Filling Out The Dance Card For The Locals
Filed under: NCAA Tournament, college basketball, following the locals, sports
Excuses, excuses. I have my share, and probably shouldn’t make any when it comes to this here blog. That said, it’s a wonder I have gotten anything up here at all given how busy I have been both at home and at work (along with my duties at the Baltimore Sports Report). A tradition here at Mind Pinball (if you want to call something a tradition that actually has only been around for a year) is to take a look at the colleges competing at the Division I level to see how they are faring to get into the NCAA Tournament. Many of the schools are smaller and play in conferences that usually only get the automatic bid winner in the tournament, which makes their conference tournaments that much more meaningful than say the ACC or Big East conferences. Because I have been a little late with this post, some of the schools I’ll mention have already seen their NCAA dreams fall short, as the conference tournaments began this past Tuesday. So we will go around and about and see how things have gone thus far:
- Maryland: The Terps have an NCAA berth locked up. ACC conference tournament play begins on Thursday, where the Terps will only be playing for seeding. Such is life in the bigger conferences.
- UMBC: After winning the conference tournament two years ago (getting the school’s first NCAA Tournament bid) and getting to the final of the conference tournament last year, the Retrievers fell with a thud this season. Their season ended yesterday with a 76-59 loss to Vermont in the America East conference tournament quarterfinals. UMBC finishes the 2009-2010 season with a 4-26 record (3-13) in conference. Coach Randy Monroe’s team will look to improve next season as he loses just two seniors.
- Georgetown: Hey, I know they are in DC, but I consider them “local”. Georgetown has a berth in the tournament locked up as well. The free-for-all that is the Big East tournament begins on Tuesday. Georgetown will be looking to get a bit more consistent; the talent is there to do big things in March.
- Towson: Coach Pat Kennedy and the Tigers saw their season come to an end yesterday with a loss to top-seeded Old Dominion in the Colonial Athletic Conference tournament. The 86-56 loss dropped their record to 10-21 on the season (6-12 in conference). The Tigers beat North Carolina-Wilmington in the opening round before bowing out.
- Loyola (Md.): Former Terp assistant coach Jimmy Patsos is working to get Loyola into the upper reaches of the conference in terms of hoops and not his actions. The journey continues for Loyola but the action will have to wait for next season, as the Greyhounds fell to Manhattan in the opening round of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference tournament on Friday. The 94-79 defeat (to a team the ‘Hounds beat just five days prior) closes the book on their season with a 13-17 record (6-12 in conference).
- Coppin State: The Eagles are getting ready for the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference tournament. The Eagles would need to win the tournament to have any shot at a berth in the NCAA tourney. Not that they haven’t done it before: Two years ago, they came from nowhere to get the MEAC automatic bid, beating crosstown rival Morgan State to get there. Ron “Fang” Mitchell has to be hoping for more of the same type of magic this year as well. The journey begins with a game against the Maryland-Eastern Shore Hawks in the opening round.
- Maryland-Eastern Shore: The Hawks will once again attempt to make their first ever NCAA tournament. The journey begins with a game against Coppin State in the MEAC tournament. As a resident of the Eastern Shore of Maryland, it would do my heart proud to see the Hawks get in. However, they are seeded sixth, and if they should run though the MEAC and get the automatic bid, they will no doubt be headed to Dayton for the dreaded “play-in” game.
- Morgan State: The Bears are also getting ready for the MEAC tournament. They will be the top seed and the favorite for the third year in a row. Coach Todd Bozeman will be looking to make a return trip to the dance with leading scorer Reggie Holmes leading the way. The Bears have a bye into the quarterfinals, where they will meet the winner of the Howard-North Carolina A&T game. A berth in the N.I.T. awaits should the team fall short.
- Mount St. Mary’s: The Mountaineers are looking for their second NCAA berth in three seasons, as they take part in the Northeast Conference Tournament. Coach Milan Brown is riding the hottest team in the conference, having won 11 straight games which includes their quarterfinal win on Thursday against St. Francis (Pa.). The Mount has a date with second-seeded Robert Morris for a spot in the NEC championship game on Wednesday night. Certainly the Mountaineers should be full of confidence, as they have beaten both of the top two seeds in the tournament this season.
