There was a point midway through the second half of Maryland’s borderline noncompetitive 67-53 loss to top-ranked Purdue on Tuesday night when the whistle blew to stop play, a loose ball foul called in the wake of Jahmir Young’s latest three-point attempt bonking off the rim. The ball settled into the hands of Terrapins freshman Jamie Kaiser Jr., who did what shooters do, even if play was stopped: He let a little leaner roll off his fingers toward the rim.
Maryland
Perspective | Maryland men’s basketball has a fundamental problem
If Maryland is going to advance to the NCAA tournament in Coach Kevin Willard’s second season — and remember, it’s 2½ months till Selection Sunday, so anything can happen — it’s going to have to win tough Big Ten games to offset early-season losses to Davidson and UAB. (Yuck.)
But to win those games in a rigorous conference, the Terrapins are both going to have to grow up and flat-out shoot the ball better. In their first marquee home game of the season, they looked green and — and this is a major problem — couldn’t shoot straight.
“They looked a little nervous,” Willard said frankly, just outside the Terps’ locker room Tuesday night. “They played a little nervous. And that affects your shooting dramatically. Dramatically.
“You’re a little bit more amped up. You’re moving a little bit quicker. We have a couple guys who move a little slower when they’re nervous, and now they’re bobbling the ball. As a coach, sometimes you have to sit back and recognize that you have to wait. They have to go through it. You can’t tell them not to shoot it, because eventually they’re going to have to learn to shoot it.”
They have to learn, and quickly, because the Big Ten schedule comes at them fast, and they’re playing from behind: 9-5 overall, 1-2 in the league.
How to win going forward? You can move the ball effectively and efficiently. You can defend aggressively from baseline to baseline. You can play hard every second. But at some point, the ball has to go through the hoop.
For the Terps, it just hasn’t. Here are Maryland’s rankings nationally in some basic statistical categories before hosting Purdue: 227th in free throw percentage, 298th in field goal percentage and — get this — 335th in three-point percentage. After going 6 for 11 from the line, 21 for 63 from the floor and 5 for 22 from behind the arc against the Boilermakers, their percentage dropped in every category. The ugliness now: 69 percent from the line, 40.9 percent from the floor and an astonishing 27.2 percent from three.
Consider that most of that body of work wasn’t against Purdue and Indiana and UCLA but Rider and Coppin State and Nicholls State and Alcorn State, and it’s troubling. The shots the Terps will get Sunday at Minnesota and then against Michigan and then at Illinois and Northwestern — they’ll be more contested than those they got in November and December. They’re going to have to make more of them anyway.
Take Purdue as a contrast. Now, that’s not fair, because the Boilermakers have 7-foot-4 Zach Edey, a presence unmatched from coast to coast. But Purdue is the No. 1 team in the country because of its résumé — wins over Gonzaga, Tennessee, Marquette, Alabama and Arizona, a gantlet more difficult than an NCAA tournament run — as well as its roster, which is a scary combination of deep and experienced.
But the Boilermakers are also to be feared because they have multiple players who can perform the most fundamental task in the sport: shooting the basketball. Purdue entered the Maryland game boasting six players who make more than a third of their threes. The Boilermakers then knocked down 9 of 20 against the Terps. That’s lethal.
It’s easy to be wowed by Purdue’s exceptional ball movement, which frequently flows through Edey in the post, often multiple times in a single possession. It appears endless and almost always leads to an open shot. But open shots don’t make themselves. Someone’s got to knock them down.
So does good ball movement make better shooters? Or do the Boilermakers just have a bunch of marksmen around a dominant big man?
“It’s both,” Purdue Coach Matt Painter said. “I mean, you’ve got to have skill when you’re with someone like [Edey].”
Shooting is, of course, a skill. It should be coached and practiced, but there are also some players who just have it. Do the Terps have anyone who qualifies? Senior guard Jahmir Young, who returned to the lineup after battling an illness, can shoot, and at times he appears to be the Terps’ only offensive hope. In scoring 26 against Purdue, Young made 12 of 23 shots. The rest of the Terrapins went — close your eyes — 9 for 40. That’s 22.5 percent. That won’t cut it.
“We missed seven wide-open threes in the first half,” Willard said. “So I don’t know how much more we can do when you get a wide-open shot. I mean, I’ll try to put a play in to get a wide-, wide-, wide-open shot. Maybe that will help out.”
Facetiousness aside, the Terps’ season kind of hangs on this issue. Kaiser is a good example. He was recruited as — you guessed it — a shooter. “Jamie’s a great shooter,” Willard said. Yet after making 2 of 6 threes against Purdue, he’s 13 for 56 from deep on the year — 23.2 percent.
It can be a complex equation to get a skill that a player inherently has to come out when it actually matters.
“This is the first time he’s had to play defense,” Willard said. “The first time he’s had to box out, the first time he’s doing all this other stuff. Then you put the magnitude of the crowd at the games and playing against the number one team in the country for the first time in his career. Now he gets an open look. He just hasn’t been through it. You know, I can make a four-footer on the practice green all day long. When you put me in the member-guest, I’m missing it.”
It’s January. The Terps aren’t on the practice green. They’re not even in the member-guest. The tour schedule has started. They have to make those four-footers, some of the eight-footers and some bombs.
“We’ll definitely be a different team in February,” Willard said.
Trust him. But also know that for that to happen, someone — sorry, a few Terrapins — will have to start putting the ball in the basket more confidently and consistently. Basketball can be analyzed and broken down in all manner of ways. For the Terrapins, don’t overlook the most basic: Can they get the ball to go through the hoop?
