The N.C. State Comeback/NCAA Hopes:That’s What I’M Talking About

February 18th, 2010 by bijanbayne

Three ACC basketball games in five days would be challenging for the best of teams, and the Maryland men, for all the survival skills they have displayed since Snowmaggedon, are not Kansas, Dorothy. We aren’t Kentucky either. That said, the guys overcame lethargic first half offense, porous interior defense (not on Wolfpack scoring leader Tracy Smith, but Dennis Horner, whom they made look like the next Kevin Love, if not Kevin Garnett), and sloppy passing, to defeat N.C. State 67-58. We’ll take an ugly victory within the overall cosmetics a 20-21 win campaign would present as an NCAA selection resume. And it got all kinds of ugly. Players who shouldn’t be shooting three pointers in practice were heaving ‘em from the locker room. The bigs failed miserably at boxing out opposing rebounders. No one had a clue as to how to contain Horner, who totaled 19 points and 10 boards. State was up 37-27 at the break, and prospects looked dim for Gary’s charges. Sidney Lowe’s ‘pack still led 51-45 with 9:53 showing on the game clock. More importantly, the Raleigh home team had scored on successive breakaways by Scott Wood that fired up the student body. Then Maryland’s defense improved,  and ‘pack shooters went cold, resulting in a six minute scoreless drought. While this was occurring, Adrian Bowie stepped into Maryland’s x factor, “who-will-support-Greivis Vasquez-as-a-second- scorer-tonight?” void by nailing timely jumpers from distance. That’s the mark of an upperclassmen. It is this very role, and its lack of a consistent actor, that could limit the Terrapins to an one-and-out NCAA appearance. Last night, it was Eric Hayes who was too quiet for too long. Young Jordan Williams is to be commended for his 19 points and 11 rebounds, though he was part of the clique that had no defensive answer for Horner for 30 minutes. We got outrebounded 41-39.

As the momentum was shifting, Vazquez lifted his mates on his shoulders. He had 17 after intermission. Big time players meet crunch moments.

See, at this point in the season, the more the Terps pad their W-L mark, the higher seed they’ll draw if chosen to participate in the Madness that is March. More importantly, in this grueling stretch of schedule, AKA “Climate Change Hits College Park”, triumph over obstacles builds character. Dunno if Coach Williams can endure much more of this, but the bottom line is all that counts. It took some time outs to dig out from the trouble, but hey, the Metro area has yet to dig itself out from back-to-back blizzards either.

Georgia Tech comes to Comcast on Saturday, the final game of the turbulent trifecta.

18-7 overall, 8-3 in the conference. Limiting Tracy Smith to eight shots. A tired team playing a game in which the last 10 minutes displayed their mettle and patience. A go-to guard who can lead under duress. As scary as it was to watch, Terp fans enjoy stories with happy endings.

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All records are not equal

February 17th, 2010 by Matt

Too many basketball pundits and fans take as self evident that all league records are equal. In the post expansion era of ACC basketball nothing could be further from the truth and to evaluate a team you have to look at who they played and where they played them.  Here is a breakdown of the opponent’s conference records as they stand right now for ACC teams:

ACC games only Record Opponent’s W-L record Opponent’s Win. %
Duke 9-2 82-94 0.466
Virginia Tech 8-3 74-101 0.422
Maryland 7-3 87-89 0.494
Wake Forest 8-4 77-98 0.440
Clemson 6-5 91-85 0.517
FSU 6-5 85-91 0.482
Georgia Tech 6-6 92-84 0.522
Virginia 5-5 89-88 0.502
Miami 3-8 93-83 0.528
UNC 3-8 96-82 0.539
Boston College 3-8 95-81 0.539
N.C. State 2-9 95-80 0.542

