At this time last year, the Maryland Terps basketball team had finished seventh in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), with a 7-9 conference record. One year later, the Terps hold a share of the ACC regular-season title, and a four-seed in this year’s NCAA tournament.
The Terps have returned from the mediocrity that has plagued them since 2002 when they won the national title. Despite arguments that Head Coach Gary Williams can’t recruit, people forget that the Terps lost four of their starting five players that year (Juan Dixon, Lonnie Baxter, Chris Wilcox and Byron Mouton) to graduation.
Senior point guard Greivis Vasquez has capped an astounding career at Maryland. He is the first Terrapin ever to score 2000 points, snag 700 rebounds and dish out 600 assists. He is third all-time on the Terps scoring list. He led the Terps to what could go down in history as the greatest regular season victory ever at home, against rival Duke, on senior night. He won the ACC Player of the Year Award (rightfully so), after averaging 19.6 points per game, 6.3 assists per game and leading the Terps to their first conference title since 2002.
Williams, who surpassed Lefty Driesell as the Terps all-time winningest coach last year, also won the ACC Coach of the Year award.
Now, with the team looking to the NCAA tournament, if I were Williams right now, I would not be happy with the selection committee. Yes, they got a 4-seed despite losing in their opening round of the ACC tournament. That doesn’t change the fact that they are in the hardest bracket in the tournament.
In their bracket is the number one team in the country (Kansas), the Big Ten champion (Ohio State), the team that beat them in the ACC tournament (Georgia Tech) and Big East runner-up (Georgetown).
As good as they have proven themselves to be this season, I see them losing to the number one team in the country, the Kansas Jayhawks, in the Sweet 16. Kansas returns three starters from their championship team two years ago, and that experience will be too much for Vasquez and the Terps.
