Where: Comcast Center, College Park, MD
When: Sunday, February 7th, 2:00 PM
TV: Fox Sports Net
Livestats: SCACC Hoops
Records: UNC 13-9, 2-4 ACC; Maryland 15-6, 5-2 ACC
Your pre-Super Bowl basketball appetizer is set, as the Heels visit the Comcast Center to take on the surprising Maryland Terrapins. The Metro D.C. area will attempt to dig out of over two feet of snow, while UNC will try to dig out of a two-game slide.
College Park is a tough place to bust a slump, as Carolina has lost three straight to the Terps on the road, and three of its last four to Maryland overall. Maryland’s star guard, Greivis Vasquez, is finally in his senior year after seemingly being recruited by Bob Wade. Vasquez is one of the ACC’s most enigmatic players, looking like a world-beater at times (often against UNC) and like a lemon at other times.
People have been shoveling dirt on Gary Williams and his Maryland program for a few years now, but the Great Perspirer has his team a half-game out of first place in the ACC at the half-way point of the season. As the other guy in this league with a NCAA title (as he likes to remind folks), he has worked magic this season and you can bet he will have the Terrapins ready to play the Heels.
UNC, meanwhile, showed signs of life in a road loss at Virginia Tech in which the Heels actually out-shot and out-rebounded the Hokies, but missed key shots, committed back-breaking turnovers, and left too many points at the foul line. Still, the engine did seem like it was turning over and maybe it can actually catch and run Sunday afternoon. That may be harder to do with Will Graves at less than 100%, since his status for the game is questionable after an ankle sprain on Thursday night.
Thankfully the team did get the chance to practice on Saturday but with all the snow, I hope they have not been simply lying around the hotel tweeting for two days. We can also hope the blizzard-like conditions will subdue the home crowd, although a couple of the guys tweeted that Maryland fans were crank-calling the hotel in the wee hours of Saturday night and Sunday morning.
We all saw what happened the last time after progress was made, followed by a Sunday snow-bound game. I’m still not sold on Maryland as a title contender, but they seem to have UNC’s number of late and the Heels don’t have a lot of success at the Comcast Center. Nevertheless, I will try the THF reverse psychology tack that worked so well for the NC State game and pick against the Heels. Can’t hurt, right?
Maryland 81, UNC 72
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Some historical perspective first: Since Roy Williams took over as head coach in 2003-04, UNC has won only 2 times in Maryland. Our NC team also lost there in the OT game. Maryland is a very difficult venue to play at, moreover it also seems that for the past couple of years Gary has Roy’s number. So given all that and the way this team is performing and the fact that the UMD team is largely the same team from last year, I frankly find a win to be high improbable if not impossible, but hey that’s why they play the game. As for me I predict 90-75 for UMD.
Don’t they use some offensive sets that are similar to BC, who also has given us fits during Roy’s tenure….
the flex O. yeah, we always struggle with that. i REALLY want to shut Vasquez’s mouth, tho.
Sad to say it but I thing Vagquez is going to torch us.
Ginyard will shut down Egregious Vascodegama, being the defensive specialist that he is. The only problem I see with that is ole Roy won’t recognize his brilliant defensive play and only use him for 14 minutes. Heels by 3 in triple overtime.
Gary suffers a grand mal.
Seven Heels foul out in the third OT…Petrie hits game winning 3.
^thats good.
if Tucker hits more than 2 3s in the first half, i’ll be having a grand mal of my own. that guy is very below average against every team not in light blue.
I’ll be wearing a helmet for this game. All sharp instruments have been removed from the house. Big screen has an extra layer of see-through padding covering it. I’ve asked the family to move out for two hours. The dog can stay but only if he agrees to wear a flak jacket.
i just have the same hope i have had every game this year, that Roy will play the players that are playing the best that game the most.
If John is playing great, please Roy just play him, who cares we are 2-5 and in the ACC.
Vazquez breaks out a 50 pt performance a la Rice. GWil doesn’t break a sweat. Roy breaks his back while slamming his fist on the bench and is out for the rest of the season. We break our all time worst turnover record by posting 37, matching our field goal attempts. We are fortunate to leave with a close loss of 102-41.
Now that I described my worst nightmare, it has to be better than that, right?
Heels 81 Terps 79
Henson leads all scorers with 20.
If we play like we’ve been playing, at least I can switch over to ESPN Classic and watch some real Carolina basketball. I watched one this morning and found myself screaming at Hurley and Laettner to die. What is wrong with me?
I want to win, of course, but I am worried that if we do, it might hurt us in terms of draft position for next year….
I’m going with the same mentality as last game and just hope it’s not a blowout. Go Heels!
and Calabria tips in the Zwikker miss!!
oh, sorry. rerun of 1996 Dook game.
dont bother to watch any more til 6. the next 2 games they show are wins by the bad guys.