Hello and welcome to Midweek Madness! This is The Floor Slap’s weekly CBB article from our CBB expert, Jordan Beckley… Hi, that’s me. Every Thursday, I will be recapping the week that was, the weekend ahead and doing so in a variety of recurring segments and superlatives. So, follow us (@thefloorslap) and have our site bookmarked to make sure you don’t miss a moment of the Madness all season long!
by Jordan Beckley
The Iso
Time to clear out and go 1 on 1 on this week’s Isolated Team.
We are wasting no time here on this week’s ISO on Maryland. Let’s go on a straight line drive toward the problems that have caused Kevin Willard to have a sophomore slump this season.
Most of the Big Ten fans, pundits, media, whoever were high on Maryland coming into this season. It was pretty universal to have the Terps in the top 6 with most having them in the Top-4 and some even picking them as high as a third place finish.
So, what’s gone wrong for Kevin Willard and Maryland?
1) The self-described “Best Freshman Willard has ever had” has proved to not be ready.
Deshawn Harris-Smith was getting All-Big Ten type buzz from his coach. DHS is averaging 7 ppg on 34% shooting and 16% on triples while playing 29 mpg.
Jamie Kaiser was supposed to be a borderline starter who would bring great defense and shooting next to the playmakers at guard. His game has not translated yet as he is shooting 24% inside the arc and 25% outside of it.
Personally, I was high on what Jahnathan Lamothe could bring to this team, but he hasn’t been able to crack the rotation much. Braden Pierce was probably always destined to redshirt.
Now, Maryland faithful shouldn’t stress too much. The Freshman will get better and probably will be terrific players in due time. Patience is a virtue. However, the next few explanations make the Freshman class’ inexperience hurt more.
2) The Transfer Class was a miss
One of the biggest reasons that Willard has had growing pains in year one is from shooting woes. Maryland as a team is 348th out of 362 teams in D1 at 27.9%.
Willard tried to bring in shooting to surround Jahmir Young and Julian Reese this offseason. I already mentioned that DHS and Kaiser have been surprisingly bad shooters. Chance “Sniper” Stephens was supposed to be a plug and play shooter, but he hasn’t made it back to the court after an injury this summer. Jordan Geronimo had been a fine shooter (33% on low volume) at Indiana before transferring to College Park. Geronimo was 2-45 on the year before going 3-5 in his past two games.
Other transfers like Mady Traore has been benched in favor of Caelum Swanton-Rodger who is probably a better backup big but doesn’t offer any distance as a shooter.
The Stephens injury really hurt what Willard needed coming from the portal. So far, the remaining transfers and freshmen shooting at an impossibly bad percentage indicates that maybe the Terps are due for some positive regression.
3) Julian Reese and Donta Scott haven’t gotten better and haven’t been consistent
Jahmir Young somehow took another big step up now averaging over 20ppg, 4apg, and 4rpg. The same can’t be said about the other core returning guys.
Julian Reese is averaging 2 more ppg on a worse shooting percentage. His free throws are agonizingly bad. Sure, JuJu has improved as a rebounder and a shot blocker, but he had buzz as a “Is he the second best big to Zach Edey?” kind of potential.
Donta Scott has been too inconsistent as a scorer and has provided no secondary playmaking either.
I think it is safe to say that we expected more from these two this year.
There is reason for Maryland fans to be optimistic though.
I think that the Terps could be turning the corner. Shots have finally started to fall a little bit. The Terps hit a few big ones to seal a win at no. 10 Illinois.
We know Maryland can defend at a top-25 in the country pedigree. The Terps don’t need to be good, not even respectable, just not absolute garbage at hitting open threes to win these games.
Be patient with the freshmen and who knows it might all of a sudden click. Geronimo and others can only really go up from here.
Maryland almost pulled off another road win in Illinois falling just short to Northwestern in Welsh-Ryan Arena. Jahmir Young, who scored 36 points, is so good that he can keep them in any game. The Terps were just a few shots from winning again.
2023-24 Maryland isn’t a 3rd place Big Ten finisher or a Top-25 team. The Terps have been in quite the slump, but Kevin Willard is doing what he can with who he has to push them to be a Tournament team.
The season started in disappointment, but like a down-bad gambling addict I propose that you the College Basketball fan don’t give up because a hot-streak might be just around the corner. That hot-streak just might look like 30% team 3 point % and winning games with under 130 points scored.
Good Game Bad Game
Loosely defined as a weekly game where I name one (or more) good game and bad game from a player, coach, ref, mascot, towel boy, jumbotron operator or anybody in CBB.
Good Game: Jeffrey Anderson, Zach Edey, DaRon Holmes
If you haven’t seen the Jeffrey Anderson Fan Account on X.com, I have a treat for you. The account is mainly a platform to tweet out the High Knees runs down the floor that NCAA referee Jeff Anderson takes down the court early in games and an occasional theatrical foul call.
But on Tuesday’s game of Wake Forest at NC State, it was Jeff Anderson and his fan account’s time to shine. The game was a physical, contested matchup full of calls, technicals and flying birds. It started with Jeff Anderson tossing Kevin Keatts.