- Navy: The Midshipmen’s season ended back on Wednesday with a loss to another “local” squad the American Eagles in the Patriot League tournament. The 62-60 quarterfinal loss to the two-time defending Patriot League champions dropped Navy to a 13-17 record (7-7 in conference). Coach Billy Lange will try to get the Middies to bounce back next season, as it has been quite a while since the Academy has gone dancing.
- American: Jeff Jones and his squad have some work to do to get back to the tournament for the third straight season. They face a tall order tonight, taking on top-seeded Lehigh for a spot in Friday’s championship game. If the Eagles want to host the championship game at Bender Arena, they will need seventh-seeded Holy Cross to take out third-seeded Lafayette this afternoon.
A few notes: George Washington is preparing for the A-10 tournament, as the tenth-seeded Colonials face seventh-seed Dayton in an opening round game on Tuesday. George Mason, the darlings of the nation four years ago when they made it to the final four, may be headed for the N.I.T. as the Patriots lost to Virginia Commonwealth yesterday in the CAA quarterfinals. Delaware’s season ended on Friday with a loss to VCU in the CAA opening round. Delaware State is looking forward to the MEAC tournament, where they are seeded second and have a bye to the quarterfinals. The Hornets will play the winner of the Bethune Cookman-Florida A&M game.
No matter what team or teams you may follow, enjoy the basketball. I know I will.
The ACC Bubble Watch
Filed under: ACC, NCAA Tournament, college basketball, sports
If you haven’t been living under a rock, you know that the month of March signals the beginning of March Madness. I will definitely be keeping track of things all month long, from the small conference tournaments through the national championship game. But before we get to that final destination, we still have a few days until one of the great holy days on the sports calendar: Selection Sunday. Between now and then, teams will play their way into, or out of, the NCAA tournament. Those teams who inclusion in the tournament seems in doubt are often said to be “on the bubble.” The first of many posts about March Madness will take a look at those teams considered to be on the bubble in the ACC.
Depending on where you look, the ACC as of this writing has three or four safe teams, or locks, and three or four teams on the bubble. For the purposes of this exercise, Duke, Maryland and Clemson will be considered in the tournament. Wake Forest is close to being a lock, and according to several sites is in the safe zone as of today. I will say that Wake isn’t exactly finishing strong, having lost three in a row with two difficult games on tap to close out the regular season-a road game against Florida State and a home game against Clemson. The Florida State game may amount to a play-in game, with both teams needing a win to shore up their body of work. With a couple more wins, Wake may play their way off the bubble.
That leaves three remaining teams to discuss: Florida State, Virginia Tech and Georgia Tech. It appears that the Seminoles (RPI 54) have the best upside of the three, with some great numbers and wins in their favor (wins over Marquette, and a 3-0 record against Virginia Tech and Georgia Tech). However, the non-conference strength of schedule is weak, and they have a 6-7 record against the RPI top 100 which includes a loss to a Florida team also on the bubble. The one bad loss is to NC State. The Seminoles should get in, but a loss to Miami in the regular season finale will cause some doubts.
Virginia Tech (RPI 52) has been a surprise in the conference, but their national profile is suspect . The non-conference strength of schedule is even weaker than Florida State’s, they are on a three-game losing streak and their record is 5-5 against the RPI top 100. They also have losses to Boston College and Miami. Tonight’s game against NC State is a must win, and the finale against Georgia Tech is another potential bubble buster. Virginia Tech needs to win at least two games; if they split their final two regular season contests they will definitely need to win a game in the ACC tournament. No matter what, the Hokies cannot afford to lose to the Wolfpack. Even if they win those two games, there’s a good chance they will be on pins and needles again on Selection Sunday (as it seems they are almost every year).
While Georgia Tech has some great stats in their favor (high strength of schedule, and RPI of 35), they also have some demerits. Even though they have some of the best wins of the three teams on the bubble (Duke, Siena, Wake Forest, Clemson, Charlotte) they are 7-8 against teams in the RPI top 100 and also have two bad losses to Miami and Virginia. They also have a loss to Dayton (also on the bubble) on the resume, and were swept by Florida State. The regular season finale against the Hokies is a key game to watch for both teams, as the winner may go dancing and the loser may be headed to the N.I.T.
