Whither Sugar?

Rather than a resume comparison today, how about doing a blind taste test for two players.

Player A	Category	Player B
13.0	Points	7.6
4.7	Rebounds	6.2
3.0	Assists	2.6
1.4	Steals	1.7
0.5	Blocks	0.3
.557	FG%	.404
.444	3FG%	.333
.776	FT%	.714
27.4	Minutes	25.7

Player A has the advantages in just about everything other than rebounds and steals.

Player A definitely has the edge in anything on the offensive end of the court.

Of course, Player A is Sean Mosley against nonconference opponents, and Player B is Mosley in conference play.

In the first half of the season, Mosley was Maryland's breakout player, and for the first month of the season he was better than Greivis Vasquez.

So why exactly is he averaging 6.2 points in five conference road games and suddenly prone to ultra-quiet nights?

"Teams know you better," coach Gary Williams said. "We know the other teams better in conference play. Most of the teams you play in conference play you play twice, and even the ones you play once, you see a bit more than some of the teams you play in December."

So that's a baseline reason.

But other guys have adapted to conference play with aplomb. Vasquez is better against league foes, and the likes of Eric Hayes, Jordan Williams and Cliff Tucker have done about the same regardless of the competition.

Not so with Mosley.

"Sean gives you a lot of things besides the scoring, so hopefully that's there when that's there," Gary Williams said. "You want points from everybody, but the way to win games is to have five guys really going hard. Points seems like they come in those situations. Hopefully for Sean the points will be there. He can't let that affect other parts of his game. He's got to keep playing defense, keep rebound, keep doing all those things. Then if the points are there, they're there."

For the most part, the rebounds have remained part of Mosley's game, though yesterday was not a particularly welcome outing for the sophomore. And while steals aren't the best measure of defense, Mosley is at least picking off passes as much as usual.

The scoring, though, is a remarkable decline. Mosley hasn't found as many open shots in the last month or so, and Maryland has mostly overcome that.

Nevertheless, Gary Williams wouldn't say no to an offensive revival from the Baltimore product. After all, steals and rebounds are nice, but no one will argue with a larger output of points, either.