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In the final game of the first round, the Maryland Terrapins defeated the Houston Cougars 89-77 out in Spokane, Washington. Freshman Jordan Williams had a career high 21 points and 17 rebounds to lead the Terps to the victory. While the final score had a 12 point difference, Aubrey Coleman, the nations leading scorer this season, and his Houston teammates didn't make it easy on the 4th seeded Terps. The game was much closer in the first half until Maryland started inching away late in the half. Then Houston had a last second shot drop in from just inside the half court.

While Williams tallied 17 boards, early in the game the Cougars dominated. The Terrapins defense had trouble controlling Houston as they had little trouble going inside. But with Williams' inside game, Landon Milbourne's rare gem of a solid game, and overall production from all the Terps, they led at the half and increased it during the second half.

It was a struggle, and while I and other Terps fans/alums were watching it at a party, we still thought the game was in reach for the Cougars. And it was, as they managed to take the deficit down to single digits several times. In the end, it was just that MD is the higher seeded and better team. The problem now is that with such a tough game played in the first round, the Terps have to face Michigan State at 2:30 on Sunday, roughly 38 hours after the Houston game ended. Tom Izzo and his Spartans are not the Cougars. They're better, and Gary Williams and the Terrapins will need to have a better defensive game to get past them.

The Maryland Terrapins received an at large bid for the NCAA tournament. They were awarded the 4 seed in the Mid-West and will face the Houston Cougars at 9:40PM on Friday in Spokane, WA. The Terps received this seeding after falling to the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets in the quarterfinals of the ACC Tournament on Friday.

While Houston is the 13 seed, they have the nation's leading scorer, guard Aubrey Coleman, who averages 25.6 points. Maryland's defense better be on the A game Friday or Coleman may make a game of the matchup. This game also has some local flavor as Houston coach Tom Penders was the head coach at George Washington about a decade ago.

For the Terps, the 4 seed was higher than expected by most of the analysts, who had them as a 5 seed. On top of the higher seeding, they were put in arguably the toughest bracket, with Kansas (1), Ohio State (2), and Georgetown (3) in the mix. Presuming they get past Houston, they face Tom Izzo's Michigan State (5) in the Round of 32. Then it gets really difficult as they could face Kansas in the Sweet 16. Gary Williams, his staff, and the team have their work cut out for them.

First things first, take care of Houston. They are a high scoring team out of Conference USA. The Cougars shoot 35.6% from 3 point range on 794 attempts this season, against Maryland's 474 attempts. Landon Milbourne needs to drive inside to get easy buckets and/or fouls while Greivis Vasquez, Eric Hayes, and the rest play their regular good game. After being the co-championship of the ACC regular season, getting bounced by the 13 seed in the first round of the NCAA's would be a disappointment for the Terrapin faithful.

No doubt the ACC has some of the greatest men's basketball rivalries. As a Maryland Terrapin, I may be biased, but so be it. One thing we all in the ACC share (except maybe around Cameron Indoor) is our extreme dislike of Duke. I saw this today via twitter, from @keithsmooth. He may be a Tarheels fan, but he's good in my book for this post.

Well, that was well worth getting home after 1 AM. That was the final score in the battle for first in the ACC as the Maryland Terrapins beat the Duke Blue Devils for a share to the ACC crown going into the final conference games for each. It was also Senior night as Greivis Vasquez, Eric Hayes, Landon Milbourne, and injured Jerome Burney were honored in pre-game ceremonies. Imagine how great this team would be if we had a healthy Burney!

All three active seniors contributed key plays. Hayes drained important 3's and drove in for those sweeping layups he's been using all season. Milbourne, after taking outside jumpers when he had an open lane to drive, hit a monster slam to break a slump in the Terps offense. Might have helped that our section and most of the arena was screaming "Go Inside!!!" at him. Of course, Vasquez was his usual confident self, just building his resume for ACC Player of the Year. It was fitting that on Senior Night, he ended the night hitting 2 free throws.