Stay tuned over the next ten days to see what happens.
Why Greivis Vasquez May Not Be The ACC Player Of The Year
Hello, Terp Fans! Got your attention have I?
For this post, mindpinball becomes Ethan Hunt (or Jim Phelps, if your memory goes back that far) of the Impossible Missions Force. Today’s task: come up with reasons why Greivis Vasquez will not be the ACC Player of the Year. As it happens, I think he is the frontrunner; with a great performance against Duke on Senior Night, he should just about put the competition away (especially if the Terps get a W). Nevertheless, if Vasquez does not win POY, here are some reasons (plausibility of which may be in question) why:
- The ACC is based in North Carolina, which makes it difficult (yet not impossible) for a player who doesn’t play for one of the North Carolina schools to win POY. Of course it has happened, all of fourteen times in fifty-seven seasons. A Maryland player has won the award five times previously: Albert King (1980), Len Bias (1985, 1986), Joe Smith (1995) and Juan Dixon (2002). Surely the voters wouldn’t take it away from Greivis, would they? If so, it may be because of reason number 2:
- The Duke Factor. Given the fact that the Blue Devils may be the class of the conference, they have to have at least one player of the year candidate. They may in fact have two: Jon Scheyer and Kyle Singler. However, Singler-the preseason pick for player of the year-has not been quite as good as expected. Scheyer has done about as well as expected. Given the love affair some people have with Duke, you’d have to think that if Scheyer outplays Vasquez tonight, coupled with a Duke victory, it could be enough to put him over the top.
- The player from out of nowhere. I don’t know if this will apply or not, given Saturday’s results, but Malcolm Delaney of Virginia Tech was having a stellar season as well. He is the primary reason Virginia Tech should finish in the upper half of the conference standings-not bad for a team picked to finish eighth in the preseason poll. However, with Greivis outplaying him Saturday, Delaney’s stock may have dropped a bit.
- The “I don’t like Greivis” campaign. This may be the weakest argument yet. From the U-S-A chants at NC State, to the folks (and they are out there) who don’t like Vasquez’s flash and swagger, to his playing to the crowd, he may not have as many votes in his corner as he needs. Despite all that, his season cannot be denied (unless one of the other three arguments come into play).
That’s all I got folks. Believe me, I am not trying to jinx his chances. Thank you for reading. This post may (but probably won’t) self-destruct as soon as you finish.
Terps Clamp Down On Defense, Wear Down Clemson
The Maryland Terrapins claimed their fourth win in a row and solidified their hold on second place in the ACC with a come from behind win over the Clemson Tigers by the score of 88-79. The Terps were led by Sean Mosley’s 20 points, but the most important player was Greivis Vasquez. Vasquez struggled with his shot all game, but managed to score 15 points, while piling up 13 assists, and adding 3 steals and 2 rebounds. Jordan Williams, whose development seems to grow game to game added 18 points and Eric Hayes chipped in with 15.
The game itself was a tale of two halves. In the first half, Clemson bombed away from three point land, making (for them) an uncharacteristic 50 percent of their three-point attempts in the first half. The Maryland defense seemed a step slow, with Clemson getting a lot of wide open looks that they were converting. Even when Clemson missed, they were taking advantage on the offensive glass-a problem the Terps also had against Georgia Tech in their last game. At one point, the Tigers ran off 15 unanswered points and eventually built the lead up to 15 points. The Terps were reeling at several points in the half, but managed to cut to the lead to 11 points by halftime.
In the second half, the Terps turned up the defense and Clemson’s open looks started to disappear. And as those open looks disappeared, the Tigers cooled off from their hot shooting start. The Terps gradually reduced the lead, and as the tightened defense began to wear down the Tigers, the Terps took control of the game. A 24-6 run turned a 61-53 deficit to a 77-67 lead with six minutes to play. From there, Vasquez and the Terps made enough plays to keep control and seal the win.