The combination of the lowercase t Technical, the tossing motion aimed towards the top row of the stadium, and this caption are Basketball meme heaven. It didn’t stop there as near the end more technicals were handed out including a double tech with the appropriate splitting point from our guy:
Not everybody was a fan of Jeff Anderson and his crew though. Just ask DJ Horne how he felt:
I could actually type about Zach Edey every game in the good game section and just choose not too. After his past two games and specifically his game at IU I have to write about him again. The reigning NPOY Edey went into Bloomington and showed all the 3-second complainers and the “He’s just tall” idiots how special he really is with 33 points, 14 boards, and left the Hoosiers with no option but to foul him like crazy. After the game Edey said he didn’t think he played that well and that he could be better because he went 11-23. Incredible. Yet, the moment that best represents Purdue Culture, Indiana Culture, and the lasting image of this game is seeing the 7’4 giant dive on the ground for a loose ball around halfcourt when up 15+ points as Kel’el Ware tried to just bend down for it.
Ultimate Competitor. Former 5-Star Top 10 recruit, Ware finished with 5 points on 6 shots. Former 3-Star Top 400 recruit Edey is averaging 33.67 ppg and 16 rpg in his last three games versus the Hoosiers.
Final shoutout goes to DaRon Holmes and Dayton. The Flyers are 14-2 and at 4-0 they have an outside shot at going undefeated in A-10 play. DaRon Holmes is Coach Anthony Grant’s star player averaging 19.4 pts, 7.7rpg, and 2.2 bpg. Holmes will hear his name called in this year’s NBA draft soon enough. The 6’10” big Holmes is averaging 43.6% from three on 2.4 attempts and is one of three Flyers shooting above 40% for what is the 9th best team hooting team from range at 39.5%. Dayton is a top 20 Kenpom offensive team and despite room for improvement defensively have raw numbers (Top 65 in Blocks, 2pt% allowed, and 3rd in Free throws given up) that suggest the Flyers could be a Cinderella candidate this season. Last year, FAU was awesome all year and nobody took them seriously given their conference. This season’s FAU might be Daytona and DaRon Holmes.
Bad Game: Wisconsin, UNLV Fans
Right after I had just written about taking the Badgers seriously, Wisconsin dropped a game in Happy Valley. Penn State isn’t awful, however that is pretty much as positive as you can be about the 9-9 Nittany Lions squad who somehow recorded their 3rd Big Ten victory by beating Wisconsin. The Badgers let Penn State score 87 on them offering little resistance all night. Wisconsin shot better from three, outrebounded PSU by double digits, made more free throws at a better percentage and lost. No guard could stop Kanye Clary and 13 turnovers proved too many to overcome.
UNLV put together quite a performance past Saturday was on pace to upset ranked Utah State when chaos broke loose and stole the Rebels’ victory. The contest had reached the intentional foul portion of a not quite out-of-reach game with UNLV trading free throws to Utah State’s threes and layups. The Aggies cut the lead but still needed a miracle for the math to work out that they won. I present to you the miracle:
The extremely rare 5-point play ruined the Rebels fans nights. Now, that is a bad beat.
Award Winning Wings
A rotating selection of made up superlatives and awards. Named fondly after how every restaurant has ‘award winning wings’
Player of the Week
If you still somehow aren’t familiar with Dalton Knecht, go study some tape! The Northern Colorado transfer is shooting up Vols fans’ all-time favorite players list with some comical offensive performances. Knecht scored 39 points against Florida on Tuesday, 36 points in a crucial win at Georgia and 28 points in their tight loss at Mississippi State.
Is he taking 20 shots a game to get those numbers? Yeah sure. But would you rather Jahmai Mashack take those shots? No. He is the driving force of this Vols offense and could be the difference for a program whose offense has prevented them from making the Final Four.
Ethan Morton 3 Point Tracker
Morton didn’t need to take a three pointer in the Boilermakers two stomping victories over Indiana and Penn State this past week. He did have a sweet scooping layup that didn’t actually go in, but obviously with a pure scorer like Morton, Kel’el Ware had to come over and goal tend to stop it.
Fun Fact, Purdue is undefeated in games where Morton scores. Now, that is only 5 games this season but you have to wonder if his offense is the ultimate X Factor?
Did Louisville win a game this week?
No.
The Cardinals did not win a game after beating Miami last week. I would say that Louisville had two respectable efforts in losses to NC State and UNC so honestly no jokes this week.
Good job Kenny Payne I guess?
No Explanation Power Rankings
I am just the humble mouthpiece for the No Explanation College Basketball Committee, who release their weekly Big Ten Rankings to me. I provide their rankings with… no explanation.
The Big Ten this year really jumps off a cliff after 4 teams huh? I again received no explanation from the committee, but I think I can speak for them when I say does it matter where you rank any of these teams from 7-14? I don’t think there is a right answer.
Sorry for the late edition of Midweek Madness, but also I gave you three articles this week so make sure you are reading everything instead of complaining. We will be back next week with an ISO on a team who lost by 20+ points to their arch rival!