Duke - Md thoughts

I went to the game last night and here are some random observations.
This Maryland team is a lot like Greivis Vasquez the person. They can be fun to watch, exciting, exhilirating even. Then they can be frustrating, maddening and, well, not great.
Terps played great ball for 34.5 minutes, wasn't enough. Duke isn't great, but they are very good and much better (at least last night) at finishing a game.
Saw Johnny Rhodes leaving the arena.
Saw Walt Williams also, housing some fries and looking slick as ever.
Very surprised that coach K has relegated Greg Paulus to a back up role after three years as his starting PG. I don't think I've ever seen K do that to a senior before. He must really want to win and think his younger guys are better.
A lot of people are going to bitch about the refs last night. I think it's justified, they sucked. At the same time, complaining about the refs after you lose is just so whiney, so I'm not going to go there.
Maryland has 3 left - at NC State, home against Wake and at UVa. I predict 2-1 during those three and 8-8 for the ACC season; which would leave the Terps on the bubble, likely needing an ACC tourney win or two.
It's been a very interesting season. Gary has tinkered with the rotation throughout, trying to find the right mix. The last couple weeks, aside from the Clemson game, feels like this bunch has pulled together and found their roles.
Too little too late perhaps, but I do enjoy watching them play.

Carolina A Lot, Maryland Also a Lot, But Significantly Less than Carolina

So it goes. On to Georgia Tech with a chance to win.

Signs of Life

Good win over Miami.

Had to have it to get the season back on track.

My personal feeling is that reports of Maryland being "untalented" are exaggerated. They have excellent guards and wings.  

I love watching Adrian Bowie operate. Can you remember a guy his size getting more points at the rim? He's 6-2 and gets almost everything by out-quicking his man to the hoop and finishing when he gets there. Just a baller.

Seems to me that Greivis has toned down the histrionics quite a bit since the ridiculous display at home against Georgia Tech. At the same time, he had been in a big slump the last 5 game or so prior to the Miami game, coinciding with Maryland losing 4 of 5.  Hmmm.

Gary went on the air for his coach's show last Thursday and you would have thought nothing was going on with the program out of ordinary. It was an hour of talking about this player or that, getting ready for Miami, etc. Now I don't expect Johnny to grill Gary on the air, but he could have at least acknowledged the absolute shit-storm going on around Maryland basketball the last two weeks with a question like, "Coach, we know there's been a lot of off the court distraction recently, what would you like to say to Maryland fans who are concerned about the state of the program?" But no, we did not get any of that. 

Big game at UNC tomorrow if only for the opportunity to play against another great time and see if Maryland can hang. 

Here's the schedule the rest of the way. Maryland is now 14-7 and 3-4.  8-8 is the minimum required to get in the tourney (pending ACC tourney play, where Maryland makes a run every odd decade); so that means Terps would need to go 5-4. I have no idea what will happen, and neither does anyone else. But just looking at games where, right now, Maryland would simply be favored in the remaining nine, they would probably be @G. Tech (maybe, that one might bea toss-up), Va Tech (maybe, Tech is good, but they have lost a half dozen really close games this year), at NC State, and at UVa. My guess is that they'll be heavy underdogs at UNC, at Clemson, home vs. UNC, home vs. Duke and home vs. Wake.  

Feb. 3 at UNC

Feb. 8 at Ga. Tech

Feb. 14 Va. Tech

Feb. 17 at Clemson

Feb. 21 UNC

Feb. 25 Duke

3/1 at NC State

3/3 Wake

3/7 at UVa