With the win, and the loss by Virginia Tech to Boston College, the Terps tightened their grip on second place in the ACC. However, a showdown with the Hokies in Blacksburg looms on Saturday. And there are some things to be concerned about-the slow start, the troubles on the glass (Clemson had 14 offensive rebounds and outrebounded the Terps 47-34) and their usually reliable free-throw shooting went missing. Despite all of that, it was a good win against a very determined Clemson team. The win give the Terps 10 conference wins, and keeps them undefeated at home in conference play. Games like these will serve to give the Terps confidence heading into March.
Polls, Meaningless Polls
Filed under: ACC, NCAA, NCAA Tournament, college basketball, sports
If you read the Toy Department, the Baltimore Sun’s fine sports blog, you would have seen a post from Kevin Cowherd about the lack of respect the men’s basketball team at the University of Maryland is getting in the latest Associated Press Top 25 poll. Cowherd bemoans the fact that the Terps, despite winning three games in six days last week, still couldn’t crack the Top 25. I got news for Cowherd: the polls in college basketball are meaningless.
That’s right, meaningless.
Now if this were college football, where only the top two teams in something called the BCS standings (a combination of polls and computer models that determine who plays for Division I’s college football championship) would play for the title, then this would be something of an outrage, but not even that much. I don’t think anyone in their right mind thinks that Maryland is one of the two best basketball teams in the nation; if so, it may be time to get that person’s head examined. However, the point being made is that the polls in college basketball serve as a snapshot of a particular moment in time during the regular season. It makes no determination in who plays for a championship, which is a good thing. For as we all know, in college basketball, the champion is determined on the court. Sure it’s nice to be ranked at this time of the year, but so what? Being ranked doesn’t win games; playing smart, tough, efficient basketball is what wins games. Do that enough times, win enough games, and it would be hard for the AP voters not to notice, and guess what? You become a ranked team.
So hearing that Gary Williams has railed for years that the nation doesn’t give Maryland the respect it deserves…well it doesn’t surprise me. This year, though Maryland is a victim of the perception of the ACC conference. Pundits everywhere are claiming that the ACC this year is weaker, and more watered-down than in years past. This perception is based on the thinking that has existed for years: as Duke and the North Carolina go, so goes the ACC. So this year, with Duke the only ranked team in the conference and North Carolina struggling mightily, the conference is perceived as weak. Because of that perception, Maryland (and Virginia Tech as well) fail to be ranked, yet both are among the teams receiving votes.
The way for the Terps to get respect is to keep winning games. The closing stretch of games (Clemson and Duke at home, Virginia Tech and Virginia on the road) does them no favors. But if the Terps do take three out of four of those, they finish the regular season with a 22-8 record, with 12 wins in conference-which should be good enough for the NCAA tournament no matter where the Terps are ranked.
At BSR: Quarterbacks
Filed under: ACC, MLB, NCAA Tournament, NFL, baseball, basketball, blogs, college basketball, football, sports, websites
This week at the Baltimore Sports Report, I try my hand at some analysis of the quarterback position for the Baltimore Ravens. Of course, most of that analysis begins and ends with Joe Flacco, but there are some points I make about Troy Smith and John Beck as well. This is yet another part in a continuing series where the writers at BSR have reviewed all positional groups on the team. You can find my post here. In the past week, the writers have taken a look at the Ravens’ special teams, linebackers and the offensive line. There’s even a post about last week’s State of the Ravens press conference. Now that football season is over, you can have a look back at the season that was through these and other posts.
However, that’s not all you can find at BSR. The site recently got an interview with Amber Theoharis, who just might be the busiest female sportscaster in the market. Also, features are starting to pop up on Baltimore’s other birds, the Orioles. Find out how our writers feel about the offseason moves as spring training approaches. There will be features and opinions thorughout the season, so stay tuned. There will be Terps coverage as well as we get closer to the ACC Tournament and March Madness.
If you are a fan of Baltimore sports, do yourself a favor and check out the Baltimore Sports Report (not because I said so, and not because my work shows up there from time to time-okay do it for both of those reasons). Do it because it’s a great site for getting a fan’s perspective on Baltimore sports (and be sure to comment).
