Fear the turtle...or don't
It's starting to look like Maryland football and Maryland basketball share one common characteristic. You never know whether Jeckyll or Hyde is going to show up.
Ralph Friedgen's football Terps stepped up to beat a series of ranked teams over the course of their strange season, but disappeared during some seemingly winnable games to turn a potentially fantastic season into something less.
Gary Williams team delivered a terrific performance to defeat highly ranked Michigan State in the Old Spice Classic, but were barely competitive in ensuing tournament games against Gonzaga and Georgetown. So what do they do last night? They come home to beat a Michigan team that has beaten then-No. 4 UCLA and whose only loss prior to the 75-70 defeat at the Comcast Center was to No. 5 Duke.
Don't know what to think, but it's probably fair to say that it's going to be a roller coaster season for the Terps. Might want to fasten your seat belts.
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Comments
Kinda makes you wonder: has "parity" come to college football and college basketball? Also, this is off-point, but I learned today there is actually a "bail-out" precedent right here in Baltimore: In order to convince the Dallas Texans to move to Baltimore in 1953 and become the Colts, the City of Baltimore purchased 15,000 season tickets for that first year (source: Lenny Moore's autobiography "All Things Being Equal").
Posted by: wacko jacko | December 4, 2008 12:01 PM
Maybe the boys can only beat schools from Michigan...
Bring on the University of Detroit! (that's a real college right?)
Posted by: Steve | December 4, 2008 12:21 PM
I think it's safe to say the Terps have something against people from Michigan. How bout spreading the hatred to the rest of the country guys?!?!
Posted by: Eric | December 4, 2008 12:42 PM
Basketball isn't the sport I follow the closest, but as an Ohio State rooter, I thank the Maryland men very, very much for beating their opponent on Wednesday night.
Posted by: Thomber Hugoharris | December 4, 2008 12:51 PM
The Terp hoopers are a young team with not a great deal of depth, so I expect some inconsistency there, but no so with the football team.
Gary Williams did a tremendous job motivating his team after the two crushing losses. (Having Greivis Vasquez on the squad doesn't hurt either; not only because of his great skills but also his tremendous heart, confidence and competitive drive.)
Football is different, though, because of the veterans. In the middle of this season, I recall a Friedgen interview after a disappointing loss, where Ralph said he told his players they need to figure out who they are as a team. When I heard that I thought, "How true."
But after thinking about it, it struck me that is Coach Friedgen who bears the bigger burden in instilling a team identity. And I say this because for the past few years the Terps have had the same sort of inconsistency, winning big games against tough opponents and then not putting away what look on paper to be easy foes.
Too often it seems as though they play up or down to the level of the competition. I don't know how Ralph can fix that, but I think the coaching staff needs to study the problem after the season and find ways to fix it.
Granted, the Terps don't always get the best athletes, but the players seem good enough that they usually should be a ranked team, even cracking the Top Ten every once in a while. Look up "underachieving" or "inconsistent" in the dictionary and you'll see the Terps' team picture.
Posted by: Ken Francis | December 4, 2008 1:22 PM