There's often a point in a blowout when a coach on the wrong end of things makes a decision that all but acknowledges it's an unusual situation.
That point arose in Maryland's loss to Virginia Tech on Thursday with 12:19 to play in the second half.
The Terrapins trailed by 15 and were on their way to a 74-57 defeat. Adrian Bowie was just tagged with his fourth foul.
And seldom-used Mychal Parker scampered to the scorer's table.
Parker had played 48 minutes in Maryland's first 17 games. He had eight DNPs. He'd logged 24 minutes since the start of December.
And the freshman wound up collecting eight minutes while scoring two points and grabbing a rebound. While he was in, Maryland narrowed its deficit to eight points before fading in the final seven minutes.
"Sometimes you do that just to shake things up," coach Gary Williams said Friday. "I thought we were going along, not much excitement, just going along. When Mike got in the game, I knew immediately there would be a buzz in the crowd. You get that effect when you put a guy in like that. I thought Mike was fine. I thought he was poised out there. He certainly wasn't a negative out there on the court, that's for sure."
Hopefully, MP turns out like LaRon Profit did his freshman year - - from no PT to playing major minutes in February and leading us to the tourney. Thought that year was amazing.
Posted by: Little H | 01/21/2011 at 06:17 PM