Turtledroppings.com – Maryland Football And Basketball Blog

Wow, we have been saying for the last month that the Terps need to pull out a win against one of the conference elite.  But everytime they have battled the best, we haven’t been coming up just short, we’ve been run out of buildings, so I think I probably speak for a lot of fans when I try to convey the shock I’m feeling right now.  In fact I shouldn’t be writing, I am completely scatter brained right now.  But at the same time, wild horses would have to drag me away from this keyboard.  This is what college basketball is all about. 

First I don’t think I could say another word without mentioning Greivis Vasquez.  The guy singlehandidly willed us this win, sure he had help at times, (Cliff Tucker I’m looking at you), but there were other times, like say the first 15 minutes of the game when it was all him.  For us Maryland Stat geeks, Greivis not only crossed the magical 30 point line (that back when we were in college would get you into the Maryland Program) he had a friggin triple double!  You got to tip your cap to the guy.  What is funny though is that I still have friendsj that think he isn’t the teams MVP (hey how did that letter J get in there, there shouldn’t be a J in the word friends!).

But lets look at some of the other performances on the night.  Back to Tucker, Cliff Tucker was a one man 3 machine shooting 5-7 from behind the arc.  He finished with 22 points and 6 rebounds.  Then there was Eric Hayes.  I know I have complained about Eric’s play from time to time, but I’ll shut up for now.  Hayes shot a respectable 3-8 from behind the arc and chipped in 17 points with a 4-4 effort from the foul line.  Between the 3 of them, they scored 74 of our 88 points!

But going back to Greivis, I can’t get over this, let’s break down his stat line; he shot 13 of 24 for 35 points, he was 5-10 from 3 point land, and 4-4 from the foul line. He pulled down 11 rebounds, and also had 10 assists (which is good since he also had 7 turnovers…not that I’m complaining).  Greivis, this is your night.  Take it all in and enjoy it.

So back to the big picture, what does this mean.  Unfortunately it is a little too early to say.  If we can use this as a jumping off point to beat Duke, well then this is one of the biggest games we have seen in quite a while.  If we lay an egg against Duke, well then this was just another bump on the roller coaster that is Maryland Basketball, but as of now I’m too excited to contemplate that outcome. 

We finally have a big “hang your hat on win” sure Michigan State was nice but that seems like years ago at this point.  It was also nice that we got another win in the ever so important “What did this team do in their last 10 games?” section of our tournament resume.  The jury is still out on whether we can get in with an 8-8 conference record but after this game, who is thinking 8-8?  Whatever lies in the future for the Terps let’s try to put it out of our heads for now.  This was a classic basketball game that makes us all remember why we follow sports.  So go outside, yell at the moon, watch Sportscenter 5 times, read every article in tomorrow’s paper until your hearts content, but most of all be happy to be a Terp!!

Extra Droppings:

Just wanted to point out an unbelievable stat in the box score.  If you aren’t impressed enough by Greivis’s triple double, chew on this.  UNC scored 85 points, on 5 assists!  Maryland on the other hand had 18.

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 21st, 2009 at 6:33 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.