I’ve loved my time at Terrapin Station, and especially at Fansided. When I started this site about a year and a half ago, I never imagined it would grow to what it is now. Fansided and the people behind have been great to me, and it has been a pleasure to be a part of the growing process for this network, and I look forward to continue watching it grow with the great talent they have been bringing in.

Taking over for me as the lead is Zack Ward, one of our staff writers. I can not speak highly enough of Zack, and I’m sure he’ll take TS to higher places than I could have ever dreamed. It’s been a great year and a half, and I’m happy that all of you were here to see me through it. Thanks again, and I hope to see some of you over at TT. I’m sure Zack will do a fantastic job, so let’s all give him a nice warm welcome.

Image from Getty Images.

The problems that have haunted Maryland’s basketball team all year were back in full force tonight, as the Terps played an incredibly sloppy game at the Palestra in Philadelphia, losing 73-60 to the Temple Owls.

The Terps were able to somehow keep it close despite committing 16 turnovers, but back-breaking three after back-breaking three from the Owls down the stretch eventually sealed it for Temple.

Without Terrell Stoglin, this game would have been a blowout for…well for almost all of it, it’s safe to say. The sophomore scored 20 points, hitting three key three pointers, and once again single-handedly kept Maryland in the game. The Terps did receive some secondary scoring help from Pe’Shon Howard (15 points) and James Padgett (ten points), but it wasn’t enough to overcome the 1:2 assist-to-turnover ratio.

Maryland struggled from the free throw line again, making 12 of their 21 attempts. Take away Stoglin’s five of six, and it looks even worse.

Temple’s balanced attack continued to pound on Maryland, and as the game went on whenever the Terps started to make a run one of the Owls’ guards would hit a well-timed three. Ramone Brown and Khalif Wyatt each scored 20 with two three pointers a piece, Juan Fernandez had 14 and was 3-3 from beyond the arc, and Aaron Brown scored ten points off the bench with two three pointers.

Perhaps the biggest story for Maryland on the day was an injury suffered to Alex Len early on in the first half. The Ukrainian big man appeared to sprain his ankle, and did not return to the game. Instead, he sat on the bench with a giant bag of ice on his ankle, which is a semi-good sign – if it was anything serious, one would think he would have been in the training room (or the hospital).

Sean Mosley and Nick Faust were both awful from the field, shooting a combined 1-12, but both had their usual contributions to other facets of the game. Mosley had a game-high ten rebounds and had two steals, while Faust had four rebounds, a team-high four assists, and was the only Terp besides Berend Weijs not to commit a turnover.

It was a very sloppy game for Maryland, and one that they should have lost by quite a bit more. The Terps now have a few days off before a Wednesday night home showdown against Duke.

Fansided continues to grow, and with it grows our ACC Network. We’re now up to five blogs in the conference, and are continuing our recruiting effort to complete the network. Four of us (our Miami blog, Canes Warning, wasn’t able to join us this time around) sat down for Fansided’s inaugural ACC roundtable, where the subject was men’s basketball.

What’s the current state of your school’s men’s basketball program?

Terrapin Station: In limbo? After Gary Williams retired last year, Maryland hired Mark Turgeon, and he’s continued the tradition of doing a lot with not much. Coming into this season, Maryland fans were not expecting much. Jordan Williams was gone, as were Adrian Bowie, Dino Gregory and Cliff Tucker. There were limited pieces returning, especially inside, and most Terps fans were expecting a rough year.

Trying not to think too hard about Tuesday’s beatdown at the hands of Florida State, that hasn’t been the case. Maryland stands at 12-5 right now, 2-2 in the conference, and Turgeon has done wonders with Terrell Stoglin and James Padgett, among others. No one is expecting the Terps to make the tournament, but with the retention of Baltimore super-recruiter Bino Ranson and the addition of his D.C. counterpart Dalonte Hill, there is a whole ton of optimism surrounding the future of this program.