How Things Have Changed
Filed under: ACC, NCAA, college basketball, following the locals, sports
Last year at this time, Gary Williams was feeling the heat from the media and fans alike regarding the state of the Maryland Terrapins basketball team. The team had gone through a terrible stretch where they had lost five of seven games, including a loss to Morgan State at home. The Washington Post had written a series that focused on the Terrapins failure to land recruits from within the state (Part 1/Part 2/Part 3). To top things off, there was a war of words between the assistant athletic director and Williams about how one recruit ended up not going to Maryland. While some fans stuck by the coach, others mused out loud that it was time for Williams to go; that he had done all he could and since he wasn’t getting the top recruits anymore, Maryland basketball would never ascend the heights it had back in 2001-2002, when the Terps made the Final Four in consecutive years, winning the title in 2002.
Fast forward to one year later, and you can find hardly any dissent about the job Williams is doing as coach of the Terrapins. His team currently resides in second place in the conference with a 6-2 record at the halfway point of the conference season. The team is not mired in a funk; in fact in the last game the Terrapins routed North Carolina by 21 points. This week sets up to be a big one for the Terrapins with three games in five days. Saturday they take on the first-place Duke Blue Devils in Durham, then Monday play the make-up game with Virginia at home (which was postponed by the blizzard) and two days later face a trip to Raleigh to play North Carolina State’s Wolfpack. While no game is a gimme in the ACC, given how the Terrapins have played so far each of these games are winnable, though the game at Duke certainly will be tough. With the Blue Devils undefeated at home, it will take a team effort for the Terrapins to get a victory there. If they don’t win that game, there wouldn’t be any shame in losing to the conference’s first-place team on its home floor; but it makes the next two games more important.
All in all, the Terps are looking pretty good for a team picked to finish fifth in the conference. It’s nice to see that the status of Gary Williams is not topic A in any discussion of his basketball team. In fact, I can’t say that I have heard any dissent with Williams, the team’s performance or his recruiting ability. What a difference a year makes. But I wonder if this team somehow falters down the stretch, or the season ends in a fashion that fans find unacceptable, will the barking and sniping return.
The Love Of The Game Revisited
Filed under: baseball, basketball, college basketball, football, hockey, sports
Dear @tat2dsteelergal, @Tailgate365, @Pigsknlvnglady, @MDBirdLover, @steelergurl, @carolinaware and @thenflchick:
So What Do We Do Now?
Ladies and gentlemen, the 2009 NFL season has ended. The New Orleans Saints brought one home for NOLA and its thirsty for a championship fans, beating the favored Indianapolis Colts in Super Bowl XLIV by a score of 31-17. With the final gun of the final game of the season, we are all left to football withdrawal for the next few months. Oh sure, the scouting combine is coming up shortly, the NFL Draft in a couple months and training camp a couple months after that.
But no games.
No Sunday afternoon communals in front of the tube or in the stands, or with friends or via internet meeting places. Sundays (and Monday nights) will be a lot quieter without NFL football.
No smack talk. No great hits, great plays and great laughs and sorrows to share.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure we all will be entertained in the months to come until the NFL ramps up again. Some of us will follow hockey, some college and NBA hoops, some with baseball, and some with all of those. And oh yeah, there’s the Winter Olympics about to begin too, if you’re interested. Life goes on for all of us outside of the sport we love; and we got to deal with that as well.
But the gridiron quiets down just a bit. The sporting passion of fans like yourself and many others recedes ever so slightly, only to build again as we inch ever closer to the beginning of another NFL season. As we move on to the next one, the sport faces an uncertain future: labor questions in the distance with the possibility of an uncapped year next season and a possible lockout for the season after that. Let’s not dwell on that; there will be time to focus on and discuss the possibility that after next season a football season won’t start on time, or at all.
For me, personally: I just want to thank you all again for making this season extremely enjoyable. First with your participation in my original Love Of The Game post, and throughout the season as we commiserated about the greatest game on the planet: NFL Football.
P.S. To so many others on Twitter that I shared Sundays, Mondays, Thursdays and even Saturdays with over the past NFL season, thank you as well. I’ll try to name as many of you as I can, but if you think you should’ve been mentioned and you weren’t: hey, you know what I say-charge it to my head and not my heart.