Duke suffers in this analysis because they don’t have the opportunity to play themselves and it makes their schedule appear less impressive. In a similar manner it would make sense that some teams at the bottom have their numbers inflated because they don’t have the chance to play themselves and drag their schedule down. It is obvious that Wake Forest and particularly Virginia Tech have the records they do because they play the easiest schedules in the league by a wide margin. The Hokies sitting at 8-3 are probably the best example of the unbalanced schedule helping a team to a record that probably doesn’t reflect their true quality. Virginia Tech doesn’t play a home-and-home with a single team in the top six of the conference standings an unbelievable stroke of luck for a team that had a weak non-conference slate and didn’t have a single noteworthy win coming into conference play. Furthermore the Hokies get home games for the only meeting of the season against three of the top four opponents in the current standings. It isn’t much mystery that the Hokies are 8-3 after playing six home games. They have failed to prove themselves capable of winning on the road with their best win coming in overtime against a slumping Virginia squad. They have already lost on the road to UNC and Miami who are a combined 6-16 in league play yet the record of the road opponents in league play is a horrendous 37-51. They have two legitimate road test left on their schedule at Duke and Georgia Tech so it will be worth watching how Virginia Tech performs in those venues. Wake Forest also has reason to be grateful to the schedule maker as their record is only slightly easier than the Hokies. The Deacons only face Duke, Maryland, Virginia Tech, Clemson and Florida State once but do have a tougher road schedule than Virginia Tech. There isn’t much the league can do about the scheduling since expansion had nothing to do with what was best for basketball. The ACC should change the tie breaking procedure for the ACC tournament seeding. A team should not win the tiebreaker for beating their opponent only once on their home floor. Instead the higher seed should be given to the team with the better record against opponents who finished higher in the league standings. If two teams were tied and one beat the other on the road in the only meeting of the season then I could see giving the team that won a tiebreaker on that basis.

It has become clear since expansion that ACC basketball has not been the same as when every team had an equal schedule. Their are still great teams and great programs but a winning league record used to be proof a team had a good season in the ACC, not so any longer. It probably makes the ACC tournament even more significant than in past years. At least there all the teams are on a level playing field, though I’m sure Gary Williams would disagree with that assessment in Greensboro.

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Terps Recoup By Swamping Cavs

February 16th, 2010 by bijanbayne

As previously stated here, one of the keys to the Maryland men obtaining an NCAA Tournament bid is to consistently defeat the schools they are “supposed” to beat. Last night, the team rebounded from a humbling loss to Duke by trouncing Virginia 85-66. Per usual, Greivis Vasquez took charge of things, netting 25 points before intermission. Why is this trend so important? Numbers. Despite factors such as strength of schedule and RPI Rating, tourney selectors will also take into account overall record and strength of conference. If a slew of ACC teams get in by association, the Terps need only amass about 20-21 victories to make a strong, if not inarguable case for themselves come Selection Sunday. They’re already 17-7. To relieve the pressure even moreso, they could pick up a couple wins in ACC Tourney play (in other words, win a couple of three more regular season contests, then survive a round or two on Tobacco Road to reach a magic 21 victories).

That’s doable. This is not to suggest Gary, Greivis & Co. tank the biggies vs. the Duke’s and Clemson’s (they face the former on March 3 at home, the latter on Feb. 24, also at Comcast). The better they fare against top comp, the better their chances with the selection committee. Their 7-3 conference mark could stand some fattening. A sweep of their next two contests vs. N.C. State (in Raleigh) and tough Georgia Tech (here) would go a long way towards a jubilant Selection Show. Lotta high fives, hugs all around, ‘nother tourney for Gary. Nice going away party (NBA audition?) for Greivis. More valuable experience for the underclassmen.

You get the picture.

Trouble is, those games all take place between now and Saturday, and the guys just ran last night! Killer schedule. But as we approach the Madness that is March, it’s not about excuses, it’s about creds. If the Terps buck up and get her done, there’ll be a lot of happy faces around College Park in a month. Any subpar performances against the teams from the middle or bottom of the pack could shorten the season.

