And Yet Another Rant
Unlike some others, I actually enjoy writting these angry posts. I always feel a little better afterwards, kind of like the scene in “Office Space” with the copier. Anyway, what else is there really left to say at this point. I woke up Saturday morning with the Duke game obviously on my mind. I was in a great mood because I had convinced myself all week not to get too down in the event that we lost to Duke because let’s face it. Playing on the road in Cameron is NOT a must win game. It’s a bonus game. If we win, awesome, if we lose well we didn’t really expect to win anyway, a No Loss situation…right?
Well what I didn’t anticipate was the idea that a Gary Williams led team would absolutely roll over and die, especially playing in Durham. No matter how bad things have gotten over these “Post National Championship” years, I have ALWAYS (uh oh here comes the all Caps!) taken great pride in the fact that we continue to battle Duke hard. You watch so many teams go in to Duke and just take their beating, but Maryland, no matter how bad we have been, has always gone in with the attitude of “why can’t we beat this team?” and it has shown, afterall we have as many wins in Cameron these last few years as UNC does, and our record vs. Duke in this decade doesn’t even reflect the way things have gone recently for us.
But what I watched yesterday was an absolute nightmare. Guys looking scared, players passing on open looks. We were totally outclassed. As a sports fan, if you want to be happy you have to learn to manage your expectations. No team is going to go undefeated, no team isn’t going to have set backs, but what hurt the most yesterday was not the loss. It was being totally outclassed by a team who we used to be able to stand toe to toe with.
The thought that kept jumping in my head time after time as I was watching the massacre was “How did we ever win the National Championship?” and not only that, I will never forget how excited we all were driving back from Atlanta after that fairy tale type day and thinking to myself, now that we have reached the top things will never be the same, we can get any recruit we want, we can start building a Nationwide Bandwagon fanbase, we can begin a true dynasty to match any one in the Tarheel State, things would be different. I just kept smiling and thinking back to the Walt William days and every step that was taken between then and now, and I was on top of the world.
Unfortunately the only thing I was right about was that things “would never be the same”. I don’t know what has to be done to right this ship. Heck I’m glad it isn’t my responsibility, and you have to keep in mind we SHOULD have Gus Gilchrist on this team which obviously would help down low. I’m not like this in other sports, but for whatever reason when it comes to getting rid of Maryland coaches, I’m always the last one off the ship. I’m not going to say Gary needs to go, but after watching that embarrassing display yesterday, I’m starting to look into the lifeboats, and mentally trying to figure out who I want to be sitting by for the next x hours until the relief ship arrives. But from the looks of it, it seems like those seats are filling up fast.
Extra Droppings:
And you know what the worst part of all this is, and I’m wondering if anyone else experiences this as well, the worst part is all the people, who the next time they see me are going to ask “What happened to Maryland?”. That’s the worst part for me, it isn’t the loss, I can deal with that and move on, it’s the people that come out of the wood work to continually pick at my scab!!
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January 25th, 2009 at 7:54 am
We were at a party last night. Two Duke grads, a Duke fan and a Davidson grad all had something to say to me. Sweet. I always feel like Gary has earned the right to leave on his terms, and maybe he feels that way too, but it is obvious he was resting on his laurels after winning it all. These two big men recruits appear to be solid players, but are they going to come in next year and revive this team, I doubt it, but one can only hope. Who knows, one may wind up being a Joe Smith!
January 25th, 2009 at 12:20 pm
I hate the “what happened” people. The thought always creeps into my head, “If I kill this person can I pleed insanity?”. Then rational thought and common sense prevail. I usually say, ” I don’t know”, then try to change the subject to something worse like the war or the economy.