While sitting courtside during Wednesday's rout of Savannah State, a couple reporters wondered just what was the matter with Jerome Burney.

Walk-ons Jason McAlpin and David Pearman had both checked in, and Burney still languished at the end of the bench. But he eventually ambled over to the scorer's table and, with 2:11 to play, and replaced junior Dave Neal.

I couldn't find Burney in the locker room after the game, so I didn't get to ask him about this. And to be honest, there were about eight people I needed to talk to in there and a deadline to meet once I made it back to the floor to write, so he very well might have popped up at some point.

Still, the athletic redshirt freshman seems to have been passed by Shane Walker at the end of Maryland's frontcourt rotation. Burney is averaging 1.2 points in 5.7 minutes while playing in 10 of the Terps' 14 games.

Coach Gary Williams didn't seem to think anything was out of the ordinary when I asked about Burney yesterday.

"He's played OK," Williams said. "He makes a great play every once in a while. We'd like him to get more consistent with what he does. He's trying, and that's all you can ask out of anyone."

Right now, the Terps desperately need more than just "OK" and probably won't have the luxury of any more favorable blowout conditions to clear their bench --- which means as the frontcourt rotation inevitably shrinks from its unwieldy present form (more on that in tomorrow's print edition), so too could Burney's opportunities to play.

--- Patrick Stevens