So the Deacs play Maryland on Thursday in the first round of the ACC Tournament. Will the Deacs be able to make a miracle run? (Spoiler alert: no). Regardless of that, the game against the Terps is probably at least a winnable one. The last time the teams played, the Terps only won by six on their home court with an absolutely ATROCIOUS free throw differential (37 to 13 attempts in favor of the Terps). The bad news for the Deacs is that the now-gone Ty Walker had a substantial role in the first meeting (32 minutes, eigh points, nine rebounds, and an ABSURD 8 blocks). The other bad news is that the Deacs are going to need to deal with the ACC's leading scorer, Terrell Stoglin, who's the subject of this piece.
Read more about this remarkable player after the jump...
HEIGHT/WEIGHT: 6'1/185Good news for us, Stoglin is not big. At all. I'm pretty sure he might actually be the smallest guard Wake has dealt with in the ACC all year.
PPG: 21.2
Like I said, he's the league's leading scorer. However, it's important to note that Stoglin takes 16.6 shots per game. That is an insane number of shots. I guarantee you if C.J. Harris took that number of shots he would be scoring more.
eFG%: 48.7
This stat is a bit of a mixed bag. On the one hand, that's far from a great percentage, especially since threes count twice as much in this stat. However, for a guy like Stoglin who takes 37.9 percent of the team's shots when he's on the floor, which is literally third most in the country, that percentage is obviously going to go down as a natural function of taking more shots. So really, Stoglin is a good shooter who has stretches of being great, but he also has stretches of being atrocious in terms of percentages. For reference, in his last five games, Stoglin hasn't shot better than 35 percent from the field.
FREE THROWS: 77.7 (on 6.4 attempts per game)
Yeah, this guy gets to the line a LOT, and scores a lot there too. That might help to explain where all the points come from despite the iffy shooting percentages.
RPG: 3.4
He rebounds about as much as C.J. Harris. Then again, for a guy his size, it's hardly surprising.
SPG: 0.6
Wow, not active hands at all for Stogs (as he is known by the Terrapin faithful). This surprised me a little. Not that I'm the kind of guy who should tell anyone how to play basketball, but you'd think that with his size, speed, skill, and position, he'd be more likely to pick someone's pocket on the court.
THREE POINT SHOOTING: 37.7 percent (on 7.3 attempts per game)
WOW, Stoglin shoots from deep a lot. The fact that he hits nearly 40 percent at that volume is pretty crazy, but having said that, in the last five games, he's also had percentages of 25 percent on eight shots and 16.7 percent on six shots, so he's also capable of having bad games from deep as well.
APG: 1.9 (to 2.3 turnovers)
Stoglin isn't a good passer. This isn't particularly surprising given the number of shots he takes, but it's still worth noting.
STOGLIN AGAINST WAKE THE FIRST TIME: 20 points (6-18, 2-9, 6-8), two rebounds, no assists, three turnovers
As 20-point games go, Stoglin's was rather underwhelming, which is good. It seems to me like we did a pretty strong job of defending Stoglin (and the entirety of the Terps for that matter) the first time. The extremely bad news is, again, we don't have the inside presence of Ty Walker anymore.
KenPom (a.k.a. SkyNet) has Maryland winning, but only by five, and only with 65 percent certainty. I said it earlier and I'll say it again, I think we can handle them. I'll say Wake 66-61 behind powerful performances from C.J. Harris, Travis McKie and the continually surging Carson Desrosiers.
As always, questions/comments etc. always appreciated.
Go Deacs.