I have been a MD homer for a long time and I know Duke is not their "natural" rival but, for myself and my friends that follow MD BB, these two games are the most anticipated games all year. I hope I don't jinx MD but, even when they have down years, they seem to play Duke extremely well. I am hoping for that tonight. I don't really anticipate a win, Duke is extremely tough this year, but I hope for a classic, hard played, close game. We'll see.
My wife is good friends with the former MD bball player Eric Hayes's mother. Eric signed MD bball shirts for my kids and they wore them with pride. My wife and Eric's father are head coaches at rival highschools here in VA. I have always like MD bball although my wife has been a Duke fan her whole life, along with all of her family. So I am kind of becomming a Duke fan because she just loves them. I hope it is a good game.
I'm a Duke BB fan since '78. I hate MD....most years. This year, they have nobody I really dislike, though. My biggest issue with MD BB is Williams allowing his players to play like thugs/punks. It's the same reason I never respected Skip Prosser.
LMAO Jeff I've been watching these games for a long time. MD players play no differently than the Duke players and coach K looks no different than Gary on the sidelines, bright red and pissed off. Hopefully it will be a competitive game.
You have to be kidding. You approve of how WIlliams let Vasquez act? The only thing I can compare it to.....was how Prosser used to let Chris Paul act. I have no respect for that.
We aren't really going to come to a consensus here but I didn't agree with the way coach K let Boozer act, to name just one, but I did understand you can't change a player's personality without affecting their game to a degree. I will tell you one thing, though, I did not like vasquez at all. What you saw in his last year was him trying to make the pros by being a team player when he was a selfish jerk the 3 years before that. If he had done that the years prior some seasons would have been very different. One other thing about vasquez: Right or wrong there were recruiting considerations as to why vasquez got away with his BS. I doubt you will see his number up in the rafters though and he has some great numbers for a MD BB player.
I've been a Maryland BB fan since Juan Dixon. Always look forward to watching them play duke...and UNC.
Wahoo: I live 9mi. from WFU and used to go to a lot of games (friend has season tix). Prosser let Paul act like a punk (which he was). Don't have to refer to AN incident. That's the way he played. Do you remember the "incident" when K had the 3rd stringer play HIM the way he played everyone else? That was CLASSIC. He'd grown tired of it, and that was his way of letting Prosser know it wasn't "OK".
Yes, it was. I missed a chunk of it when tending to and getting earache medicine for my daughter but I enjoyed watching all of the parts I saw. I think that game made both teams a little bit better, if Duke could be a little bit better LOL.
Duke could be a lot better, if Irving's foot healed up! MD impressed me, Bruce. I had no idea they were that scrappy. I hope Duke doesn't see them in the tournaments.
MD has been a pleasant surprise this year and I have enjoyed watching them. They can be a bit frustrating due to their youngness but I think Jordan Williams will be something to watch his senior year. If some of these freshman develop MD should be real fun to watch the next couple, three years.
