Turtledroppings.com – Maryland Football And Basketball Blog

Well it is a little harder to motivate myself to write after the Morgan State loss, but the good news is, life goes on.  Albeit, a little less rosy.  I had an article in my head I was going to write if we beat Morgan.  I had it all planned out in my head.  I will have to keep that one on file for next year!  Anyway, the ACC opener against Georgia Tech is on the horizon, and a successful ACC season can erase the damage caused by Wednesdays loss.  A loss to Tech and the work done for MOST of the non-conference schedule will be erased, and the questions about the team will begin to be validated.  With that loss you have to figure the Terps will have to go 9-7, maybe even 10-6 in the conference.  The good or bad news (depending on how you look at it) is the schedule makers left a lot of room for marquis wins with 4 games games against UNC and Duke.  It is going to be a tall task with Wake and Clemson also looking tough so far this season.  If they pull it off, it will be all the more memorable.  So with all that good news, I just want to give you a little look about GT. 

Tech is 400 acre campus in the heart of Atlanta with 19,000 undergrad and grad students.  In 1888 Georgia School of Technology was opened to 84 students.  In 1948 it became known as Georgia Institute of Technology.  Not until 1952 women were admitted.  In 1961 GT became the first school in “the deep south” to allow African-American Students without a court order.  Ahh they must be proud.  The Rambling Wreck from Georgia Tech fight song came from an old folk ballad and then the nickname became more popular in the 1920 when students began building “makeshift” buggies to help improve a poor transportation system in South Africa.  Famous Alumni include Jimmy Carter.  Not really Alumni, he left to go to the Naval Academy.  Thought it was interesting to include him.  A Ton of CEO’s and Chaimen called Tech home including Mike Duke (Walmart) and James D. Robinson III (the Coca Cola company).  Atlanta Mayor Ivan Allen Jr. is also a grad.  They have an impressive list of inventors and engineers who invented or found something way over my head.  One that stands out is Herbert Saffir who invented the Saffir-Simpson Hurrican Scale.  Actor/comedian Jeff Foxworthy is a Tech grad.  Kind of takes a little shine off that Tech degree.  They have many sports alum, but one that I didn’t know is Bobby Jones, founder of the Masters and Augusta National.  In State tuition, room, and board cost you $16,234, if you are out of state, it will cost you a whopping $35,376. 

This season’s team comes in at 9-5 after beating UGA 67-62.  They are 0-1 in the ACC with a loss to UVA.  Tech’s had some key players missing, so that may explain the early record.  And that doesn’t make any sense to post leading scorers.  Do know that Lewis Clinch returned after being academically ineligible for the first semester.  He is averaging 14 points in his seven games since he has returned.  Looks like injured guard Moe MIller is planning on playing with a mask to protect his broken nose.  One thing that does concern is me is the inside tandem of Gani Lawal and Alade Aminu.  They have the size and athleticism the Terps severely lack.  I read where Tech was down to an 8 man rotation that included playing walk-on, a freshman walk-on, Nick Miller who is averaging 15 minutes.  I hope the Terps can use that to thier benefit and slap on the press.  Tech also likes to press, and you know the old saying about teams that like to press. 

It should be an interesting game.  This game by no means defines the season, but the way they play will be an indicator of the heart and attitude of this team.   We all knew there were going to be ups and downs, and I think we all expected some slip ups, but after the way the season had played out, up until the Morgan State game, I began to think this team was just not going to allow it to happen.  There are going to be nights when shots don’t fall.  We can only hope that they don’t all happen on the same night.  And it did against Morgan.  When you have to no inside game, you have to live and die with outside shots, and quite frankly they died a slow death in the final minutes against Morgan.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 9th, 2009 at 1:38 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.