ACC Roundup

After being crushed by Florida State 85-61, Maryland's Mark Turgeon said this "We're not as bad as the score. We're not that bad."

Well maybe, maybe not. Although Maryland pointed to FSU's hot three point shooting as the difference, but that doesn't explain 33% from the floor, 16.7% from three-point range. Nor does it explain seven blocked shots.

You could make every three pointer a two pointer and FSU still would have won by 12. Even if Maryland had hit the 10 free throws the Terps missed on top of trimming the threes, it still would have been a two-point FSU win.

Maryland might not be that bad, but the Terps were that bad for a night. And FSU's Aaron Thomas said this about the deep line: "Those guys weren’t defending the three-point line, so we hit shots."

Not that it matters much, since Maryland is on the way out of the ACC, but we're starting to have more doubts about Turgeon, as are apparently a lot of Maryland fans.

One other thing we noticed in the first half: as big as he is, as talented as he is supposed to be, Shaquille Cleare may not be able to hack the conditioning needed for college ball.

Here's his line for the FSU game: one point, two shot attempts, 1-2 free throws, two rebounds, one steal, three fouls and four turnovers in 15 minutes.

Yet the guys behind him seem to have little more trust from the staff. Charles Mitchell got 16 minutes (and fouled out) with one point and six boards. Damonte Dodd played eight minutes and Jonathan Graham four, both with minimal statistical impact.

Toss in point guard problems and a shooting slump by Jake Layman, and you can see where things might be tough.

Still, it's the coach's job to do all that and to be ready. Maryland hasn't been for the last two ACC games. Losses to George Washington and Boston University don't impress either.

On Monday, Duke hosts Virginia while Syracuse puts a perfect record on line with a trip to BC - oh, forget it. Unless Syracuse completely fails, we can't see BC winning.