@SidelinePass, @asportsscribe, @dfolkens, @cosadulce, @Inkognegro, @MkRob, @ltma, @brownsugar63, @ninerchick05, @cowboychick, @mrsFAB, @12kyle, @jeffw171, @GelaTrish, @edthesportsfan, @ay52, @stephsherman, @snwann, @khaijg, @Hail_Mary_Jane, @MDSteelerGal, @JUS_chillin, @BigDubz, @julythirteenth, @sbolen, @BMoreGoHard and @lovejonz618 (her Saints are champs at last!), thank you all.
Random Sports Thoughts 7
Filed under: MLB, NBA, NFL, baseball, basketball, college basketball, football, sports
Around and about in the world of sports:
- Congratulations to the seven members of the newest class of the NFL Hall of Fame: Jerry Rice, Emmitt Smith, John Randle, Rickey Jackson, Russ Grimm, Dick LeBeau and Floyd Little. Rice and Smith were no-brainers of course, and the other candidates deserved their nods as well. There is a backlog of great players that are eligible for the Hall; it will take some time to get all of them in. I would just like to put in a few words for Grimm. Given the fact that the Hogs were one of the best offensive lines of the last 25-30 years, it’s actually about time one of them got some recognition by the Hall.
- There was talk last week of the NCAA opting out of their contract with CBS and possibly expanding the NCAA basketball tournament from it’s current 65 team format to 96 teams. Okay, let me get this straight. No action is necessary for a college football playoff, but the greatest college event ever needs to break up the current format to let more teams in? I don’t think so…this thing reeks of a money grab. Not to mention, that if they really want to fix the tournament they should get rid of the play-in game, or at the least let the last two at-large teams play in that game. Don’t put a small school automatic qualifier in the game-they deserve the opportunity to have the full tournament experience much more than some BCS school mediocrity. Not to mention, if the tournament did include 96 teams, most if not all of those spots would be to BCS schools with unimpressive resumes.
- The days are growing short leading into spring training for another baseball season, and I wonder what exactly will the Orioles look like this year. I’ll have more to say about them as the season gets closer, but it has been a pretty quiet offseason for Baltimore’s baseball birds. For some fans, it has been too quiet. I’ll reserve judgement until things get going, but once again, I am hoping for progress. I’m not expecting a worst-to-first season, but at least be competitive past the All-Star break, and if possible, make an approach to .500.
- Gilbert Arenas was suspended for the remainder of this season, and has probably seen his last days as a member of the Washington Wizards. Has there been a more stunning fall from grace? Arenas was once the prince of the city; his blog was popular and his skills on the court made fans sit up and take notice. His absence serves as just a symbol of the Wizards’ season; where they were counting on him to finally be healthy enough to play, he ends up missing another large chunk of a third consecutive season. I don’t see how the Wizards can keep this core of players together, with Arenas surely gone it may be time for Ernie Grunfeld (or someone else) to blow this team up and build it back from the ground up. It will definitely be interesting to see how the Wizards proceed from here.
Maryland Terrapins: Time To Pay Attention
Filed under: ACC, NCAA, basketball, college basketball, following the locals, sports
With football about to go on hiatus (the games, not the business), the time has come for me to begin paying attention to college and pro hoops. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been kinda keeping an eye on both of them (the NBA due to the Arenas mess and the fantasy basketball league I’m in), but this post will be about ACC hoops in general and the Maryland Terrapins in particular.
Almost every year without fail, the ACC is generally acknowledged as one of, if not the best, college hoops conference. Football in the ACC is a secondary thought-the joke is that the ACC is a basketball conference that dabbles in football. That perception is primarily borne on the success of the two unquestioned powerhouses in conference-Duke and North Carolina. Year after year, these two programs are the marquee features in the league, with successful season after successful season. Their success is often a given in the league-almost every year one or the other is expected to win the league and claim its automatic berth in the NCAA tournament. This year was expected to be no different. However, this year the conference race is wide open. Duke, while still good, is still beatable with the same flaws that have shown up in recent years. North Carolina is suffering a hangover no one really expected, as their young players haven’t quite gotten up to speed with life in the ACC. Everyone else is up and down depending on the opponent.
