College Basketball

[Rhom]

In college basketball news, Georgetown seems to have become very beatable. I suspect that the guys are wearing down. Stomach flu outbreaks don't help either.

G'town and Villanova are both fading down the stretch. The Hoyas slump is very similar to that big mid-season slump from last year that landed them in the NIT. I think they already have a good enough body of work to be a NCAA team this year, but JTIII really needs to look at what is going on with his team mid/late season these days.

[Brude]

Duke/Maryland round 2 tonight on ESPN at 9:00. Round 1 wasn't terribly exciting, but since then Maryland has won 5 straight and climbed to #22 in the rankings, from being probably somewhere around #30 before that. I'm looking forward to it! Might be they can pull out an upset. They seem to have come a long way since the early part of the season where they seemingly could only beat scrub teams, and lost every time they faced a team with any kind of national reputation.

[Rhom]

Duke/Maryland round 2 tonight on ESPN at 9:00. Round 1 wasn't terribly exciting, but since then Maryland has won 5 straight and climbed to #22 in the rankings, from being probably somewhere around #30 before that. I'm looking forward to it! Might be they can pull out an upset. They seem to have come a long way since the early part of the season where they seemingly could only beat scrub teams, and lost every time they faced a team with any kind of national reputation.

Lets turn back the clock to 2002! Maryland is on a big upswing right now. I'll be all for the Terps knocking off Duke and giving a little breathing room near the top as the battle for the one seeds starts to shake out in the next week and a half.

I can't believe Selection Sunday is just 11 days away! :thumbsup:

[Brude]

Woops, MD/Duke is tomorrow night. :( Man, I was looking forward to that. Just checked the TV schedule and it wasn't listed. Tomorrow at 9:00 on ESPN.

[RedEyedGhost]

Lets turn back the clock to 2002! Maryland...

No, let's don't do that. I wasn't too happy with how that season ended.

I can't believe Selection Sunday is just 11 days away! :thumbsup:

:(

That means the season is almost over.

[Rhom]

Pat Forde spends much of his time this week talking about college basketball arenas. Particularly of note:

Dean Smith Center (20). Who plays there: North Carolina. Opened: 1986. Capacity: 21,750. Some of those cushy blue seats have gone empty during this dismal season. Tar Heels are averaging 18,493 fans per home game.

I don't mean to keep harping on this, but Kentucky has gone 12 years without a trip to the Final Four or a national title. For the last four years, the program has been lethargic and tough to stomach culminating in last season's NIT embarassment. What kind of attendance did we see last year? Oh yeah, we lead college basketball in attendance.

I never want to hear another person say that UNC has great fans.

[Maithanet]

Pat Forde spends much of his time this week talking about college basketball arenas. Particularly of note:

I don't mean to keep harping on this, but Kentucky has gone 12 years without a trip to the Final Four or a national title. For the last four years, the program has been lethargic and tough to stomach culminating in last season's NIT embarassment. What kind of attendance did we see last year? Oh yeah, we lead college basketball in attendance.

I never want to hear another person say that UNC has great fans.

Not to compare fans, but I think that the fact that NC was SO good for the past 5 years that when they have a down year so suddenly, it's more of a shock. I'd be pretty confident that if they were equally bad next year that attendance would be back to sellouts.

[Brude]

I never want to hear another person say that UNC has great fans.

Heh. I think it's more a matter of shock and not knowing how to deal with having bad years. It takes a lot of long-term misery to get fans who come out hell or high water.

[Jaime L]

Watching UMD-Duke, gotta say, if Duke didn't exist we'd have to create it. They're so easy and fun to root against with their cult like status and evil-Kreese like sensei. They win 25 every year with their eclectic collection of douchy looking White guys and seem to try to emphasize a modern-day Hoosiers approach: fundamentals over athleticism. It's gotten even more fun as recent teams have won a ton (which allows them to maintain their villain status) while still coming off soft and bowing out in the second round of the NCAA's seemingly every year.

I'd argue Duke made the rabid Maryland fanbase what it is today. If it was, say, Wake Forest dominating all these years, there wouldn't be anywhere near the venom and intensity. The Cameron Crazies made the Cole Field House Whatevers. I say this as a Marylander and UMD fan, but watching tonight you can just feel the difference through the TVs. To the fans there it's like a prizefight.

[Brude]

Awesome game! The Turtle is Terrible Tonight! (Did I just invent a new saying?) I wonder what Maryland's ranking will be now?

[RedEyedGhost]

Great win tonight. K-State came to play and tied the game after a quick surge coming out from halftime, but KU just had too much. They played a little bit of zone, we didn't handle it all that well, and that has me even more worried about going up against Syracuse in the tourney.

