This was embarrassing. It doesn’t matter that Virginia Tech is better than usual and Maryland is young. It doesn’t matter that the Hokies may finish the season in the Top 25.
Maryland lost by 17 points to a football school at home Thursday, falling to Virginia Tech, 74-57.
At least the game was on TV. Maryland football fans had to squint at their computer screens last season to see some of the Terps’ football games.
For a team that won the national championship in 2002, the Terps have fallen hard. If Maryland fails to make the NCAA tournament this year, it will be the fourth time in the last seven seasons Maryland will go to the NIT.
After Maryland won the national title, instead of challenging Duke and North Carolina for ACC supremacy, Maryland slipped back to the also-rans of the conference, which is to say the Terps have been pretty good but not great. It’s as if the Terps didn’t think they belonged with the ACC’s best.
Instead of capitalizing on increased exposure by getting star recruits, Maryland’s recruiting became worse after the title than it was before, when the Terps had stars like John Lucas and Tom McMillen in the 1970s; Albert King, Buck Williams and Len Bias in the 1980s; Walt Williams, Joe Smith and Keith Booth in the 1990s; and Dixon, Baxter and Blake in the early 2000s.
When Greivis Vasquez was selected at the end of the first round last summer by the Memphis Grizzlies, it was the first time since Dixon in 2002 that a Terp was picked in the first round of the NBA draft.
Vasquez, who scored 41 in a win last year over the Hokies, led the Terps to the NCAA tournament in three of his four seasons, but only once, in 2010, did Maryland make the field convincingly.
And don’t buy into the fake, overhyped “rivalry” that Maryland allegedly has with Duke. Guess what Gary’s record is against Mike Krzyzewski? He has beaten Coach K 12 times in 49 games. Despite a handful of incredible games, that’s not a rivalry – it’s a joke.
Of course, the Terps are in the Washington, D.C. area, so naturally they stink. If it’s not the Wizards (0-20 on the road), it’s another failed season for the Redskins and Nationals, another playoff upset by the Caps, and a lost season by D.C. United.
To read the rest of my article on Examiner.com, click here.
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