Maryland-Duke games have led to championships and off-campus chaos, rankings and rioting. Now the series isn’t about who’s No. 1, but who’s surviving into March.
Sixteenth-ranked Duke (18-6, 5-5 ACC) appears mortal for once while Maryland (17-7, 3-6) is looking more like an NIT team for the third straight season as the teams prepare to meet Sunday at Comcast Center.
Maryland desperately needs a victory to bolster its NCAA Tournament hopes. Duke is always considered a quality win by the selection committee panel even if the Blue Devils would fall to 5-6 in the conference. A loss means the 3-7 Terps would have to sweep upcoming opponents N.C. State (twice), Clemson and Florida State and beat North Carolina or Duke in the rematch for the 8-8 ACC mark needed for a March Madness invite. That’s not even assured given Maryland missed the NCAAs last year with an 8-8 record.
Mostly, the Terps have to muster effort largely missing over recent weeks. Maryland opened flat when losing to Virginia on Tuesday at Comcast. It has become all too familiar since the final players of the 2002 national championship left the following season.
Aside winning the 2004 ACC Tournament, the Terps have struggled since. Last year’s three seniors were all arrested during their careers for alcohol-related offenses and Chris McCray flunked out midway through his final year. John Gilchrist left after his junior season after disputes with coach Gary Williams.
This year’s four seniors play with little passion. To be fair, three have equaled early expectations. D.J. Strawberry was supposed to be a defensive player, not the top scorer. Ekene Ibekwe (11.5 points, 7.4 rebounds, 2.5 blocks) is a little better than projected while center Will Bowers has always been a stopgap player.
Guard Mike Jones has been the disappointment, though. As a high school senior, one recruiting service ranked Jones the No. 2 shooting guard in his class — behind LeBron James. The former McDonald’s All-American was supposed to be the dagger in the backcourt with a long-range shot; the heir to Drew Nicholas. Instead, Jones needed two years to develop off-ball skills and is only averaging 13.7 points. When the Terps needed a late tying basket against Virginia, a freshman — point guard Eric Hayes — took the shot.
Ironically, recruiting appeared undermined by the national title when four assistants later gained head coaching jobs. The Terps failed to land a number of elite local prospects. North Carolina guard Tywon Lawson (McNamara/Oak Hill), Texas forward Kevin Durant (Montrose Christian) and Villanova guard Scottie Reynolds (Herndon) may be rookies of the year in their respective conferences this season.
This year’s recruiting class has local natives Michael Beasley (Notre Dame Academy, Mass.) going to Kansas State, Jeff Allen (DeMatha/Oak Hill) and Gus Gilchrist (Progressive Christian) to Virginia Tech and Jerai Grant (DeMatha) to Clemson. Georgetown has Austin Freeman (DeMatha) and Chris Wright (St. John’s) coming next season with junior Jason Clark (O’Connell) already verbally committed.
That’s a whole lot of local talent to miss out on despite having only a few scholarships. Williams often counters he can’t offer scholarships to 100 players that everyone mentions. But the misses of the past have weakened a team that reached 11 straight NCAA Tournaments beforehand. The only hope is assistant Chuck Driesell is the same standout recruiter his father Lefty was and finds Maryland some talent.
Until then, Maryland has a series of last stands in the coming weeks. Too bad the only thing going mad may be Terps fans.
Rick Snider has covered local sports since 1978. Contact him at [email protected].
