Maryland moved to 3-3 in ACC play tonight with a win over Virginia. For those of us who have been following the team all season, it's tough to believe that this is the same group of guys who lost three straight games in December, including back-to-back home losses to Ohio U and American.
Looking back, I think the turning point for the season was the win at home against Holy Cross. The team showed that they could blow out a tournament-quality team (which up to that point had not been a certainty). They started building confidence, carried it through a tough loss at VT, and now look like one of the best teams in the ACC.
Tonight, the Terps jumped out to a huge lead early in the game behind some lights-out shooting from Hayes and Vasquez. Earlier in the season, Maryland seemed to fall behind early in every game, and then struggled to dig themselves out of a hole for the rest of the game. When they would get a lead, the team always seemed to let it slip away, only to find themselves in a dogfight at the end of the game. Virginia did manage to get the game to within 5 points towards the end, but the Terps never seemed rattled. They kept making plays and hitting foul shots and put the game away.
At 3-3 in the ACC, the Terps realistically need to get to 10-6 to guarantee themselves a spot in the tournament. They would probably have a good chance to get in at 9-7 with a win or two in the ACC tournament. The Terps' remaining schedule is:
| @ GT | 12:00 PM | |
| @ BC | 7:00 PM | |
| NCST | 8:00 PM | |
| @ DUKE | 7:00 PM | |
| FSU | 3:00 PM | |
| VT | 9:00 PM | |
| @ MIA | 2:00 PM | |
| @ WFU | 8:00 PM | |
| CLEM | 7:30 PM | |
| @ UVA | 7:30 PM |
At Duke and at BC will be very tough games, but the remainder are very winnable. If this Maryland team keeps playing the way they have been, 10-6 and a tournament berth is a very achievable goal.
6 Responses:
I was at the game. Sean Singletary made me really nervous, but I honestly believe James Gist and Boom Osby were just like, "Listen, Gravy, Hayesy, Milly: We aren't losing. No f***ing way. So don't f*** it up."
Great and interesting post on confidence building. Agree with you fully. However we have our own view on confidence building too. You can find out more at http://www.confidencebuildingcourses.com
YES!!!! Spam commenter.
Not only that, a spam commenter with a Google alert for "building confidence."
Maybe we should set up a comment spam bot for any blogs that use the term "East Coast."
That would be a very busy bot.
Post a Comment