It can be argued that UNC is “down” this year.  Whatever.  They start two seniors, both of whom were more highly recruited than any of the Maryland seniors.  This season defines the essence of the Williamses.  Gary is a great game coach who gets the most out of his talent.  Roy is a great recruiter who can’t beat a dead mule without superior talent.  Maybe the great recruiter will wind up with more Championships; but I’m with the great game coach.  When will the HOF realize that Gary’s bust needs to be installed in Springfield?

Before I digress, let’s get back to today’s game.  The seniors, Mibourne, Hayes, and Vasquez all played like seniors.  Vasquez was sublime.  He scored 26 points effortlessly and dished out dimes as if he was working at a cash register.  Eight games into the ACC season and he is the player of year.  There is no doubt.  No one means more to his team and the Terps are in a virtual tie for first place.  The discussion is over.  If Duke sweeps us (I almost bit my tongue off writing that), and Scheyer soundly outplays Vasquez while doing it; then he overtakes Greivis. Otherwise, Greivis is the POY.

Milbourne has redefined his game in the back half of the year.  He is a complete player. He has the best mid range jumper I’ve seen in years.  He can finish in traffic and he can rebound when it matters (see Florida State).  But his most impressive attribute has been his defense.  He blocks the shots of bigger men.  He is all over the place in the half court.  He’s been phenomenal.

When Eric Hayes is hot from deep, the Terps won’t lose this year.  It just won’t happen.  He adds an extra dimension to the offense that makes the Terps nearly impossible to stop.  If he is able to find his shot in March, we will go far. Mark the tape.

A new AP and Coaches Poll comes out on Monday.  Have the Terps earned a ranking?  I believe so.  16-6 overall and 6-2 in the ACC is impossible to ignore.  Apparently, we lack a signature win; but we don’t have a signature loss either (stop losing William and Mary!).  Personally, I think the RPI matters more. I’d like to see the Terps in the Top 20 heading into the dance.  That should give us a seeding with a good chance to get to the second weekend.

OK, I’m getting ahead of myself.  UVA comes to town on Wednesday and they are a solid team.  They have beaten many of the teams that we have and almost beat Wake the other night. UVA hates Maryland and won’t look past the Terps.

It would be insanity to think that Terps would get careless and start taking their success for granted. Gary knows UVA is dangerous and with the annual 5 vs. 8 (5 Dukies + 3 officials) coming up in Cameron on Saturday, we need a win.

The next eight games will be tougher than the previous eight, but we are in the right frame of mind and playing the best basketball of the year.  Bring on the UVAs, Dukes, and Techs.

The Terps are on the cusp of their best ACC season since 2003 and that means that there are no nights off. Huckleberry Hound and his crew of underachievers are not about to ruin things.  Sure, UNC has plenty of talent on their squad; but since when has that stopped the Terps?  Maryland has won three of the last four games against the Tarheels.  Those defeated Tarheels teams were certainly better than this year’s version, and yet the Terps prevailed.

There’s is a difference between confidence and complacency.  As fans, it is time we started believing in this team.  Save your doubts for next weekend.  I can already see the refs calling 2 quick touch fouls on JWill or Landon in an attempt to take the Terps out the game next week at Cameron. But that is a topic that can wait.

Now, it’s time to take care of business and get some national recognition.  Go Terps.

I’ve seen my share of upsets; but today’s performance has to take the cake.  Talk about improbable! MD’s trio at the pivot of Dave Neal, Dino Gregory, and Jerome Burney some how some way held off one of the strongest frontcourts in the nation. And that wasn’t even the most incredible performance of the game! That honor, of course, goes to Greivis Vasquez.

I couldn’t be happier for Mr. Vasquez.  Sure, he has caused his share of heartache during his tenure at Maryland; but the kid wants to win so bad that it hurts.  He has taken his lumps in the ACC, gotten ripped in the press, and been booed by his own fans.  Through it all, he has never stopped trying. Maybe, just maybe he will have the opportunity to go out on top.  He may have a few more great performances in him; but surely none will compare to what he did today.  35 points, 11 rebs, and 10 assists.  Greivis notched the triple double before overtime even started.  He was Mr. Everything all game long.

Even with Vasquez carrying them, how did the Terps pull this off?  I think it’s just that MD wanted (hell, needed) this more than UNC.  I’m not saying that is the only reason they won; but it helped.  I’m thrilled as a fan; but even more thrilled that 12 kids and a coach who have worked so hard all year finally got rewarded for their efforts.

How many close calls that turned into eventual losses have their been?  Too many to recount here.  We have talked ad nauseum about how this team “didn’t have the horses”.  We lacked talent and height and just couldn’t compete with the top teams in the NCAA.  That may still be true; but as I said in my thread post, there is a reason they play these games.

The Terps proved to me that they can play with heart.  Sure, there have been other games where it looked like they gave up (see Duke); but if they give it their all and they play with consistency, it is a beautiful thing to watch.

Of all the reasons to be happy tonight; I hope you are happy for Gary Williams.  Ripped to shreds by his hometown paper; Gary may indeed have the last laugh.  For if he can take this squad to the NCAAs; he has forever proven his mettle as a great coach. If it happens, it will be his finest hour.

Now, it is on to Duke and a chance to vault ourselves off the bubble and into the dance.  However, before we get too excited; remember that this is the same team that lost to Clemson by 27 points on Tuesday.  Last year, MD hosted Duke coming off the upset at UNC and we ran to a 10 point halftime lead only to blow it in the second half.  Maryland has a chance to exorcise all of its demons on Wednesday.

