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Wake Recap

By Bob W.

“Just when I think I’m out, they pull me back in”

                        -Michael Corleone

As I sat here watching tonight’s victory I could not help but think about this team as some sort of conniving chick.  I mean let’s look at it this way.  Say you’re a fan of Savannah State (1-17).  Your team is horrible, you know they’re horrible, and you wouldn’t expect anything less.  It is like the class nerd asking out the head cheerleader.  She’ll tell you “not in your life and if you so much as look at me I’m getting a restraining order”.  And though that hurts, it gives you closure.  You hang it up and wait till next year.  Now say you’re a Terp fan, it is kind of like having a semi relationship with really hot chick.  Sometime she treats you like crap, and sometimes she acts all into you.  Well this team is just like that.  You get crushed by Miami and Duke and you say to yourself “Hey this chick is nuts, let’s move on”.  Then you have this Wake game which is the equivalent of a 2:00am phone call where she is saying stuff like “I miss you, blaa blaa blaa”.  You don’t know what the hell is going on.  In a way I am envious of the Savannah State fans, let’s face it.  We all going to end up heat broken come March, but their heart break won’t be dragged out over the next 2 months!

Anyway, except for our second near collapse of the year, this squad looked like a legitimate tourney team.  We made big shots when we needed to, but we also couldn’t even inbound when the game was on the line (what the hell is so hard about inbounding).  Strawberry played excellent and showed great progress at the PG position.  Mike Jones also played like he was a McDonald’s All American or something. 

Another huge key was foul shots.  The Terps made 7-8 in the final 30 seconds to help seal the deal.  It appears for now the absence of Travis Garrison wasn’t too much of a problem, and that is a good thing, since if he is found guilty, we won’t be having him around anyway.  Gist did an excellent job stepping up to fill in.  In addition to Gist, Mike Jones played excellent.  It appears that Gary Williams gave him the green light to shoot whenever he liked, and Jones did not disappoint.  All around a solid team effort and a huge win that Maryland needed.  We can’t afford to loss many in Comcast the way we have played on the road so far.  With the win Maryland pulls even at 2-2 in the conference.   

D-7 MVP-  The Wake Forest MVP goes to DJ Strawberry.  At half time I thought that Mike Jones (who?) was going to walk away with it, but come the end of the game, I couldn’t argue with the stats.  It was neck in neck, but I give the nod to DJ since he had more assists and plus he is playing out of position. 

Honorable Mention:  This is one of the better honorable mentions of the year, in fact this performance would have won the MVP the last two games. Mike Jones chipped in for 22 points, shooting 8-11 and 4-5 from behind the arc and all of this in 26 minutes.  Hmm maybe I was hasty giving it to DJ.  

Random Thought of the Day:  This has nothing to with the Maryland-Wake game, but did anyone else watch the Indy-Pittsburg game. I swear I felt like I had more control over the Colts-Steelers game than Tony Dungy.  God bless the man for what he has gone through, but I have never seen someone look so lost on the sidelines. 

The “It Could be Worse” Section:  Anyone else hear about UMBC?  Apparently their coach banned them from the locker room.  This is per ESPN:

“Instead, team members are dressing in the courtside media workroom, which was also to be used as a meeting room during halftime of Sunday's home game against Hartford. Additionally, players have been forbidden to wear apparel bearing the school's name.”. 

Just goes to show it could be worse.

Enemy of the State:    To quote the famous BJ AuMiller, “Don’t go away mad, just go away”.  Justin Gray win’s this “never come back here again” award with his 12-20 shooting (7-11 from behind the arc) and his 38 points!! 

Factoid Alert:  Hardly an alert, in fact I think it is a waste of internet space to even mention it, but it is also so glaring you can’t over look it…. Maryland had trailed for 84 straight minutes in ACC play, at least until the 16:00 mark of tonight’s game.

ACC Standings:

            Team                Conf Rec          Overall

            Duke                4-0                   16-0

            NC State          3-1                   14-2

            UNC                2-1                   10-3

            GT                   2-1                   9-5

            Miami               2-1                   10-6

            FSU                 2-2                   11-3

            Clemson           2-2                   13-4

            Maryland          2-2                   12-4

            UVA                2-2                   8-6

            BC                   1-3                   12-4    

            Wake               0-3                   11-5

            Va Tech           0-4                   10-7

Bubble Watch:

Record:  12-4

Rank:  21 (for now)

Quality Wins:  #6Boston College (this one is looking less and less quality), Arkansas, Minnesota

Bad Losses:  None yet, had Miami been in CP, I would count that, but on the road, I’ll let it slide. 

Outlook:  6 seed