High points from last night? Maryland shot 70% the first 20 minutes (Vazquez was 10-13 at the break). The ‘hoos were only allowing 61 ppg., stingiest in the ACC, and the Terps had 52 at halftime. Jordan Williams snared 11 boards. And it was their sixth straight home win, a confidence booster, and deterrent to future visitors. This could get interesting, and mentally, the team appears to have put the Duke debacle behind them.

Short memories are good memories.

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Time to Move On

February 15th, 2010 by bobwevodau

I get a little tired of how caught up we all get with beating Duke.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not pointing fingers, because I myself at times can be as guilty as anyone else.  But we have to start treating Duke just like any other game.  I knew it was a bad sign when we were playing UNC and the fans started chanting “We want Duke”.  That in itself drives me nuts, but when you consider that we still had a huge game against UVA prior to playing Duke, it’s enough to make me yell at the TV.  Does the Duke game count more in the win column than a win over UVA?  Of course not.  Does it look better on our resume?  We’ll sure, but so does finishing in the top three in the ACC.  This is a year where we just have to handle our business and we’ll be fine come selection time, not a year where we need that one “Hey look what we were able to do one night when we finally got our @$#@ together!” win and hope that’s enough to get us in.  But I’m not here to dwell on over optimistic chants or what happened in Durham because truth be told, there is no time to dwell.  We need to move on or pack it up.

Now I don’t doubt that this team can do just that.  After all we have a lot of experience in some key positions and these guys should know how to shake off bad losses, but this week is going to go far in determining just how we are going to finish up in the ACC.  If you stretch the week back to Saturday, we have Duke, UVA, @ NC State, and then Georgia Tech.  That is a lot of games back to back.  To hit some sort of skid at this point would be disastrous because when you think about it, we are going to play 1/4 of the ACC schedule over this week.

As I mention the good news is that we have experience, and we also have the remaining two of those three at Comcast, with the one road game against a very pedestrian NC State team.  But starting tonight against UVA we are going to see how this team responds. They come out strong and play well, then all order is restored, and the Duke debacle becomes just another game (like the Clemson loss).  We will still have a shot at winning the Conference and with Duke having to travel through Comcast one more time, there is nothing to panic over.  But if we lose tonight against UVA then the Duke loss becomes a turning point.

Now the bad news is, I think both Clemson and Duke have shown how you go about beating Maryland.  You don’t slack off, you stay in their faces on defense and you force the turnovers.  I mean it wasn’t hard to see the similarities in the Clemson and Duke losses, so that is something we are going to have to address, but when we’ll have time to address it is beyond me.  The other bad news is that if the game in Durham did trigger a sort of shame spiral, well it couldn’t have come at a worse time.  Like I said above, we are playing a quarter of the season in this one week alone so getting into a funk now can quickly wash away whatever we have accomplished to this point.

Personally I think we bounce back and continue to make a run at the Conference Title.  After all, UVA is facing the same schedule we are, so it isn’t like they are going to be rested up while we play tired.  We also have the leadership in place to move on, and I’m sure Gary will have them ready as well, but what probably helps the most is that we are in Comcast tonight.  We need a rowdy crowd who cares as much about beating UVA as they do Duke.  And if we can play a solid game, then we will be fine and the team will have showed that they have a short memory, and having a short memory is always good when you play in the ACC, especially when you have 4 games in 8 days.

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ACC Mid-Season Awards

February 14th, 2010 by dtucker

As we pass the mid-way point of the ACC season, Charlie Sallwasser, who writes on the UVA blog, polled all of the Raycom ACC bloggers and came up with some mid-season awards for the ACC. Here are the results, which I’ll provide some comments on.