Awesome game! The Turtle is Terrible Tonight! (Did I just invent a new saying?) I wonder what Maryland's ranking will be now?

Storming the court... :uhoh:

Come on Terp fans, act like you've been there before. Here's a very timely article by Rick Reilly posted right before the game.

• You've won an NCAA title in the past 20 years.

• You've been in the Final Four in the past five years.

• The team you just beat is not in the top three.

• Or is ranked within 15 rungs of you. (Somebody do the math for Wake.)

• Or is really a football school. This includes Florida, Texas and Ohio State. Get over it.

• You've beaten this same team in the past five years.

• You won the stupid game by more than 10 points. There is no such thing as a PRTC (Premeditated Rush The Court.)

• You're a university and you just beat a college.

• Coach K comes to your coach's clinic.

• You have a dead-mortal-lock lottery pick on your team.

• Your team has appeared in a recent "One Shining Moment."

But seriously, congrats on the big time win. That's a damn impressive lead that your guys (and Duke) have over third place in the ACC. Damn impressive.

ETA:

:stunned:

[Brude]

Come on Terp fans, act like you've been there before. Here's a very timely article by Rick Reilly posted right before the game.

Bah, that's just a silly list. Fans rush the floor cause they get excited for their team, they want to celebrate, that's the long and short of it. What's wrong with being good fans? Tonight was Sr. Night and Vasquez was playing in his last home game ever, and he's maybe the 3rd greatest Maryland player ever (okay, maybe 4th - Steve Francis was a transfer and wasn't there long enough to amass records). That rush of the floor was as much or more for him as it was for the game, itself, I think.

I wouldn't worry about rankings so much as shooting for a 3 seed in the dance. That's a little ambitious but totally doable is they finish strong and go deep in the ACC tourney.

3 seed, think that's possible? That would be great, right now the estimates are around a 5 or 6 seed, I think. It's likely that Duke and Maryland will meet a 3rd time in the ACC final, so going deep there is likely - but it's a tourney so one bad night could ruin that for one or the other team. The tournament is down in Greensboro, so that will be hard for Maryland, but who knows.

[Maithanet]

Bah, that's just a silly list. Fans rush the floor cause they get excited for their team, they want to celebrate, that's the long and short of it. What's wrong with being good fans? Tonight was Sr. Night and Vasquez was playing in his last home game ever, and he's maybe the 3rd greatest Maryland player ever (okay, maybe 4th - Steve Francis was a transfer and wasn't there long enough to amass records). That rush of the floor was as much or more for him as it was for the game, itself, I think.

I agree. I don't think you need to "act like you've been there before" just because you won the tournament nine years ago. None of those kids were even in high school then. This is the most exciting Maryland basketball has been since Gilchrist lead them to the ACC tournament win in, what, 2004? 2005? There's reason to be excited.

3 seed, think that's possible? That would be great, right now the estimates are around a 5 or 6 seed, I think. It's likely that Duke and Maryland will meet a 3rd time in the ACC final, so going deep there is likely - but it's a tourney so one bad night could ruin that for one or the other team. The tournament is down in Greensboro, so that will be hard for Maryland, but who knows.

I don't think a 3 seed is likely, and I don't think they deserve it, they don't have enough quality wins. I do think shooting for a 4/5 is looking pretty realistic though, and that's pretty exciting for a team that was on the bubble just a few weeks ago.

Who gets the last 1 seed? Duke and KState both lost yesterday, so the door is open. I think it will come down to the conference tournaments, and Duke/KState/Nova/OSU/WVU all have a good chance to show that they belong on the top line. I think is OSU wins out it's theirs.

[Rhom]

I don't think Maryland is completely shot for a 3 seed. A lot can happen in the next week and a half. If they win the ACC tournament, I think it'd be tough to deny them a top seed like that. They're really hitting their stride. It must feel great to Gary Williams to have a season like this just one year removed from angry boosters calling for his job.

At this point, I think Kansas can get a one seed regardless of what happens against Mizzou and in the Big XII tourney. I think Kentucky needs to beat Florida and win a game in the SEC tournament. I think Syracuse needs to beat UofL this weekend and win a game in the Big East tourney to guarantee a one. If they lose at Freedom Hall and then lose the first game in the Big East tournament (unlikely considering they get a double bye :stillsick: ) I think they could easily drop to a two seed. The big thing working in their favor is that Villanova is second in the Big East standings, but they are slumping some to finish the season having lost 4 of their last 8. The fourth one seed is really up for grabs at this point. I agree that I like Ohio State to claim it if they win out.

