Mike Burke
Things are starting to get a little weird here. This is stuff that has always happened to Maryland, not for Maryland.
If you saw the Terps-Georgia Tech game yesterday from Comcast Center, you feel pretty strongly about two things: Maryland doesn’t want to play Georgia Tech again until the Yellow Jackets’ entire front line goes pro ... Which hopefully will be by the time the ACC Tournament begins March 11.
Secondly, Maryland, despite not being able to consistently open the lid on the bucket for one of the few times this season, won the game!
It was one of the weirdest games in the history of Maryland basketball. It was one of the most wonderful, most thrilling, most unbelievable games in the history of Maryland basketball, including the “Shoot Jim (O’Brien), shoot!” 31-30 overtime win against second-ranked South Carolina in Lefty’s second season, 1971, at Cole Field House, which, of course, got Maryland basketball off the ground.
Consider: The Terps trailed 74-73 with 3.0 seconds to go when Greivis Vasquez, who scored 18 points to become the sixth player in school history to reach the 2,000-point mark, pushed the ball just over halfcourt and nailed a game-winning running 3-pointer with 0.9 seconds to go. Maryland wins! Maryland wins! Maryland wins!
Nope. Maryland called timeout! Maryland called timeout! Maryland called timeout!
No basket. Maryland ball at halfcourt — still down by one, after .6 seconds was put back on the clock, with 1.5 seconds left.
This better have been a good timeout.
It was, as head coach Gary Williams called a play that Maryland runs during every practice, but for the first time in his life, Cliff Tucker got the ball to shoot the potential game-winning shot.
“I’ve never been that guy,” Tucker said. “In fact, I’m usually on the (backup) team going against the starters.”
Not on this day. Tucker buried a fall-away 3-pointer along the left sideline as the buzzer sounded and this time, as the late, great Al McGuire would say, it was Bingo, bango, bongo! Taps City, Georgia Tech. Maryland wins!
These things never go Maryland’s way. Despite not shooting well, despite being outrebounded by a smaller margin than appeared to be the case, and despite not being able to expand a five-point lead for most of the day, the Terps came back to win this game in the final seconds, despite something historically “Maryland” happening in the form of that Homer Simpson “D’oh!” timeout.
Naturally, the initial inclination for some was to scream at Gary Williams, knowing full well he couldn’t hear you through the television if you were not at the game in person. But, wait. Why wouldn’t you call a timeout in that situation? Get the ball over halfcourt, call timeout and run a play. How often does a near-halfcourt shot go in at the buzzer for anybody, much less Maryland?
Secondly, Gary didn’t call the timeout according to the Baltimore Sun, as Maryland players told Sun reporter Jeff Barker assistant coach Keith Booth called the timeout.
So, essentially, the Terps used two buzzer-beaters in the span of slightly more than half of a second to gain a much-needed home ACC victory over an enormous, talented, well-coached team that is going to provide major headaches for teams come March. Which is all the more credit to this Maryland team.
The Terps won the game over a very good team to improve to 9-3 in the ACC and hold onto second place in the conference, because they wouldn’t buckle, they wouldn’t fold, they wouldn’t give up, they wouldn’t stop trusting one another and they wouldn’t allow themselves to get every bad break. It’s no wonder Gary Williams loves this team. It is a very good team — more talented than the naked eye leads you to believe it is, but it’s just as gritty and determined, and as tough as any team Williams has coached.
The Terps were crushed at Duke last Saturday, yet to conclude the toughest stretch of their regular season, they came home to return the favor to Virginia on Monday, then went to Raleigh on Wednesday to come back from a 12-point deficit to beat N.C. State by nine.
Now this.
Saturday at Comcast, things just got downright weird. And for once, the weirdness went Maryland’s way.
Mike Burke is sports editor of the Cumberland Times-News. Contact Mike Burke at mburke@times-news.com.