All-ACC:
(two points for a first team vote, one point for a second team vote)
G Greivis Vasquez (Maryland) (15 points, 5 first team votes, named on 10/11 ballots) – Was a 1st team ACC player for me.
G Jon Scheyer (Duke) (22 points, 11 first team votes, named on 11/11) – Also a first team All-ACC for me
G Malcolm Delaney (Virginia Tech) (16 points, 7 first team votes, named on 9/11) – I went back and forth on him. I ended up putting him on the 2nd team because I thought we were limited to 2 guards on the first team, but he’s definitely one of the top 3 guards in the league.
F Trevor Booker (Clemson) (20 points, 9 first team votes, named on 11/11) – Booker has had another solid year. He was also on my first team all-ACC ballot.
F Al-Farouq Aminu (Wake Forest) (20 points, 9 first team votes, named on 11/11) – Al-Farouq was also on my first team ballot.

Second Team:
G Sylven Landesberg (Virginia) (13 points, 4 first team votes, named on 9/11) – He was on my second team ballot.
G Nolan Smith (Duke) (9 points, named on 9/11) – Nolan is good, but he didn’t make either my first or second team. I think he’s received a lot of love because he’s on Duke, but I think there are better guards in the league than Nolan.
F Kyle Singler (Duke) (11 points, 3 first team votes, 8/11) – Singler can do a lot, and he made my 2nd team ballot.
F Gani Lawal (Georgia Tech) (11 points, 1 first team vote, 10/11) – Also made my second team ballot
F Tracy Smith (NC State) (13 points, 5 first team votes, 8/11 ballots) – Since NC State has been struggling a little this year, I don’t think Smith is getting the attention he deserves. I actually had him on my first team ballot.

Also Receiving Votes: Ish Smith (WFU) (3 points, 3/11), Solomon Alabi (FSU) (2 points, 2/11), Landon Milbourne (MD) (2 points, 2/11) – I put Landon on my 2nd team ballot, Larry Drew II (UNC) (2 points, 1 first team, 1/11), Ed Davis (UNC) (2 points, 2/11), Chris Singleton (FSU) (2 points, 2/11), Jeff Trapani (BC) (1 point, 1/11), Derrick Favors (GT) (1 point, 1/11).

Player of the Year:
Greivis Vasquez and Jon Scheyer (3) – Take a guess as to who I voted for? My vote went to Vasquez, but if the Terps drop a 2nd game to Duke, Scheyer will probably pull out the win. But I really don’t think he’s better than Vasquez.

Also Receiving Votes: Al-Farouq Aminu (2), Sylven Landesberg

All Freshman Team
G CJ Harris (WF) (8) – He was on my ballot. He’s done a great job for Wake this year.
G Durand Scott (Miami) (5) – Miami has to be happy to have him on their team. Watch out for him in a year or two. He was also on my ballot
F Derrick Favors (GT) (10) – Not sure how someone could not put Favors on their ballot. I know I did.
F Jordan Williams (MD) (9) – Another shoe in I think for the all-freshman team. Jordan is behind only favors in scoring and rebounding for the Terps.
F Scott Wood (NCSU) (8) – Scott Wood also made my ballot. State has something to look forward to with this kid.

Also Receiving Votes: Mfon Udofia (GT) (3), Michael Snaer (FSU) Brian Oliver (GT), Mason Plumlee (Duke), Miles Plumlee (Duke), Travis Wear (UNC), Reggie Johnson (Miami), Jontel Evans (UVA)

Freshman of the Year
Derrick Favors (GT) (10) – He was my FOY. Not sure how you could vote for anyone else.

All Defensive Team
G Ish Smith (WF) (7) – He wasn’t on my ballot, but I don’t have a problem with him being here.
G Andre Young (Clemson) (4) – Young also wasn’t on my ballot.
F Chris Singleton (FSU) (8) – I think Singleton was a pretty obvious choice
F Solomon Alabi (FSU) (6) – He was on my ballot. FSU is a great defensive team.
F Al-Farouq Aminu (WFU)/Ed Davis (UNC) (4) – Wasn’t on my ballot.

Also Receiving Votes: Derrick Favors (GT) (3) – made my ballot, Jeff Allen (VT)(2) – made my ballot, Trevor Booker (Clemson) (2), Greivis Vasquez (UMD), Gani Lawal (GT), Sean Mosley (UMD), LD Williams (WFU), Jontel Evans (UVA)

Defensive POY (out of 8 submitted)
Chris Singleton (FSU) (5 votes)
Also Receving Votes: Ed Davis (UNC) (2), Solomon Alabi (FSU) – I voted for Ed Davis, personally.