One of the most unique ships featured in Sail250 Maryland and Airshow Baltimore can be found docked at the Baltimore Peninsula.
USS Marinette LCS25 is one of the most functional ships in the Navy fleet. At 370 feet long with 80 crew members, the ship has a helicopter landing pad and hangar, two rib boats in the belly of the vessel, and heavy artillery, including a cannon.
The ship has four engines, two of which are like jet engines, meaning it can sprint ahead of other vessels to intercept watercraft. It can also truck side to side and spin 360 degrees with controllable reversing and steering deflector buckets attached to the stern of the jet propulsion system. It can also traverse the littoral zones, water close to shore, and navigate waters as low as 15 feet deep.
“Where we shine is our ability to operate where other ships can’t,” said Cdr. Brian Sims, the ship’s executive officer. “For a 370-foot ship, one of the smallest in the fleet, it packs a punch. We can go 40 plus knots.”
The ship is used in counternarcotics missions primarily on the East Coast and in the Caribbean.
It is based in Jacksonville, Florida, but was built in Marinette, Wisconsin, which is where the ship gets its name. It began operating in 2023 and has yet to deploy. The ship can be out on the water for weeks or even months.
“We go out and find drug trafficking individuals and intercept, and the Coast Guard then takes over and arrests,” Sims said.
The pilot house is where the ship truly shines. An officer and junior officer monitor the radar and navigation, while another sailor sits at the helm and oversees steering the vessel and monitoring the engines.
“This is a very unique design for Navy ships,” Sims added.
The ship also hosts several heavy artillery pieces, including a cannon on the bow with different types of rounds to combat different threats. It can fire 220 rounds in a minute.
With its rich Naval history, Baltimore is playing host to some of the Navy’s finest, and the crews are equally as excited to be here in Maryland, the backbone of the Navy, celebrating 250 years of American history.
“Baltimore is a fantastic city, steeped in maritime tradition. Of course, we have Fort McHenry that we sailed past and rendered honors to when we arrived,” Sims said. “Having the ability to be in this role in this position on board this ship to celebrate the nation’s 250th, it’s an absolute honor, and one that, one that gives us all pause, and lets us reflect on where we’ve come as a nation.”
As Maryland families head into another hot summer, many are about to receive an unpleasant reminder of just how badly some state leaders failed to address Maryland’s growing energy problems this year.
Higher energy bills are not coming by accident. They are the predictable result of years of poor planning and a continued refusal by Democratic leadership in Annapolis to confront the real issue facing our state: Maryland does not produce enough electricity to meet its own growing energy needs.
Instead of seriously addressing that challenge during this year’s legislative session, Democratic leaders celebrated passage of the so-called Utility Relief Act (House Bill 1532), which offers Marylanders roughly $12 in savings per month. At a time when families are facing soaring energy costs driven by a massive shortage of reliable in-state power generation, that is not meaningful relief. It is a political talking point designed to avoid the larger conversation Maryland desperately needs to have.
Our state imports nearly half of the electricity it uses. Nearly half of the power keeping homes cool, businesses operating and communities functioning every day comes from outside our borders. Yet even as demand for electricity continues to rise, Maryland continues falling behind on building the reliable generation capacity needed to support our future.
That is not a serious long-term strategy.
Families across Maryland are already struggling with inflation, rising housing costs and economic uncertainty. Energy bills are becoming another major financial burden for working families, seniors and small businesses. But instead of focusing on increasing reliable power supply, meaning fully lowering consumer costs, and strengthening Maryland’s long-term energy security, Annapolis continues offering temporary fixes that fail to address the underlying problem.
The reality is simple: Maryland needs more power generation, and every responsible energy source should be part of the conversation. Natural gas, nuclear, renewables, battery storage, clean coal and emerging technologies all have a role to play in creating a more reliable and affordable energy future for our state.
Maryland also needs a broader conversation about the role experienced infrastructure providers and utilities can play in strengthening reliability and supporting future generation needs. These are organizations that already manage the systems Marylanders depend on every day and understand the long-term planning required to maintain dependable service.
Reliable and affordable energy is not a partisan issue. It is a basic requirement for economic growth, business investment and everyday quality of life.
As summer begins and air conditioners start running around the clock, Maryland families will once again be reminded that energy policy decisions made in Annapolis have real world consequences.
Unfortunately, they are paying for those consequences every month.
Del. Jason Buckel is the Minority Leader of the Maryland House of Delegates and represents Allegany County in the Maryland General Assembly.
MARYLAND (WBFF) — A group of Republican candidates, a voter, and an election-integrity organization are asking an Anne Arundel County Circuit Court judge to stop the state from certifying primary election results until election officials contact every voter whose original ballot was rejected and allow them to correct the problem.
The lawsuit, filed in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court against the Maryland State Board of Elections, comes a month after state election officials acknowledged that some Maryland voters were mistakenly mailed ballots for the wrong political party and sent replacement ballots to affected voters.
The ballot error affected voters who requested physical mail-in ballots for the June 23 primaries.
The Maryland State Board of Elections said its vendor, Taylor Print and Visual Impressions Inc. (TPVI), mailed some of the voters’ ballots for the wrong political party, but the administrator said the board’s vendor couldn’t identify which voters received erroneous ballots. Over 500,000 Maryland voters had requested mail-in ballots, most of them in Montgomery, Baltimore, Anne Arundel and Prince George’s counties, and Baltimore City.
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