Maryland Basketball Rant

North Carolina 77, Maryland 62 Recap here

I was thoroughly disgusted at the way the Terps played in the second half last night vs North Carolina. It was so bad, I was counting down the minutes until My Name Is Earl came on.

I was upstairs watching this and had to go downstairs because I didn't want Benjamin to hear my barrage of cuss words. Last thing Weena and I want are his first words to be "Get the *&%$#* rebound you $%*&#!!"

Here's the way I see the rest of the season going if they continue to play like they did the last ten minutes vs Temple and the second half of last night: Currently the Terps have a 14-6 overall record and are 4-3 in the ACC.

at NC State--loss
Virginia--win (maybe)
Duke--loss
at Clemson--win
Georgia Tech--win
at Florida State--loss
at North Carolina--loss
Miami--win
at Virginia--loss

They'll finish 8-8 in the ACC and 18-11 overall. If they suffer a first round loss in the ACC tourney, that will give them an 18-12 record and a spot on the NCAA tournament bubble. The crown jewel win this year is a squeaker home win over #6 at the time Boston College. No sweep of Duke to throw at the NCAA selection committee this year.

The loss of starting senior guard and team captain Chris McCray has hurt this team. He picked a nice time to decide to stop going to class. As a result, his career at Maryland is over.

I'll also place some blame on former guard John Gilchrist for screwing up what chemistry this team had after winning the 2004 ACC tourney. He was told by coach Gary Williams not to bother to come back to the team in 2005-2006 after constantly being a distraction by clashing with Terrapin coaches and teammates last season. Last I heard he was playing in Israel.

If they don't get a NCAA bid this year, I'm not sure if the NIT is too excited about an uninspired team that will be far less interested in the NIT than they were last year. I doubt Gary will even accept the NIT bid, opting to tell the senior class just to scram rather than deal with this team any longer.

All the Georges are doing well. George Washington (17-1) is currently ranked tenth in the nation and Georgetown (15-4) should make a return to the NCAA tournament. George Mason (16-5), Weena's school, is currently tied for the lead the CAA Conference headed into a showdown vs arch rival UNC-Wilmington tomorrow night at Patriot Center. First place is at stake.