As it stands right now, Duke is in front, with a one game lead over a surprising Maryland Terrapins squad that is tied with Duke in the loss column. If the Terps can beat North Carolina today, they will finish the first half of their conference schedule with a 6-2 record, which actually wouldn’t be too shabby. The two conference games the Terps lost could hardly be considered shocking: a 2-point overtime loss to an athletic Wake Forest team and a loss to Clemson, both on the road. The Clemson loss may represent the worst game the Terps have played in conference so far. The second half of their conference schedule features two games with Duke and Virginia, the conference’s other surprise team, as well as dates with Clemson, Virginia Tech, NC State and Georgia Tech. A 5-4 finish would get the Terps to 20 wins with 10 losses, and a 10-6 conference record. Granted, as a fan of the Terps you would want them to do better than that down the stretch, but that finish coupled with one win in the ACC tournament should be enough to get the Terps into the NCAA tournament for a second consecutive season. This time last year, Gary Williams was coming under fire for losing games and clashing with the administration, and yet this year, I’ve heard nothing about coaching, or problems.
So from this point forward, I’ll be giving college hoops greater attention between now and the NCAA championship game.
Twitter: @mindpinball
- @stephsherman323 I agree with you 100%. We both agree that the D isn't getting any younger. Replacements and depth needed ASAP.
- @stephsherman323 he don't rush the passer or play CB. Still it's nice.
- @SidelinePass that it does, that it does. I've been feeling some War lately (this after Santana on Sunday).
- @SidelinePass you've been feeling the Bob Marley this week.
- @carolinaware you got me wanting to hear Everyday Struggle LOL
- @carolinaware Doing well thanks. About to head on in for another busy day at the gig. The Biggie songs will get me going for sure. And now
- @carolinaware good morning brother and happy Biggie Day (I guess that's what you would call it). What's good?
- @MKRob man, with that kind of coverage, something is bound to turn up. Hang in there.
- @lacosadulce oh, well then you got it made I guess :)
- @MKRob Any luck with the new job yet?
- Powered byWordPress Twitter Widget Pro
Find Me On Facebook
Please Follow My Blog
-
baltimoresun.com – Sports- Report: Tiger Woods eyes March 25 return to golf at Bay Hill March 11, 2010Bay Hill director hasn't heard from Tiger Woods but is preparing for possible return Speculation is heating up that Tiger Woods intends to return to competitive golf pretty soon. But where? […]
- Recruiting Report: Season recap – Terps recruit Terrell Stoglin March 11, 2010[…]
- Faceoff: 'We're dying for a win,' Towson's Stratton says March 11, 2010[…]
- CHAT WRAP Orioles Q&A with Jeff Zrebiec March 11, 2010The Baltimore Sun's Jeff Zrebiec answered questions about prospects who might contribute this season, which Orioles player will produce the best offensive numbers, possible realignment and more. Read the full transcript on The Schmuck Stops Here. […]
- Toy Dept.: Orioles' Ernie Tyler's decision is good move March 11, 2010[…]
- Varsity scouting report: Boys basketball state semifinals March 11, 2010Scouting report: Boys basketball state semifinals […]
- ORIOLES SPRING TRAINING Bergesen 'disappointed' with exhibition debut March 11, 2010Right-hander is healthy but allows 3 hits in 1 1/3 innings Right-hander is healthy but allows 3 hits in 1 1/3 innings […]
- Varsity scouting report: Girls basketball state semifinals March 11, 2010Girls basketball state semifinals (All games at UMBC's RAC Arena) […]
- Ravens WR Mason agrees to return March 11, 2010Two-year, $8 million deal brings back Flacco's favorite target, team's most consistent threat Two-year, $8 million deal brings back Flacco's favorite target, team's most consistent threat […]
- MARYLAND BASKETBALL Williams has steadfast supporters March 11, 2010Friends of Gary, Fastbreak, totaling a few hundred members, have always had his back As streaking Maryland — seven wins in a row — prepared for its game Friday in the ACC tournament, Williams, 65, was quick to acknowledge the supporters and friends he says were always behind him. […]
- Report: Tiger Woods eyes March 25 return to golf at Bay Hill March 11, 2010
-