Shaky Sean Mosley: Should Maryland Bench Its Co-Captain?

Psychologically speaking, Sean Mosley seems to be a big part of the Maryland basketball team.  The 2008 Gatorade High School Player of the Year in Maryland was the Terps’ first blue-chip Baltimore recruiting score in more than a decade. 

On paper, the 6′4″ guard has a rugged, versatile game that screams “stat stuffer.”  On the court, he radiates poise, even wiseness, that belies his years.  It was this leadership and this potential that led him to be named Maryland co-captain for this year’s squad.

It is probably also the reason why it may be more difficult to squarely face Mosley’s chronic underachievement.  And not just this year either.  In my opinion, it’s not time to give up on Mosley, but it is time to identify his status with clear eyes.  Sean Mosley has to this point been trading on credit.  And it’s time for the bill to come due.  Might Mosley’s balance due include some time on the pine?  Yes.  I say yes.

As a sophomore last season, Mosley was fourth on the team in scoring behind a trio of talented seniors.  Fast forward to this year’s less-stable squad.  Cliff Tucker struggled out of the gate, and was relegated to the bench in the Terps’ 12th game of the year—a role in which he has remained and excelled ever since.  But a closer look at the numbers indicates that perhaps Mosley, not Tucker, was the better choice for the bench.

In the 11 games prior to Tucker’s benching, Mosley averaged seven points on 39 percent shooting, four rebounds, three assists and three turnovers in 25 minutes a game.  In that same span, Tucker averaged 11 points on 44 percent shooting, four  rebounds, three assists and two turnovers in 26 minutes a game.

So Tucker, a 6′6″ senior guard/forward, was both a more proficient and efficient scorer, a comparable boardman and a better ballhandler than Mosley, a 6′4″ junior guard.  And yet, benching Mosley didn’t even seem to be an option.  I didn’t read anybody (including myself, for whatever it’s worth) who said Sean, not Cliff, should have been the fall guy for Maryland’s early-season stumbles.

But hey, maybe the coaches and fans wanted to stick by the guard from Charm City, who has a famously low tolerance for insults, real and perceived, from the big state school.  Maybe a benching would not galvanize but rather obliterate with finality the last delicate strands of Mosley’s confidence.  Fair enough.

But at some point, it needs to be reiterated that Gary Williams is running a basketball team, not a therapy program or a diplomacy convention.  This is a team fighting for its postseason life.  At what point does the need to, you know, have your best five on the floor trump these legitimate, but ultimately ancillary, concerns?

I don’t know, but to this point Mosley has failed to capitalized on his second (third? seventh?) chance for success.  Since Tucker’s benching, Cliff has been on fire, throwing up 13 points on 47 percent shooting, four rebounds, three assists and one turnover in 26 minutes per game.  Mosley, meanwhile, seems to have contracted a touch of the Eeyore syndrome, moping and hanging his head en route to eight points on 46 percent shooting, four rebounds, two assists and two turnovers in 23 minutes per game.

To some extent, the writing here may already be on the wall.  In the Terps’ last four games, Mosley’s minutes have dipped to just 21 per contest, while Tucker’s have ballooned to 27.  So the question becomes a simple cost-benefit analysis.  Williams had the inclination to bench a senior in midseason for underperformance; is his refusal to bench a junior for same deleterious to team cohesion? 

Does that feed the myth among teammates that Mosley is more deserving (at least in the eyes of some) of touches than his statistics might indicate?  Or is this an unbroken situation that does not need fixing?  Has Williams hit on a way to motivate Tucker that he understands will not work on Mosley, hence his reluctance to reduce Mosley’s nominal role even as he very plainly draws down his playing time?

I don’t know anyone on this team, so all I can do is speculate.  But with that in mind, it might be a refreshing change to start those players who are most deserving—and most capable of getting your team to victory row.