Published: February 02, 2008 11:20 pm         

As always, Terps make it interesting

These Maryland Terrapins are up to a challenge. They had better be. They’re constantly challenging themselves, their coach and their fans.

Nothing has, nothing does and nothing will come easy for these Terps, but don’t misinterpret. This team is playing with grit. The Terps are playing with determination. They’re battlers, just like their under-appreciated coach, and, like their under-appreciated coach, they play with a lot of passion and pride.

Certainly you wouldn’t be wrong to say yesterday’s 88-86 win at Georgia Tech should have been put away at least two other times before it actually was, but, you know what? In the end it was put away and now Maryland is an unremarkable but solid 4-3 in the ACC.

Bambale Osby? Who would have ever thunk it? A low-scoring transfer from Paris (Texas) Junior College, Osby is, as ESPN analyst Jimmy Dykes perfectly stated yesterday, “a man’s man.” He gives Maryland a low-post presence offensively and defensively, and his mere presence on the court is just downright reassuring, particularly — and whoever dreamed a year ago we’d be saying this? — when he’s on the foul line.

The guy is a worker, but he’s also much more talented than he’s credited for being, and he’s also incredibly smart. You just have the feeling things are going to be all right as long as Osby’s around to have a say in it.

The same can now be said for sophomore forward Landon Milbourne. After getting every opportunity to perform early in the season, Milbourne has finally heeded the words of Coach Gary Williams who basically called him out last month, saying the chances weren’t going to be there for much longer unless Milbourne started to play the way he was capable of playing.

Milbourne has done that, becoming effective from both the inside and the outside. Perhaps it’s because he wears the number 1, but Milbourne’s size is misleading. He doesn’t appear to be 6-7, 205, but, in fact, his long wingspan makes him an even bigger player. Again, as with Osby, things seem to go the right way when Milbourne is on the court.

The same can also be said about sophomore guard Steve Blake ... err, I mean Eric Hayes. Look, the kid’s a coach’s son and he plays like one. From this point of view, the living is easier when the ball’s in his hands.

Which brings us to Greivis Vasquez, who could just as easily answer to Grievous Vasquez. Vasquez is so marvelously talented it’s frightening, but he is the classic “Don’t shoot! Don’t shoot! Great shot!” kind of player. One never knows what’s going to unfold when Vasquez has the ball, but the upside to that brings to mind a line by the great Earl Monroe, who once said, “I don’t think anybody can guard me, because I don’t know what I’m going to do when I get the ball. So if I don’t know, how can the guy guarding me know?”

But let’s not to be cavalier about this. Vasquez is obviously on a very long leash, and he can, and does, drive you crazy. Once he begins to dribble in the halfcourt set, bet the house calamity is sure to follow. Sometimes, though, it actually works in Maryland’s favor. It goes without saying he is a work in progress, but Maryland is happy he’ll be getting that work in for two more years in College Park.

Senior forward James Gist is playing like the senior he needs to be, and the Terps are developing an improving rotation with Dave Neal (just don’t pass him the ball in the post), Cliff Tucker, Adrian Bowie, and now Shane Walker. About the only downside in the past month for the Terps has been the declining minutes of freshman center Braxton DuPree.

Impressive early in the season, DuPree, since the ACC season has started in earnest, sometimes seems to be the tourist from Pixley making his first visit to New York City. A player of his size, talent and pedigree has no business being starry-eyed, even though he is just a freshman. The Maryland roster, however, is loaded with freshmen, and every team in the ACC currently finds itself loaded in full throttle of the league schedule.

DuPree is going to be too good to give up on, so while Gary Williams is renowned for his tough love, he is also known for his patience. Come on, until the middle of his junior year, did you honestly believe in Lonnie Baxter? Just as Milbourne has, DuPree will become a very viable piece of Williams’ rotation, but he needs to soon follow Milbourne’s example and earn his spot in that rotation. Both he and Maryland will be better served once he does.

Sure, it’s way too early to become giddy, but the Terps have won four out of five, and eight out of their last 10, including tough road wins at Charlotte, North Carolina and Georgia Tech.

The schedule is unforgiving, with road games at Boston College and Duke sandwiching a home game with N.C. State, but these young Terps have shown an admirable resiliency from the beginning. These Terps are up to a challenge, which is a good thing since they are about to face many more challenges that won’t be self-inflicted.

It’s called life in the ACC, but all in all, you have to like where this Maryland team finds itself living in that ACC.

Mike Burke is sports editor of the Cumberland Times-News. Contact Mike Burke at mburke@times-news.com.