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Well I looked at the standings to see exactly where Miami stood, and I kind of chuckled.  There sat the Mighty Terps in a two way tie for second place.  Will they stay there?  I would say that is a big fat no.  Will they be in the top half?  Only time will tell.  This upcoming game should tell us a little more about what to expect the rest of the season.  If you can believe this, Wednesday’s game in Coral Gables is the first true road game of the year.  That is kind of weak.  We have had four neutral site games, but one of those was down the street at the Verizon Center in DC.  I wasn’t really sure if I was going to continue doing the school histories for each game or not, but for this year I will.  I think the next year I will only do the non-ACC games.

The inaugural class of 560 students enrolled in 1926.  It was created so the people in the growing region around Miami would have an opportunity for higher learning.  Today (according to their website) Miami is one of the more esteemed public universities.  There are 15,300 graduate and undergraduate students.  If you were to have entered in the fall, it would have cost you $34,206 for the year.  Wow, those private universities are steep.  Miami nearly fell into bankruptcy near the great depression, and even prior to that thanks in part to a devastating hurricane .  Notable alumni, and this is where the fun begins, include the following.  Can you sme-l-l-l-l-l-l what the Rock is cooking?  Dwayne The Rock Johnson is a grad, so is Ray Liotta.  Steve-O attended but did not graduate, ditto Sylvester Stalone (although he was awarded an honorary degree).  Gloria Estefan, Enrique Iglasias, Jon Secada are all alum in the music world.  Trista Rehn (Bachelorette), Roy Firestone, Jill Arington, and Suzy Kolber are on the TV side.  Here is one more for fun, Greg Louganis.  Interesting list of Alumni (or former students in some cases), and that is leaving out all the NFL players. 

Onto the reason we are writing this article.  Miami’s hoops team is 1-1 in the ACC and is 12-3 overall.  They lost their ACC opener to Clemson way back in December.  They also lost to Ohio State and UCONN.  Not exactly any Morgan States on that list.  They did beat Boston College Saturday night.  Maryland native Jack McClinton is leading the Canes with 16.9 points per game, and is draining threes at a 46% clip.  Dwayne Collins is averaging 12 points and 8 rebounds, but is shooting 61% from the floor (and only slightly better from the line).  As a team they are averaging 43 rebounds per game and shooting 43% on the year. 

To say this is a must win, is a bit of a stretch.  I think it is important to come out and play a solid game on the road.  I also think we need to see an improvement in the halfcourt offense.  They have played hard all year, but we do need to see some improvements going forward.  For the most part the defense has been there, but the offense has to come around.  The extended scoring droughts have to come to an end.  Until then Go Terps!

This entry was posted on Monday, January 12th, 2009 at 5:57 pm and is filed under Maryland Terps Basketball. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.