One of the most interesting things about the Terps’ third straight double-digit conference win yesterday- an 81-59 drubbing of Miami- was the Terps acted like a team that had been there before.
I’ll have a little more on that in Friday’s print edition preview for the Clemson game on Sunday, but the Terps were very careful not to provide too much bulletin board material for the rest of the conference they currently lead.
Most of the Terps who were available to the media afterward (Vasquez, Mosley, Milbourne, Hayes) were more interested in looking ahead to 11 more conference games than offering reaction to their incredible success in the last few weeks.
The title of this post is a reference to that point. In a league in which many games have been decided in the last two minutes, the Terps have put together three consecutive conference games in which they could take a breath and rather enjoy the last few minutes of an assured win.
After first-year walk-on Ersin Levent checked into the game for Landon Milbourne with 2:09 remaining Tuesday, all five Terp starters were watching from the bench.
That’s why it was cool that when given a chance to talk about how much pride he takes from another statement-making win, Greivis Vasquez immediately brought up the subject of the team’s seldom-used forwards- David Pearman and Ersin Levent.
“I just get really excited watching David Pearman and Ersin [Levent] get into the game,” Vasquez said. “They work hard in practice. Fans don’t know how hard they work in practice. Basically, they run the other team’s offense.”
Pearman has appeared in four straight games overall, including the three big ACC wins. Levent got into the three, including the two 20-plus point wins.
As Vasquez continued his answer, he talked about summoning those feelings as the team goes forward.
“We do take a lot of pride,” Vasquez continued. “We’re playing well. We’re winning by a lot of points. We’re going to continue to work hard. Sometimes we have to remember to ourself that we have to continue to play with that pride.”
And if they can get Pearman and Levent some more appearances that will be good for them, too.
Eric Detweiler is The Diamondback’s Terrapin Men’s Basketball Team beat writer. He can be reached at edetweilerdbk@gmail.com. You can follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/edetweiler.