I’m inclined to agree. The Terps just aren’t good enough to compete with the likes of UNC. As we’ve seen all year; the team’s flaws often get exposed against the better teams.

Despite that, there is a reason why they play the games. Let’s just hope we are not ashamed of the performance after the fact.

OK, so it wasn’t USA 4, USSR 3 from the 1980 Olympics, but beating #1 UNC at the Dean Dome is one of the all-time great wins in Maryland history. This from the team that was justifiably ridiculed by Billy Packer just four nights ago? Impossible!

What happened today is why we love sports. To quote the greatest sports movie ever made, Hoosiers, “And David put his hand in the bag and took out a stone and slung it. And it struck the Philistine on the head and he fell to the ground. Amen.” There were about 15 people who thought Maryland could win this game: Gary, the coaches, and the players. That’s it. No one gave them a chance, not even their fans (read: me). But that is Gary Williams at his best. The ultimate underdog.

The winning sequence couldn’t have been more improbable: James Gist throws an entry pass to Bambale Osby who gathers himself for a difficult lay in which he completes without traveling. Amazing!

Of course, the officials were determined to give Carolina every opportunity to pull this one out. Carolina knocked the ball out of bounds with 10 seconds left and Maryland up two. Game over right? Nope. Still Carolina ball. Was there a Maryland fan anywhere in the world who wasn’t throwing something or screaming obscenities after that call? It was epic in its atrociousness. Vintage Karl Hess. But in the end, our boys prevailed.

The Terps apparently now own the Dean Dome. Has there been a peskier visiting opponent for UNC over the last 24 years? Len Bias dealt Carolina their first ever loss in the building. In my only trip down there in 1996, Johnny Rhodes and the boys beat them. Now, we upset them as 18-point underdogs! I’m sure the Terps overall record in the Dean Dome is still under .500, but it is definitely better than one would think and probably better than any other school in the ACC.

My favorite non-game moment from today came from the footage of the Cameron Crazies going nuts after Maryland completed the upset. What a bunch of morons! As we all know, a Maryland win can completely rejuvenate this team. With Duke next on the Terps docket, one has to think that the Blue Devils will now have their hands full next Sunday. Yet there they were, cheering in full throat. God, I hate them.

Now, back to some reflections on today’s historic win. If you scroll down to the post from this morning, you will see my recipe for a Terps upset. Let’s review:

1. The Terps need to own the glass. (Didn’t happen. UNC outrebounded MD 46-38
2. The Terps need to record 8-10 blocks. (Didn’t happen. MD had only 5 blocks)
3. Greivis must play under control and commit no more than 4 turnovers (Check*. Even though he had 6 TO’s and he took 3 -4 inexcusable shots, Greivis only committed 1 TO in the second half and he stepped up down the stretch when it counted. I am giving myself a “check mark” with an asterisk on this one.)
4. Terps must hit 6 three pointers. (Check. With Milbourne surprisingly contributing two)
5. Gist must score 25+ points. (Check*. Technically, it was 22 points, but Gis was all that and then some today. James played the best game of his young life and Maryland needed every single bit of it. Every time that Maryland needed a bucket, Mr. Gist delivered.

So with my liberal scoring, I was correct with 3 of the 5 “needs” that Maryland had to have to record the upset. But the question remains, how did the Terps win without dominating defensively? The answer is that Maryland scored more points today than they have in every game this year except for the laugher against Morgan State. Where did all of this offense come from? I’ll tell you in the form of the prettiest two stats I have seen all year:

• 20 assists
• 10 turnovers

In the other words, “the best game Maryland has played all year”. Vasquez had five turnovers in the first half alone. That means that without taking a look at the first half stats, at most, Maryland committed only five turnovers during the entire second half. Simply put, Maryland played smart for 40 minutes for the first time all year.

Our young Terps had many opportunities to cave in under the pressure tonight. For me, the most salient moment– the moment when I knew we would be in it until the last second, occurred with about 11 minutes left. UNC began to score in bunches, and the Terps actually went toe-to-toe with them for a few possessions. As the scoring spurt continued, UNC started getting the best of the frenetic pace.

Up four, Eric Hayes shot a three, and the ball was 90% in the hole and somehow, it rimmed out. UNC got the ball and gave it to Ellington who immediately hit a three. A six-point turnaround and Maryland’s lead had been trimmed to one. The entire stadium thought that Carolina was about to go on a run and put the game away.

What ensued were the defining moments of the game, and perhaps the Terps season. How would the Terps respond? After the timeout, the Terps went down to Gist (after moving the ball around the perimeter) and he scored. It was a tough shot, but he took the shot within the flow of the offense. Over the next few minutes of play, the Terps actually extended the lead. Maryland was not going away.

When the post script is written on the 2007-08 season, it could be that the sequence I just described propelled the Terps toward a memorable February and March. The road ahead is not easy, but with a win like today’s, anything seems possible.

As Wheels noted in his comments, I’ll be convinced if the Terps are able to play consistently through the Duke game and into the UVa and GT contests. But it is too early to think about that now. The Terps have the week off before the hated Blue Devils come to town. That should be enough to keep the boys riding high until next Sunday night.

One final anecdote: Maryland came into today’s game ranked #122 in the RPI. What do you think a road win vs. the RPI #2 team will do to those rankings? For the first time all year, I actually be inclined to check when the new rankings come out.

I’m hoping for a sweep today. A Terps win and an Obama win. Don’t ask me which one I want more.

I added in the chat feature for today’s game, so if you want to rant with your fellow Soupers, click the button and get to it.