Monday, March 13, 2006

NIT Action

I'm debating about going to this. Why? I don't know except to support the Terps. With a young son at home, I only get so many "hall passes" to sporting events now. I'm hoping to get a ticket to the NCAA Regional on March 24 and 26 at MCI/Verizon/Cingular/T-Mobile/Sprint/Nextel Center so I would hate to waste a Saturday hall pass to watch this mess.

Maryland Earns Top Seed in East Region For NIT
Terps host Manhattan on Saturday at Comcast Center

Maryland has earned the top seed in the East Region of the National Invitational Tournament and will host Manhattan on Saturday, March 18 at 11:00 AM at Comcast Center. The game will be broadcast live by ESPN.

Tickets for the NIT are available by calling the Terrapin Ticket Office at (301) 314-7070 or by visiting www.umterps.com.

The Terrapins, who are 19-12 after facing the 12th toughest schedule in the nation, are making their sixth trip to the NIT and their 13th consecutive postseason appearance overall. Maryland advanced to the semifinals of the 2005 NIT at Madison Square Garden after defeating Oral Roberts (85-72), Davidson (78-63) and TCU (85-73). The Terps are 10-4 all-time in the NIT, including the 1972 championship. Maryland also competed in the NIT in 1979, 1982 and 1990.

Joining Maryland as No. 1 seeds are Louisville (Big East), Cincinnati (Big East) and Michigan (Big 10).

3 comments:

Bill-DC said...

First year of the new and improved NIT as the NCAA took over this operation. I believe it was run out of the back seat of a 76 Dodge Dart prior to this year.

Former hoop coaches C.M. Newton and Dean Smith preside over this tournament now. Gary Williams initially turned down the bid, but spoke with Newton later and reversed the decision. Terps are playing.

Part of the fun in following this tournament in years past is you never knew when or where these teams played. If there was an open date at a barn available in Des Moines between dances and hay rides, two NIT teams were sent there to play.

Comcast Center was a nice draw for the NIT last year and the Terps got extra revenue from three home games and Newton pointed that out to Gary. It gives fans who can never get tickets to Comcast Center a chance to see the Terps.

Anonymous said...

I'm going to be there--bright and early.

This is going to be an important game IMO.

Why?

Because we're going to find out how the team responds to the bull$hit they've faced.

If they're the team many of us believe them to be, they're going to want to pulverize every motherf*cking team they face!

Seriously.

I want to see Manhattan so completely crushed and humilated, that the program goes into a tailspin and dies.

Maryland needs to start putting the "fear" back into Fear the Turtle.

And Crush Old Dominion next game.

And crush whomever the face in Madison Square Garden. Seriously beat the living daylights out of them.

We're done pussyfootin. Move over Robespierre--it's Time for MARYLAND to start building their own legacy of Terror.

Seriously crush these fools.

Bill-DC said...

Well, Maryland was one and done in the NIT.

Maryland basketball is not really good right now. Maryland has no star players returning and I have no idea if the freshman class next year will even yield one.

A lot of Terps fans want to place all the blame on coach Gary Williams.

Me, I give him a pass. Why? Last time I checked Gary Williams is the only coach to ever get Maryland into the Final Four and cut down the nets on the final night of the season.

He's definitely earned the chance to pull the program back up...to the bar he set.