Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Terps Getting Some Respect from National Tourney Field Pickers

We've reached the point in the sports calendar -- Super Bowl is over, baseball hasn't started yet, NBA is in the the middle of its long season, NHL is irrelevant -- when college hoops takes center stage. It's building, we're not there yet. But we have reached the point where the mock field of 65 becomes a popular topic of debate, with ESPN's Joe Lunardi as the reigning king (inventor) of this sports geek phenomenon. The online "field of 65 if today was Selection Sunday" is fun to read, but essentially pointless. I mean, it's great to see that those who pay attention to such things think Maryland is "in" as of now, but, repeat after me: it doesn't matter. At all.

There are 7 ACC games and the ACC tournament left to play, and Maryland and everyone else can redefine their season in this stretch. Look no further than last year, when a Maryland team that hadn't been to the tournament the prior two years, won 7 straight AC games. The Terps went from "out of the field" to a 4-seed. Lots can happen this time of year.

That said, it's great that people are finally noticing the great play of late by the Terps.
Greivis got player of the week on ESPN: G.V. is Player of the Week
Joe Lunardi has the Terps as a 10-seed and not even one of his "last four in": Lunardi Bracketology and Fox has Maryland as a 4-seed as well:

http://msn.foxsports.com/cbk/story/7773102?MSNHPHMA

Another Terps reference... they aren't ranked yet, but ESPN's Andy Katz has them #2 on the list of "teams not ranked worth watching:"
1. Louisville
2. Maryland
3. Florida
4. Gonzaga
5. USC
6. Arizona
7. Baylor
8. Clemson
9. Rhode Island
10. Mississippi State

Enjoy. Big Terps-Duke preview coming tomorrow, gonna work on it tonight.

GA

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