Maryland Opens ACC Slate at Boston College
12/9/2006 7:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Dec. 9, 2006
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Maryland travels to face Boston College Sunday (Dec. 10) in Chestnut Hill. Tip-off is set for 6:30 p.m. The game can be heard on the Terrapin Sports Radio Network as well as XM Satellite Radio (Channel 191). The contest will be televised nationally on Fox SportsNet.
• Sunday's game is the Atlantic Coast Conference opener for both teams. Maryland is 30-23 all-time in ACC openers.
• The Terps are 10-7 in league openers under head coach Gary Williams and have won each of their last two, including a 73-71 win over sixth-ranked Boston College in College Park last year.
• Maryland is 4-2 all-time against Boston College, dating back to their first meeting in 1958.
• The Terps have never faced the Eagles in Chestnut Hill.
Sunday's game is a return to Boston for two Terrapins. Gary Williams was head coach at Boston College from 1982-86. He led the Eagles to a 76-45 (.628) record and two NCAA Regional Semifinal appearances. In 1982-83, BC tied for first place in the Big East with a record of 12-4 and advanced to the NCAA West Region semifinals.
• Assistant coach Michael Adams played point guard at BC from 1981-85. He played his last three seasons for Gary Williams and was a Second Team All-Big East selection. He graduated (Communications) as the fifth leading scorer in school history (1,650 pts) and had his jersey retired in 1999.
At 9-1 the Terrapins are off to their best start through 10 games since the 1998-99 campaign when Maryland jumped out to a 10-0 start. The Terps finished that year with 28-6 record and an appearance in the NCAA Sweet Sixteen.
Mike Jones went 4-of-4 from three-point range and scored a team-high 18 points as Maryland defeated Fordham, 79-59. D.J. Strawberry and Greivis Vasquez added 16 points apiece for Maryland.
• Senior Ekene Ibekwe tallied a career-high seven blocks in the win over the Rams, as the Terps recorded a season-high 13 blocked shots.
• Eight different Terrapins recorded an assist against Fordham.
• Maryland shot a season-high 61 percent (13-of-18) from three-point range.
Maryland has displayed a balanced offensive attack through ten games this season. The Terps are averaging 80.7 points per game this season and have five players averaging double figures.
• Strawberry leads the team with 15.2 points per game. Mike Jones is averaging 12.7 points per game, while Ekene Ibekwe has tallied 11.9 points per game. Junior James Gist is averaging 10.9 points. Freshman Greivis Vasquez is averaging 10.5 points per game off the bench.
• Ibekwe, Jones and Strawberry have each been the team's leading scorer at least three times this season.
The Terps have made a renewed committment to defense in 2006-07. Maryland has forced its opponents into an average of 19.3 turnovers per game through the first ten games of the season.
• The Terps are yielding just 27.6 points in the first half and limiting the opposition to 36 percent shooting from the field. Maryland's opponents are shooting just 26 percent (58-of-220) from three-point range.
• The Terps are averaging 8.7 steals per game and have recorded 87 blocked shots through ten games.
Maryland enters Sunday's game ranked 22nd in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll and 23rd in the Associated Press Poll. The Terps made their season debut in both polls on November 20.
• Maryland has appeared in the AP Top 25 a total of 348 times. The Terrapins have placed in the AP Top 25 at least once in each of the last 14 seasons.
• The Terps have been ranked in the coaches poll 321 times. Maryland has placed in the coaches poll at least once in each of the last 14 seasons.
• The Terrapins are ranked fifth in the December 8 Sagarin Ratings.
• The Terps were named Team of the Week on November 20 by both Dick Vitale and Andy Katz.