Coach of the Year: (out of 9 submitted)
Tony Bennett (UVA) (8) – He was my vote
Also Receiving Votes: Seth Greenberg (VT)

So what do you all think? Are their any glaring mistakes? Was anyone left out? What are your thoughts?

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Week 13 Power Poll

February 14th, 2010 by dtucker

We’re moving ahead into the second half of the ACC schedule and things are starting to take shape in the ACC. It appears (well, it did before Saturday), that Duke and Maryland are going to be Duking it out (pun intended) for 1st place in the conference. Beyond that, there is a big bottle-neck as to who else is an elite team in the ACC this year. Here are the power poll results for week 13, as voted on by myself and my fellow Raycom ACC bloggers.

1. Duke 1.77
2. Maryland 2.00
3. Wake 3.33
4. Ga.Tech 4.88
5. FSU 5.66
6. VT 5.88
7. UVA 6
8. Clemson 6.88
9. UNC 9.77
10. BC 10
11. NC State 10.33
12. Miami 11.44

1. Duke 1.77
2. Maryland 2
3. Wake 3.33
4. Ga. Tech 4.88
5. FSU 5.66
6. VT (tie) 5.88
7. UVA 6
8. Clemson 6.88
9. UNC 9.77
10. BC 10
11. NC State 10.33
12. Miami 11.44

As always, we welcome your comments and thoughts about what you think about this week’s poll.

Enjoy the games this week!

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Power Poll – Week 12

February 10th, 2010 by dtucker

Sorry for the late post of the Power Poll for week 12. The snow storm here in the D.C./Baltimore area has been crippling to say the least and most of my time has been spent clearing snow. And now they say another storm is on its way. Greaaaaaat.
Here is your week 12 Power Poll. I’ll provide a little insight into each ranking. Hope you all enjoy!
1. Duke – 1.16
Still seems to be the #1 team in the ACC, although Maryland might be making a charge for that position soon.
2. Ga. Tech – 3
Another good team, but being swept by FSU could be the deciding factor in whether they contend for the title.
3. Clemson – 4
Shown great potential, but still seem to be in the mist of yet another mid/late-season meltdown.
4. Wake – 4.33
I really believe Wake will end up as one of the top 4 teams in the league this season.
5. FSU – 4.75
The FSU fans base wants this team to be consistently good, but the team doesn’t appear to be cooperating.
6. Maryland – 5.33
Take away that loss to Clemson and the Terps are in everyone’s conversation for ACC title contender. One thing’s for sure, the Terps are dominant at home in ACC play, winning by over 20+ points in most of those games.
7. UVA – 6.16
I personally thought UVA would be fading by this time, but to their credit, they’re emerging as a top third team talent in the league. Their game at Maryland on Feb 10th will be a good measure of where this team stands.
8. VT – 7.91
Seems to be a typical Seth Greenberg team – middle of the road. Hokies could surprise someone and no team should look past them.
9. UNC – 9.16
I’ve said since the pre-season that this team hasn’t proven anything to me yet. They have high school talent, but that talent hasn’t proven it can play together as a unit over the course of an entire season.
10. NC State – 10
State has climbed the mountain of the ACC and fallen to the deepest valleys. It seems that they’re closer to the valleys than they are towards the mountain peaks.
11. BC – 10.91
Another team that has potential, but it’s still mostly unproven. A surprisingly down year for the Eagles.
12. Miami – 11.25
Yikes. Miami has struggled this year. And it doesn’t appear they’re getting much better. Might have to start looking towards 2011 for the Hurricanes.