Storming the court is never acceptable at a school like Maryland. I think Reilly had the perfect example of a ridiculous court storming in the article when he noted that number 4 Wake Forest stormed the court after beating number 3 UNC last year.

[Maithanet]

Storming the court is never acceptable at a school like Maryland. I think Reilly had the perfect example of a ridiculous court storming in the article when he noted that number 4 Wake Forest stormed the court after beating number 3 UNC last year.

Why not? If the kids want to storm the court after a big win, why not let them? It's a little silly if they are favored to win the game or something, but I think it's safe to say that Wake didn't have a lot of wins over top 5 schools recently, and therefore a win like this is certainly something to get excited about. Maryland has a win that big once a year at MOST. Is storming the court once a year too much?

Is it undignified? What does that even mean? They're celebrating. And they're doing it in the court, rather than outside where drunk hoodlums usually start breaking things.

[Rhom]

Personally, I feel that storming the court acknowledges that your school is significantly inferior in status to the one you're playing. I don't know that Maryland should feel that way about Duke.

That said, it is also a major safety issue and a huge liability for the school involved. There were rumors that DeMarcus Cousins punched a fan who got in his face after storming the court in South Carolina earlier this season. No video evidence ever showed up, so there was no Blount-like reaction from the media. (Oregon running back from earlier this year.) It will take one major incident of athletes and fans brawling before the NCAA finally steps in and finds a way to stop it.

All that said... I remember during my senior year at Murray State when Tennessee Tech's fans stormed our football field and tore down our goalposts after a road win that clinched an unlikely OVC title. :rofl:

[Brude]

All that said... I remember during my senior year at Murray State when Tennessee Tech's fans stormed our football field and tore down our goalposts after a road win that clinched an unlikely OVC title. :rofl:

Well now, that's just plane rude. (Did Murray State foot the bill for new goalposts, at least?)

[Maithanet]

Personally, I feel that storming the court acknowledges that your school is significantly inferior in status to the one you're playing.

Why is it an admission of that? It's a big win, worth getting excited about. To me, that's all.

All that said... I remember during my senior year at Murray State when Tennessee Tech's fans stormed our football field and tore down our goalposts after a road win that clinched an unlikely OVC title. :rofl:

Totally unacceptable. Can't have a celebration on someone else's field.

As for the safety issue, I agree it sucks, but there are so so many things that college kids do that aren't safe. Tearing down the goalposts is still a tradition at a lot of places, and that's very dangerous (yes I'm well aware that schools are trying to avoid the dangers of this practice as well). You can try stomp out this sort of celebration, but drunk college kids are going to hurt themselves somehow, and this isn't high on my totem pole.

[Rhom]

Well now, that's just plane rude. (Did Murray State foot the bill for new goalposts, at least?)

It was Murray's goalposts that got torn down. Back in the day, Murray was a DI-AA power (current Ole Mis coach Houston Nutt was our coach back then) and TTU was a doormat. They strung together a good season and Murray lost a couple games they shouldn't. I look back on it with some humor now, but as a student at the time I didn't find it amusing. :lol:

Why is it an admission of that? It's a big win, worth getting excited about. To me, that's all.

I agree to an extent, but as I say... you get to a point where you expect to win. I think Maryland is arguably a program that should feel that way about themselves.

[Brude]

It was Murray's goalposts that got torn down. Back in the day, Murray was a DI-AA power (current Ole Mis coach Houston Nutt was our coach back then) and TTU was a doormat. They strung together a good season and Murray lost a couple games they shouldn't. I look back on it with some humor now, but as a student at the time I didn't find it amusing. :lol:

Woops, got it mixed up, I guess I should have asked if Tenn. Tech. payed for your goal posts.

I agree to an extent, but as I say... you get to a point where you expect to win. I think Maryland is arguably a program that should feel that way about themselves.

Maryland has had several fairly poor years recently (poor for them, I guess). Last night's game represented their coming back into prominence, again. And truth is, despite having such a long winning tradition, they have always been kind of a hard luck team that always just kept missing the promise land, or found themselves losing in bizarre ways in major and important games. I think there's a sense at Maryland that they should have more respect then they have. Maybe it's not true, but that's the feeling. Duke fans like to tweak this with their, "Not Our Rivals" chants and such (though I would argue that the very fact they feel the need to chant "not our rivals" suggests that Maryland is their rival).

I remember in Maryland's National Championship year, when they won the second regular season meeting against Duke, the fans rushed the floor, but in that case it was clearly not about feeling inferior, it was the exact opposite. There was the sense that Maryland really was the best team in the NCAA by that point, even if only Maryland fans realized it. It was the moment that I think most Maryland fans realized they were probably going to win the National Championship. I was about 90% sure of it after that win, myself.