From 1996 to about 2005 or so, I was excited for the start of the NCAA Tournament. Most of the reason for this is because my Terps were in the NCAA Tournament and I was interested in watching them in the tournament. Since assistant coach Billy Hahn left the Terps (Hahn was supposedly the guy who was the team's recruiter) the team has sucked and appeared in the NIT Tournament in a number of the past years (I'm not going to even waste time looking up how many times in the past 4 or 5 years they've been in that subpar tourney.
This year, even though I've lost touch with the NCAA, I reluctantly joined a Tournament Pool and figured that even though I did not follow the NCAA season religiously this year that I have just as good a shot at winning the pool as any buxom blond who knows nothing about basketball (other than the ball is orange)...
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First of all, I am a Maryland alum (2000) and all my siblings (3) went to Maryland as well. I love MD and live and die with their athletic programs, especially our flagship program which is basketball. With that said, over the last 4 years, I get more pride watching the women's team than the men.
There was a time when MD was consistently in the Sweet Sixteen. Making the tournament was a foregone conclusion, we were more worried about seeding. Then in 2001,2002 we reach the final four and win the national championship, respectively. I knew it was a bad sign when Carmelo Anthony went to Syracuse (who now have Donte Green) in 2003. To top it off, he was the best player in the nation and MVP of the final four and a dominant force in the championship game.
I love Gary, his passion and he will always be a hero because he brought home our first national championship. Nevertheless, he is 63 and what little energy and budget he allocated towards recruiting has dwindled. We just aren't talented enough to overcome our disgraceful assist to turnover ratio and lack of confident perimeter shooting. It's gotten to the point where we are losing at home to the likes of American and Ohio and struggling to get by our other cupcake opponents. That is a direct correlation to a talent deficiency and other programs (Georgetown, Vtech, etc) snatching prospects out of MD.
That is just this year, we have also disappointed 3 of the last four years. Ohh and that one year we had 1 narrow victory against Davidson and lost to Butler in the 2nd round of the NCAA tourney. I never look at one or two years, but the body of work over the last 5 years. The consistent theme is disappointing team chemistry, poor recruiting, defections from the coaching staff and far too many losses.
The most devastating thing was the consistent lack of toughness shown by UMD in games when we had a double-digit lead (Clemson, Vtech, Duke, BC). That is a disturbing sign that the players are not listening.
Maryland used to scare teams with their full-court pressure and fast-break offense, now we are struggling in our half-court offense and defense and turnover the ball so much that our fast-break points are down precipitously.
We as loyal fans deserve better, we have one of the best arenas in the country, a huge fan base, talented ballers in DC, MD and VA and prestige locally and nationally.
I wrote this in response to a baltimore sun article last week: http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/
college/basketball/mens/
bal-sp.maesecolumn0315,0,655733.column
To rely on a score-first juco guard (maze) and unproven PF as well as incoming freshmen (Mosely and others) is a huge mistake. This is the ACC and deserve time to develop before being thrown into the fire. Meshing with Vasquez's personality and horrid shot selection is not guaranteed either. We are relying on the future now, which is not fair to them and usually leads to mediocrity.
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