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What is Going on in the Mid-Atlantics

February 9th, 2010 by chrisbixler

I have no idea what is going on with the weather down there in the D.C. area, but you are getting more snow than I am in Boston this year, and I am not complaining!  I do feel bad for people like my parents, but then I get pictures of my little cousins snow boarding in their back yard, and you know they are loving it. So I am not sure what group you are falling into, but there is no doubt I am happy you are getting it instead of me.

As fate would have it, the snow has impacted Maryland Basketball yet again.  Last week it was Maryland’s advantage.  Tomorrow’s game against UVA has been postponed until Monday, and that could very easily be better for the Hoos.  As a Terp fan, I like the idea of them playing while things are rolling along nicely, with the chance that they pack Comcast with students again, but what are you going to do?

So what does this do for the Terps?  For one the students now get their wish.  They get the Dukies.  I was a little miffed they seemed to forget they had a scheduled game with UVA when they started the “we want Duke” chant after taking UNC to the wood shed.  Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE nothing more than beating Duke, but there are more than two games on the schedule, and those games are as important as any game against Duke.  Anyway, back to the Terps, it gives them a little rest and some more time to get ready for Duke, but on the other end it shortens the time they have to get ready for UVA.  I guess the same could be said for UVA as they also play Saturday. Still, I like them to get back on the court while they are rolling.  Actually it now means they will have three games in 5 days as they follow up the UVA game with a game at NCST on Wednesday.  Not exactly ideal.

Halfway through the ACC season, I think we have to be pleased with what we have seen so far.  Of the two losses, one was played pretty well (OT loss to Wake), and the other not so much.  All that said, I can live with the one clunker at Clemson.  You have to be pleased with the effort, the ball movement,the shooting and the team defense.  Individually, the Greivis Vasquez we expected to see is here, and Jordan Williams is giving me some hope for the future.  I expected the rebounds for the most part.  His offense and defense has been a pleasant surprise.  It has been a while since the Terps have had a big man that can make the opponents bigs fight for position down low. The other thing I have been totally impressed with are his hands.   He catches entry passes to the post, he can catch on the break.  Speaking of the break, I love the way he runs the floor, on offense and defense, he really busts it.

I hate to single out only two players, because they have really been playing good team basketball that has been absent at times in College Park for a while.  The bench has been there at times, the starters have been pretty consistent for the most part.

In all honesty I thought they would have been 5-3 at this point.  Going forward they have a long way to go, but the way things are trending, I will take it.  Sure they can still slip out of this race, but fighting for the ACC crown is far better than sweating out the NCAA bubble all of March.

So going forward there are some huge games on the schedule, starting with the big match up at Cameron on Saturday.  Follow that up with the make up game against UVA (another school we should all love to beat).  It is really important they take this one game at a time.  Nothing is written in stone yet, and they could easily go on a slide with the schedule that remains.  It is a great time to be a Terp, and it could soon be a season we never forget.

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Snow Day!!

February 7th, 2010 by bobwevodau

As I am typing this, I am contemplating how in the world I am going to get out of my driveway.  I have a long gravel drive that leads about 70 yards to the main road.  Under these conditions you would think that I would have invested in a snow blower or a plow, but the truth be known this really hasn’t been an issue before because the woods next to the driveway have always kept it relatively clear of snow, so in the past all I needed to do was dig the car out to the shallow snow and then drive over it the rest of the way, that includes the huge snow storm we got in December, after that I figured I’d never need a plow or snow-blower.  But in December we had 17″, yesterday we had maybe 22″.  Somewhere in between those measurements is the tipping point, and though the trees did their part, they couldn’t keep all the snow off, and now I’m looking at the distinct possibility of watching the Super Bowl all by myself as my wife and child are out of town this weekend.

But enough of my problems, if Debbie Yow is reading this she could only dream of having my issues.  For one, I think College Park got hit harder than I did on the Mid-Shore (though once you pass 12″ the rest is kind of trivial) for another, I’m not supposed to have 18,000 coming over for the UNC game.  Things are so bad in College Park, that the University is actually asking those who have to drive to the game, to not comeSee Here.  That is right, how often does a school ask people not to come to one of the most anticipated games of the year?  You read that, and your knee jerk reaction is to say “Are they nuts?  We really need to win this game and need as many people in the seats as possible!”.  But truth be told, this is a historic storm and even today travel is going to be extremely difficult and dangerous, and as much as it sucks, the schools is making the right call.