Soaring to Glory: Bad but getting better. Boston College has a roster of almost two-thirds freshmen, and it shows. When the season began, they were clearly out of their element and in general, it’s not hard to notice that they’re thin/non-muscular/not very strong. As a result, during non-conference play, the Eagles were getting railroaded nightly by such fine teams as UMass and Holy Cross. A few fans were manning the lifeboats and declaring the whole freshman class a bust.

In the last few weeks, however, BC appears to have turned a corner. At the end of non-conference play it was more good than bad, and they have represented themselves well so far with a 2-2 ACC record. The talk of us being the worst ACC team of all-time is not true, and I think BC will most likely win again at some point this season.

Keeping It Heel (UNC): The Carolina state of the union right now is in disarray. A lot of overreaction and under appreciation is being slung the Tar Heels way. The reality is UNC is fine, we have some adjustments to make but we’re one of the top 3 teams in college hoops when it comes to talent. It’s championship or bust with this group of players who for the most part will grace the NBA Hardwood soon.

Big Duke Balls (Duke): It is in pretty good shape for the most part. Although the Blue Devils have lost key players such as Nolan Smith, Kyle Singler, and Kyrie Irving, those guys are being made up for by freshman sensation Austin Rivers, fellow freshman Quinn Cook, Seth Curry, and Ryan Kelly. Curry and Kelly are getting more playing time this year and I think they’re doing just fine as starters.

The Dukies also just recently jumped up four places in the polls (from #8 to #4). But, there is plenty of room for improvement though, especially on defense. More on that later.

Image from Scout.

Signing Day is February 1, and with that in mind we’re going to take a look at all of Maryland’s commitments for the 2012 football class, in order of when they committed. We start today with Mike Madaras.

Madaras File:

Name: Mike Madaras

Height: 6’6″

Weight: 280

Position: Offensive Tackle

40-yard Dash Time: 4.8 seconds

School: Good Counsel (Olney, Md.)

2011 Stats: N/A

Ratings: Three stars, #8 in Maryland, #39 OT by Rivals; three stars, #22 OG by Scout; four stars, #4 in Maryland, #20 OT by ESPN; four stars, #11 in Maryland, #40 OT by 24/7

Other Offers: Duke, Georgia Tech, Michigan, Mississippi State, North Carolina State, Ohio, Pittsburgh, Purdue, Rutgers, South Carolina, Stanford, UCF, Virginia Tech, West Virginia, Wisconsin

After the jump, a highlight video and some analysis.

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Image from warchant.com.

Two fringe tournament contenders entered Tuesday night’s contest between Maryland and Florida State in Tallahassee. One emerged superior, as the Seminoles demolished the Terrapins in a superb display of inside basketball, winning 84-70.

Ageless wonder Bernard James dominated on the inside, scoring 17 points with six rebounds, to go along with three steals and two blocks on the defensive end. That helped set up opportunities for guards Michael Snaer and Ian Miller, who had 19 and 18 points, respectively, and a combined six steals.

Maryland turned the ball over 16 teams, in large part due to Florida State’s excellent interior defense. Ten of those sixteen were straight steals for FSU, and the Seminoles were effective in forcing Maryland to play their game.

The Seminoles were also helped by some awful officiating, which made some purely awful foul calls and some puzzling possession ones. That’s not to take anything away from them – they looked like a complete basketball team.

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Image from wsufootballblog.com.

Maryland will hire former Houston defensive coordinator Brian Stewart to replace Todd Bradford, BTN’s Tom Dienhart is reporting.

Stewart, 47, oversaw a transformation with the Cougars that saw them go from 111th in total defense and 95th in scoring defense in the year before he arrived to 62nd and 35th two years later, as he departs. His teams had strong passing defenses and forced turnovers, and Houston had one of the better defenses in the Conference-USA this past year.

