worse when you realize there were moments when UCLA was up by damn near 40, and Kevin Willard had to bench his starters for a large portion of the second half because they were playing that terribly. I could call it the most embarrassing loss I've witnessed in my lifetime, but thankfully I was multitasking and playing Warzone so I wasn't all that locked into the game.
With that said, all is not lost! A 3-game losing streak looks bad, I mean, really bad, for a team that supposedly earned its way into the top 25. However, was this team really set to go undefeated and become the greatest team of all time in Kevin Willard's first season? That's laughable. I saw a lot of people who were so happy that the team was 8-0 and they could throw as much dirt on Mark Turgeon's grave as possible get slapped upside the head with a harsh dose of reality in the last week.
To be clear, I am still very happy with the coaching change and what Willard is doing so far. But if there's anything I've learned being a fan of DMV teams is that they know exactly how to disappoint in the worst ways possible. An unprecedented start for a new head coach after the old coach quit in a very unceremonious fashion was the perfect build-up the fanbase needed to pump up their egos before they came crashing back down to earth in fiery rubble.
I like what Willard is doing, and I know that it seems so easy to build up a contending team in 10 minutes thanks to the advent of the transfer portal. That doesn't matter with a program that needs to get the stink of the previous era off of it. Willard isn't a magician, he'll need time to develop the culture, which he's already doing an incredible job of, and have that translate onto the court. If he had come out and started the season 11-0 it would have been so easy for himself, and his players to get so lost in their own success that they lose sight of the work that needs to be done. Mistakes have been made, and that's ok.
I'm still not sure what Willard was doing with his timeouts in the Wisconsin game, and the team came out as flat as the hardwood they were playing on against Illinois and UCLA. Now it's gut check time. There's two games coming up against St. Peter's and UMBC that should be get right games for the Terps. If they go into these games and do what they're supposed to do (destroy these teams) then I will believe they're still on the right path. If they struggle with them then uh... yikes.
I promised myself I wouldn't hop on the Willard (or whoever the new coach was going to be) hype train like a madman right off the bat. There are going to be peaks and plenty of valleys in his first season. Despite having a bad stink from the previous regime, Maryland is a step up in class from Seton Hall. There's work to be done an I'm going to watch how it unfolds before I decide if the sky is falling or not.
You should too.
Comments
Post a Comment