The game started off great with the Terps on a 10-2 run and built to a 14 point lead. But Coach K made adjustments and got the Blue Devils to just down 2 at half 40-38. Despite not liking him, everyone has to admit Coach K is a great coach. Duke came out of the half to take an immediate lead to 41-40 and built on it. The slump lasted until under 10 minutes left, when the Terps and Duke battled back and forth the next 7 minutes changing leads and tying the game up. But the last 3 was all worth it for the Terps. Good passing, and of course, Vasquez throwing up his trademark crazy shots, sealed the deal. Even freshman Jordan Williams stepped up, hitting free throws, where there is no argument is the worst part of his game.

Up next is Virginia to end the regular season in Charlottesville. Not only are they always tough for MD on their court, this shows signs of a let down game. Similar to the Virginia Tech game, but the Terps remained high in that game. If they can end the season on a win streak and put up quality play in the ACC Tournament, MD can make the committee think hard about seeding in the dance.

But let's savor the moment and how beating Duke is great everytime it happens. And it always justifies a storming of the court.

This was to be the let down game for the Maryland Terrapins. And that was the consensus before the water pipe breaks. However, after a 3 hour delay when Virginia Tech officials finally decided the show must go on without running water, the Terps beat the Hokies 104-100 in double overtime. It solidified the Terps as the second seed in the ACC and put the Hokies in the fight to settle for third or lower.

The game was close most of the time and in the second half it was really close. Double digit lead changes and ties added to the tension, but the Terps rolled on and persevered. Despite trailing at times, they took the lead late in regulation only to allow the Hokies to catch up and send it to overtime. What seemed noticeable is that the crowd in Blacksburg seemed to be loud, but still not overwhelming. They had the opportunity to taunt Greivis Vasquez as he missed the basket on an early field goal, yet failed to continue to harass him with "Airball!". Certainly the whole ACC knows his quick temper and it would have gotten in his mind.

Instead, without the reminder, it allowed Vasquez to take control and score 41 points. Sean Mosley played an excellent game to provide 17 and Jordan Williams continued his excellent freshman season, but struggled early at the free throw line.

Winning this game puts the Terps at a virtual lock for the NCAA berth. With 2 games left before the ACC tournament, MD could rest easy, but Duke at home for senior night and at Virginia to end the season does not leave much breathing room. Also important is this win has to put the Terps back in the Top 25 in both polls, something the voters neglected to provide to them last week, leaving Duke the only ranked ACC team in decades. Next up is Duke on Wednesday, and fans should hope for respectable game and if cards fall the right way, a win at home to end the seniors careers at College Park.

With 1.5 seconds left in the game, the Terrapin's Junior reserve guard Cliff Tucker dropped a thunderous game winning three point shot to seal a 76-74 victory for MD. The Yellow Jackets appeared deflated and dejected after witnessing two game winning shots by the Terps in last three seconds of the game. Cliff Tucker's game wining shot, the second game winning basket by MD in the waning seconds of the game, was his coming out party for the rest of the college basketball nation.

After the Yellow Jackets Frazor put back a missed shot for Georgia Tech, Greivis Vasquez ran down the court and banked in a 3 Pt shot over half court for the win with 3 seconds to go in the game or so everyone thought. The officials had acknowledged a time out by MD before the shot by Vasquez was taken. .9 seconds were left on the game clock until the officials reviewed the play and placed 1.5 seconds on the clock for MD and placed the inbounds behind the half court line.

Credit Gary Williams with a great cocaching decision. During the time out a play was chosen to run for one of the team's most unlikely player's to anyone that doesn't follow the Terps. Tucker excels in a transition game, on the free throw line, and even knocking down jump shots consistantly even when coming off the bench cold.

What some around the nation may not know is that earlier in Tucker's time at MD when his playing time diminished and his spot in the rotation coming off the bench was not so secure he contimplated leaving MD. Coach Williams had the confidence and trusted Tucker to take the final shot while all eyes would be focusing on Vasquez for the final shot or to Hayes. An elated Tucker could be seen running across Comcast Center while Yellow Jackets were stunned and motionless in disbelief.