In terms of recruiting, don’t expect much. Stewart brought in one three-star recruit last year, and that’s it. Before Houston, he jumped around the NFL for eight years, first as an assistant defensive backs coach with the Texans, and eventually as the defensive coordinator for the Cowboys for two years. During his time with the ‘Boys, he coached two top-ten defenses (in total defense), had five Pro Bowl selections on his unit in 2007, and the team led the league in sacks with 59 in 2008.

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Image from the Sun.

It wasn’t pretty. The two teams combined for more turnovers than field goals made in the first half, and combined to shoot 33.6% from the floor over the course of the game. But in the end, Maryland was the better team, and it showed in the Terps’ 61-50 win over the visiting Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets Sunday afternoon.

Sean Mosley, James Padgett and Nick Faust all had arguably their best games of the year, leading the Terps to victory. Mosley had a game-high 18 points, including a huge three pointer towards the end of the game to give Maryland a seven-point lead, and had five rebounds with two assists. The senior made all ten of his free throws, and the team shot an extremely-improved 82.6% from the line.

While Padgett still had a pretty poor percentage from the field (4-10), he made more shots than usual and made six of his seven free throw attempts, finishing with 14 points and nine rebounds (seven offensive, naturally). He made up for poor performances from fellow big men Alex Len and Ashton Pankey, who combined for two points and eight fouls.

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Image from the AP.

After coming off the bench against Wake Forest in Maryland’s ACC home opener, reportedly due to some minor disciplinary issues, Terrell Stoglin may be out of the starting lineup again in Sunday’s contest against Georgia Tech – this time due to an aching back.

Stoglin, who is averaging a conference-high 21.3 points per game this year, came off the bench to score a team-high twenty in Wednesday’s win over the Demon Deacons. Coach Mark Turgeon said he is “100 percent sure” Stoglin will play Sunday; they’re just not sure whether he’ll be able to start.

We’ll be sure to keep you posted on his status entering Sunday’s game.

Maryland has reportedly bought out defensive coordinator Todd Bradford’s contract, making way for another new hire in College Park.

Bradford was guaranteed $350,000 a year, and the terms of the buyout are not yet known. His defense in his first year at Maryland was statistically the worst in the ACC.

This was an expected move, and three candidates have been talked about as likely replacements for Bradford – Rob Vanderlinden, Larry Johnson Sr., and Randy Shannon. Vanderlinden and Johnson have both said they will stay on Penn State’s coaching staff, and Shannon looks likely to head to Tennessee, so at this point it’s a large unknown for Maryland.

Regardless, it’s hard to imagine anyone doing a worse job than Bradford did – moving Kenny Tate to linebacker and showing a complete ineptitude when it came to defensive playcalling.

We’ll keep you updated on the coaching search.

Image from the Post.

All Hail Locksley.

After getting a commitment from four-star running back Wes Brown at the Under Armour All-American game, the “keep local talent local” movement is continuing, as Maryland picked up a commitment from three/four-star running back/athlete Albert Reid, from Friendship Collegiate Academy in DC.

Reid, who stands at 5’11″ and 195 pounds, was previously a West Virginia commit who only recently decommitted and was not considering the Terps at all – until they hired new offensive coordinator Mike Locksley. Now, Maryland has added one of the best athletes in the DC area, and he will either provide a speed back to Brown’s power game or additional depth at cornerback.

Reid is rated as a three-star athlete by Rivals, and the third best player in the District. Scout rates him as a four-star running back (the 25th-best back in the country), and ESPN ranks him as a four-star athlete.

Just like Wes Brown’s commitment was important with Maryland’s status of a five-star teammate (Stefon Diggs), Reid has a superstar teammate of his own – defensive tackle Eddie Goldman (and 2014 stud Jalen Tabor, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves). Goldman is the second-best player in the country according to Rivals, and the Terps’ stock with him reportedly continues to rise. He would be a program-changing get (as would Diggs), and getting commitments from teammates can only help.

Let’s look at some tape of Reid after the jump:

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