Now there is a solution to this, in fact it’s an idea that isn’t even original.  Let the students and anyone else for that matter who shows up, in without tickets.  The irony is that this actually happened to us in the 1990’s.  I can’t remember the exact year, but we played UNC in a snow storm and no one could come to the Dean Smith Center.  My first reaction to this was “Awesome, there won’t be any fans in the seats!”, however, UNC let in every student that showed up, so not only was the place packed, it was electric!

Turn about is fair play in sports, and now is the time to play that card.  There is absolutely no downside to letting in the students.  It is unfortunate that season ticket holders are going to get screwed out of a UNC game, but I am sure the Athletic Department will do what they can to rectify that situation, but with TV contracts and schedules that are pretty much set in stone, there is little choice but to play today as scheduled.  We might as well make the best of a bad situation and do what we can.  As down as UNC is at this time, I am still not considering this a walk in the park, it is going to be a tough game, and having the place full of students can help give us the edge we need to make it to 6-2 in Conference Play.  And if that’s the ends, I think the means will be justified.

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Getting Back On Track

February 3rd, 2010 by chrisbixler

Sure, there was a buzz building around the Terps hoops team over the past week.  I mean who could blame us.  They had rolled their four previous opponents (3 of them ACC teams).  It has been a while since us Maryland fans were sitting a top the conference standings, even if it was only 4 games in!

Then reality struck in Littlejohn Coliseum.  The Terps played their worst game since, I don’t know when.  I am sure if I dug through some bad memories I could pull a couple games.  You could look at that Clemson games two ways.  One, it was on the road, a game we didn’t really feel was a lock to win.  Two, they played as poorly as they possibly could, and still managed to fight back and take a second half lead.  But, they let a good opportunity to pick up a coveted road win pass them by.

I choose to live with the fact that despite how poorly they played, they were a contested made three pointer by Trevor Booker from possibly walking away with a win.   That shot kind of took the wind out of the sails I think.   When I was a student, and even up until we won the National Championship, I lived and died by every game.  A loss would make those couple days after a little gloomier.  A win, and I had a little extra bounce in my step.  These days, I seem to have allowed other aspects of my life set my mood a little more.All that said, that game hurt, but at the same time I don’t have a doom and gloom feeling.

Back to today’s Terps.  While that was another close loss on the road, they showed me a lot.  They could have packed it in and gotten blown out like last years visit to Clemson.  They hunkered down, forced Clemson into their own turnover problems and showed they were going to make Clemson really earn it.  To their credit, they did.

Moving forward, as fate would have it, Maryland gets another chance to get a nice road win.  We have one in the pocket, but it would be really good to get another one from Florida State on Thursday night.  I expect it to be a little different than the visit to College Park last month.  The key will again be how Jordan Williams (BTW kudos on a well deserved ACC Rookie of the Week), Landon Milbourne and company can contain Solomon Alabi.  He got in to foul trouble early in the last game, and the Terps were able to roll.

You think back to some of the great Terps teams of the past, and you could almost predict the type of performance you would get on a given night.  This team on the other hand, has the talent to make a nice run late into March, but you just never know what you are going to get from one game to another.  They can go a long way in calming me down by playing poised basketball again.  I would like to think that the Clemson game was just one of those nights, where everything went wrong, and we will see more efforts like we did against NCST, BC, and FSU.  So tune in Thursday night, if for no other reason to try and find out what this team is made of and see if they can improve on their weaknesses. They have to protect the ball under pressure, get tougher on the defensive boards, and continue to shoot well.  If they can improve in those areas, they should be able to contend all season long.  For more on the game check us out at Turtledroppings.  GO TERPS!

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