The game itself had no tempo or flow due to the uneven and inconsistent officiating for both teams. MD would push a lead up to five only to have a series of calls go against them drawing the game closer. This game provided a good test for MD as the NCAA Tournament approaches. MD was able to prove itself against both a physically dominating team as well as the officiating. It was no luck that MD hit two critical shots to end the game. MD earned the right to call themselves the better team. Ga Tech gave MD what it needed most. They gave the Terps a mental and physical challenge in a tight game. The excat type of games the Terps will encounter in March.

The Terps now 9-3 in the ACC look in far better shape than just one year ago. What's changed from a year ago is the presence of forward/center Jordan Williams (9 points 12 rebounds vs. Ga Tech) with his low post skills and workman like presence.

Gary Williams coaching hasn't changed as he always coaches to put his team in the best possible postion no matter the talent. Gary Williams noticed the battle on the boards was tilting to the Yellow Jackets and inserted a bigger and more successful line up that included both Gregory and Williams playing together in place of starter Milbourne. Terps fans may see more of this line up to secure more rebounds and limit the possessions of other teams while also inserting another shot blocker that could aid the transition game too.

Maryland must maintain their success with their final remaining games on the schedule. With games versus Clemson, Duke, Virginia, and Virginia Tech, the Terps still have some work left to better their seeding in March. The selection committe doesn't like to see teams limp into the tournament, so seeding is on the line. With games against teams in the top half the the ACC remaining, Maryland will be well prepared for March and could be peaking at the right time.

So in the span of about a month, I have given up season tickets to both the Redskins and the Nationals. Before I continue, I should define what I mean by season tickets. To me, it means a plan that includes several games over the course of the season. In the case of the Redskins, it was the entire season. In the case of the Nationals, it was a 20 game plan. There were a number of issues that came up to help to make these decisions. Economy and the performance of the team were common in both, but there were others specific to the teams and sports.

Over the course of my post-college adult life, I have owned or been part of a group that owned tickets to the Redskins, Nationals, Orioles, Capitals, and Terps Men's Basketball. I'm down to just the Terps now. My alma mater holds a great place in my life, and they could be in a losing season...I'll still watch them anytime.

For the Orioles and Capitals, it came to distance and time commitments respectively. Baltimore is not that far, but committing to every Sunday game (and for awhile, several weeknight games as well), just wasn't great. The nail in the coffin for the Orioles was when the Nationals arrived in town. The Capitals are a great ticket to have, but my work got in the way and I just could not commit to any games ahead of time to justify keeping those tickets.

The Nationals was easy. The 20 game plan was not onerous. We even actually split the tickets so I was only obligated to about 10 games a season. But in reality, why should I prepay for games they decide I should buy when I can show up on virtually any gameday, 10 minutes before first pitch to buy the exact same seats and probably have a 90% chance of getting them? It sounds harsh, and I'm becoming what the team does not need...a fan who barely spends money on them. Note to the Lerners, I'm probably not the only one.

The Redskins was much tougher, yet was easily justifiable. I once had season tickets in the upper level for a couple of seasons during the Norv Turner era. Then I had given up until a friend decided he was interested in getting premium seats (lower level). So for the past few seasons, we have been 20-30 rows from the field, in the end zone, cheering on those fans. This past season, we were upgraded to the club level to test out the seats there. But ultimately, it was not enough to keep our interest. Besides some personal issues, the Redskins simply don't have the draw any longer. The price was not justified and while the fan experience there is great, watching games on TV is almost as good as being there. After you weigh in parking, getting there, and the simple hassle of possibly not sitting an entire half, it was too easy a thing to drop.

One day, I hope to reacquire some of these tickets. I may sound like a fair weather fan, but a dozen or so Terps games is plenty. Add in the occassional ticket I'll be purchasing as a one-off game for all these teams, I'll still end up going to 25 or so sporting events live each year. Which means I'll essentially creating my own season plan.