Well, I didn’t expect this… Between that and the Oscars, I’ll never cut it as a telephone psychic.
I came back from the intramural game (we lost to a team of football players who had a slight strength and conditioning edge over us) with about 11 minutes left, and it looked pretty much like what I had expected. Maryland had made a decent run, but the Tar Heels seemed to be firmly in control of the game.
And then, they just… collapsed. Mike Jones had one of his patented idiot turnovers, leading to a fast break for UNC, and then Bobby Frasor chunked as open a lay-up as I’ve ever seen missed. If you want to know how incredible that miss was, consider this: Maryland almost didn’t get the rebound, because the guys trailing the play had given up and started to head back to the other end of the court. They got the ball and went back the other way, though, and then Jones hit a three. Then Strawberry hit a three, and another two from Jones, and the next thing you know, Maryland had a lead.
Carolina did a good job trying to steady themselves, feeding the ball to Tyler Hansbrough who seemed able to score more or less at will, but then he picked up a couple of cheap fouls (including one stupid slap-at-the-ball foul that was positively Ibekwe-esque), and sort of lost his cool. And the Terps held on to win.
Really, I haven’t seen anything like it since about ten years ago, when the Stackhouse/ Wallace Heels gave up a 22-point lead to Maryland in the Dean Dome. Not that that’s really all that relevant, I just like remembering that game…
I didn’t see the first three-quarters of this game, so I can’t say too much about it, but D.J. Strawberry was huge for Maryland, scoring 27. Ekene Ibekwe picked up the expected idiotic fouls, but they appear to have gotten solid games from Bowers and Osby. Hayes and Vasquez were a little shaky, but Jones played well after a rocky start.
All in all, it’s a great win for the Terps. This ought to lock up an NCAA bid for them– the worst they can end up is .500 in the ACC, and they have wins over Duke and UNC to their credit. It’s not at all what I would’ve expected a few weeks ago, when they looked completely dead.
As usual, Jeremy Gold has gone mad with glee, and is ready to name Gary Williams coach of the year. I don’t know that I’d go that far, but it’s a nice turnaround.
A few weeks back, D.J. Strawberry asked “Who’s to say that we can’t win our last seven games?” I guess he knew what he was talking about– they’ve won five of the seven, and while going to Duke is no picnic, suddenly, it looks a lot more possible…