Oct. 27, 2007
COLLEGE PARK, Md. - The University of Maryland men's basketball team held its third and final public scrimmage on Saturday (October 27) at Comcast Center. Head coach Gary Williams interchanged players between the red and black teams during the 40 minute scrimmage as the teams combined for 111 points and shot 40 percent from beyond the three-point line.
Sophomore Greivis Vasquez led all scorers with 27 points as he went 11 of 19 from the field including a four of six performance from beyond the arc. Vasquez was on the winning team in all four of the quarters played and added a game-high four assists.
Seniors James Gist and Bambale Osby both recorded double-doubles during the scrimmage as they each notched 15 points and 13 rebounds. Five of Gist's boards came off the offensive glass.
Sophomore Eric Hayes also scored 15 points on six of 10 shooting to go along with four assists and classmate Landon Milbourne added 10 points.
The Terps play in their first exhibition game on November 7 when they host Concordia University at 8:00 p.m. at Comcast Center.
Head Coach Gary Williams
On leadership roles on the team ...
"There's a fine line with having enough patience to handle the new guys and not letting them feel sorry for themselves because they are freshman and everything is new. That's where having a good group of players returning, which we do, that can help those guys and make them understand where they have to get to in order for them to play against the better teams that we play against."
On Landon Milbourne ...
"He is certainly good enough to play. It's a matter of him being able to play a small forward/guard position. That's they key for him. He was a high school forward/center really and now he's making the change to more of a guard type player. He's getting better. It's not going to happen overnight but he's getting better."
On the leadership of James Gist ...
"It's a veteran players' team. Obviously James is a senior and he's probably played the most minutes of any player here. But we need all of our returning players to be leaders. When you're in the back court like Eric (Hayes) and Greivis (Vasquez) playing ball handling positions, you have to be a leader. I don't care if you're a freshman or a senior. Those two guys are going to have to provide leadership. I think they are both capable. They do it in different ways, but they are both capable."
On where the team is defensively ...
"Not where we want to be, but that's the latest to come. Defense is a day-to-day thing that you gradually get better at. You don't know when you get good. All of the sudden you play somebody that's good and you shut them down so you know you're good. Offensively, you can put in a play and in two days run it pretty well. You can't do that with team defense. It takes a while for players to get used to each other, what they can do, and what they're supposed to do. There are a lot of things defensively that you have to do, just like running a good play on offense. Its repetition, so the more days you go the better you get defensively."
