Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’re probably familiar with the buzz Wednesday’s the Terp men’s basketball team’s upset win against No. 4 Duke caused. The happy seniors. The court rushing. The celebration on Rt. 1.
The last few days for many students have been spent swapping stories about that epic night.
Terp forward Jordan Williams doesn’t have a crazy story, or at least, he didn’t care to share one with the media this afternoon.
But the Facebook messages and random shout-outs on campus are enough for him. And the freshman said he has at least seen the pictures from the riots.
“Everyone’s excited,” said Williams, who supplied 15 points and 11 rebounds in the 79-72 win that earned the Terps a first-place tie in the ACC. “The atmosphere is crazy still around campus.”
But as great as it’s been for everyone associated with the team enjoying the win, it’s almost time to get back on the court.
And they have to do it against their local rival Virginia in a place where they haven’t won since 2006.
With a win, the Terps can clinch at least a share of the ACC regular season crown by finishing 13-3 in conference. That’s one incentive to play well. As long as Duke beats North Carolina later in the day, the Blue Devils will lock up the top seed in the ACC Tournament. But the Terps, who have won virtually every game in conference they were expected to win and then some because of their consistency, are still playing for NCAA seeding.
As they prepare for the Cavaliers, who have dropped eight-straight to own the ACC’s worst overall record, coach Gary Williams is focusing on the fact that the team has bounced back well from emotional victories in recent weeks. At times, it has seemed like each win in a six-game winning streak has been more exciting than the last. They’ll need to do it one more time to enter next week’s ACC Tournament as the conference’s hottest team.
“You have to complete a regular season,” Williams said. “You can’t prepare for 15 games and not prepare for 16 games.”
Last season, fighting to improve their spot on the NCAA Tournament bubble, the Terps went down to Charlottesville, Va., in their regular season finale and laid an egg. They lost 68-63 in a game they desperately needed before ultimately doing enough work in the ACC Tournament to impress the NCAA Selection Committee. The Terps have still never won in John Paul Jones Arena, which opened for the 2006-2007 season.
So, there’s a lesson there that’s fresh in the Terps’ minds. Four ACC roads wins, including last Saturday’s double-overtime thriller at Virginia Tech, have shown the Terps’ toughness away from the Comcast Center.
By those standards, this game feels a lot less stressful. The Cavaliers lost by 19 points at Comcast Center on Feb. 15 and just haven’t been the same since jumping out to a hot conference start. Williams wouldn’t even address Virginia’s woes today, saying he wanted to focus on his own team.
“This year it’s kinda different,” guard Sean Mosley said. “We’re more focused and as a team we show a lot of maturity out there on the court. We know what we have to do at Virginia to get a win.”
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.