Saturday, March 11, 2006

The Waiting Is The Hardest Part

I had to borrow this line from Tom Petty's song The Waiting as the title. I don't think $#^&*#@ Terps would go over too well but it describes my mood perfectly. I don't really want to go into too much about last night's fiasco, but I'd better get it out of me now and just be done with it. So here is a profanity free recap of what I watched last night. Trust me, the four letters were flying around the basement rec room last night while this mess was going on.

ACC Quarterfinals
Boston College 80, Maryland 66

This game started 17-2 and was over at the first TV timeout.... Unbelievable. An absolute nightmare and Maryland never recovered. The Terps picked a bad, bad time to come out flat. Despite getting trounced the way they did, they still sealed up a post season bid though.

Sadly for us Terps fans it’s to the NIT.

When I see the Terps play the way they did tonight, I’m amazed they finished 19-12 and won 8 ACC games in the regular season and grabbed another one in the ACC tournament. This has been the most frustrating Maryland team to follow in quite some time. Going into this game they won three straight and I thought Gary Williams had them ready to upset Boston College.

Didn’t happen. Not even close. This picture sums up how the evening went for the Terrapins. Ekene Ibekwe hits the rim as he attempts to dunk.

Since 1980, six teams that finished with an 8-8 record or better in the ACC have been left out of the NCAA tournament field. After last night’s performance, it looks like the Terps will be the seventh. I’ve followed Maryland basketball since I was a wee lad but I’m trying to be realistic here. They won only two road games all season and didn’t beat a RPI Top 50 school since early December. After Chris McCray was declared academically ineligible. Maryland has lost to every team it faced with an RPI of 70 or better.

I’ll be tuned in Sunday evening when they announce the NCAA Tournament field, fingers crossed with my Terps gear on. My wife went to George Mason, who are also playing the waiting game.

1 comment:

Bill-DC said...

George Mason made the NCAA Field while Maryland made the NIT. George Mason plays Michigan State while Maryland plays the winner of the Manhattan-Fairleigh Dickinson game.