Rutgers comes to College Park this weekend, although you’d be forgiven for not noticing the sudden spike in frosted and spiked tips (heyo New Jersey joke!). While this might have been a marquee matchup about two or three years ago, both Rutgers and Maryland are programs that are basically in the same place: mired in mediocrity in two conferences that have, by and large, fallen off the radar as far as national contenders go. That aside, the important question going into Saturday’s game against the Scarlet Knights is whether this game means much of anything to either program.
Both Maryland and Rutgers got demolished in the first week by top 25 opponents, and then faced cupcakes the next two weeks (with Rutgers coming out 2-0 while the Terps only managed 1-1). Both teams begin serious conference play next weekend. And there is a serious argument that this game doesn’t matter much to either team.
To wit, Maryland is 1-2 and heads into an ACC schedule that is entirely up for grabs as far as the Atlantic Division goes, but is clearly nobody’s favorite to win. Rutgers heads into Big East play chasing a Cincinnati team that has jumped out to be the class of the Big East. Thus, neither team can be considered a serious contender for their respective conference championships. However, the fanbase for each cares far more about conference games than non-conference games. But, both teams could desperately use a win to seriously set themselves up for those conference games.
Long story short, there are a lot of convergent story lines coming into Saturday’s game, and the big question is whether or not the matchup matters very much to either team. For the Terps, a win would go a long way to salvaging the fanbase’s feelings following a disappointing start, but it won’t affect their conference goals in the slightest. So, when you’re watching Saturday’s game, you’ll be able to figure out whether this Terps team thinks the game is a gut check game or a whatever game pretty quickly: If they are getting after it, you can start to believe in this team again. If not, Basketball season is on it’s way.
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Oh God. Please don’t be a “Whatever” game. I am more interested in seeing this team in a bowl than how they do in Conference play, and I think 6 wins is more realistic than making noise in the Division. You also never know how these games affect recruiting, but if they do, NJ is some prime recruiting ground and this could provide some leverage for us going in there.
Who knows how the team will react, but I’m pretty desperate for a win!! So I hope they are too.
You and me both