They Shouldn't Let Me Play With This

Courtesy of the internet and my late-night shenanigans. All photos courtesy The Sun.

I Love Me Some Terps

Who else isn't excited by a win over Cal? We so own them this year. First Kevin Barnes and now our own Greivis just ethering those hippies from Berkeley.

Who would have thought a 13-point upset was coming from this team? Sure, they were the popular pick for an upset by most prognosticators. I myself even had this as a win in my bracket. We all "thought" that the Terps could be the Bears because we've seen how good we can be. We've also seen how awful this team can be (see: Morgan State, @Virginia). It wasn't until after the game that I realized just how amazing this win was. It wasn't that it was so startling that it happened. After all, we thought it would. It's just that this is a team that before the season I thought was going to be just awful. We had no big men, at one point we had no recruits, and I thought Greivis couldn't put Brooklyn on his back or Marcy on the map. For crying out loud, DAVE NEAL. I love that guy and I am so happy that he is in my Class of 2009 at Maryland. I'm so glad that Greivis is even better than we all thought he was. The man will have his number hanging in the rafters of Comcast some day. Believe me, he will. And during his speech he will thank "Scott" and Gary Williams. If you can find a bigger Gary homer than Greivis I'd be utterly surprised. I just love this team. I am in sheer amazement of it. And unlike Ritchie, I'm not drunk while posting this. Right now I'm counting my blessings that I get to experience this, not only as a student but also as a fan.

Thanks Maryland. Thanks Gary. Thanks Greivis. Thanks Dave. Thanks everyone.

Well, not everyone. Kathy Worthington has never won 9 straight first round games in the Lig.

Bring on Memphis.

The Terps are Back

Gary Williams is a bad motherfucker. After being left for dead earlier in the season by Kathy Worthington, the Washington Post, the internet message boards, Mumpkins, the scrillas, and various other asundry entities, Coach Gary Williams turned the season around and used every bit of his coaching juices to gain his 13th NCAA Tournament bid as the head coach of the Maryland Terrapins.

It was clinched with the team's third win over a top ten team on the season in Friday's double digit win over Wake Forest in Atlanta in the ACC Tournament. Admittedly, despite nearly knocking off the Deacs a week earlier in College Park, I gave the Terps little chance to win that game. And that's where Coach Gary Williams made me look foolish yet again.

The Terps were staring down a fourth NIT appearance in five seasons just a week ago after their loss at Virginia, but now a few days later the Terps are going back to the Big Dance for the second time in three years. That invitation also guarantees Coach Gary Williams another year at the end of his contract, extending it through the 2013 season. Thank God for that.

But that's not the end of it. Oh no. God has decided to smile on this program for once. Lance Stephenson, a top 5 recruit out of New York City, is strongly considering becoming a Terp next season. Now, everyone that reads this blog already knows him as simply Born Ready. He's already a NYC legend, one who would team with Greivis Vasquez in the backcourt to make next season's edition of the Terps a legitimate Final Four contender.

Born Ready is down to Kansas, Maryland, and the hometown school Saint John's, with the Terps maybe, perhaps holding a slight lead over Kansas with SJU a distant third. If Stephenson were to committ to Maryland in the next few weeks, it would, combined with the recent tournament berth, almost guarantee that Coach Gary Williams' career ends happily. That's the most important thing. Coach Gary Williams has thrown it back in the faces of the haters. Suck on that.

We're Going to the Lig

We're going to the Lig
We're going to the Lig
Hi-ho the Gary-o
We're going to the Lig

The Terps will beat the Bears
The Terps will beat the Bears
Hi-ho the Gary-o
The Terps will beat the Bears

We're gonna get Born Readjy
We're gonna get Born Readjy
Hi-ho the Gary-o
We're gonna get Born Readjy

The Terps are back for good
The Terps are back for good
Hi-ho the Gary-o
The Terps are back for good

Dancing Days Are Here Again

Bring it Cal!

40 Minutes

What can go wrong?

THIS

Note: This was written after Steve's post but posted after him sequentially to make more of a point.

Sorry about your senior night Dave. You still did awesome and I respect you as a Terp

Gary and Greivis

There's been a lot of criticism lately about Gary Williams. I have agreed with a lot of it. At one point, I was even going to write a long post about why this team will never be an elite team until Gary retires.

I may have been right or wrong about that, but one thing is for sure: there is nothing more satisfying than seeing Gary lead the Maryland Terrapins to victory. He's a tough sonofabitch. The criticism is flying from every direction, yet Gary is taking a team with limited talent to the cusp of an NCAA tournament berth. This team could have quit any number of times already, but instead they are playing their best ball of the year as the calendar turns to March.

If this team makes it to the lig, it's a "Fuck You" to the haters signed by Gary Motherfucking Williams. Nothing would make me happier. It's going to happen.

----

Greivis Vasquez.

Greivis Vasquez is an amazing player. Like his coach, he's passionate and takes a lot of criticism in the darker times.

A little over a week ago, I was able to see - live and in person - one of the greatest performances in recent college basketball history when Greivis willed the Terps over #3 UNC at the Comcast Center with a 35/11/10 performance in 44 minutes of an OT win. This was a game where he led all players in minutes, points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks.

Then last night Greivis had 33 of the Terps' 71 points in an 11 point win over NC State, taking over the game in the second half. He capped that performance by taking and hitting an entirely unneccesary unguarded three as time expired and the game was clearly already in the bag.

Greivis was also on his way to a third spectacular game (10/6/5 in 22 minutes against Duke) before the refs nixed that idea and ensured that Duke would come into our house and beat us.

The man is GREAT, and these past few games have cemented his place in Terps' history. I have no idea what to say here except that Greivis' jersey should be in the rafters should he decide to stay for his senior season.

What's G?

I was there when Greivis tied a school record by dropping 15 dimes in the NCST game last year.

I was there when Greivis recorded the first triple double at Maryland in 22 years in an upset of #3 UNC last week.

But tonight, his 33PTS 2REB 5AST effort in a much needed road win at NCST was his sickest performance ever.

Sure, it was over a weaker team than UNC, but with his team sitting on an ever thinning bubble that could burst at any time, the Terps' best player put his team on his back and carried them to another crucial W. The exclamation point, a pointless buzzer beater to give him 33 and push the margin of victory to 11, pissed off Wolfpack fans and had Steve and I jumping off the couch in excitement. How much balls does that take to dribble up the court and take a buzzer beater on the road when you already have the game won? So the question comes up again, "What's G?"

G is HUGE balls. G is enormous balls. G is Greivis-sized balls. Thank you, Greivis, for starting the week off with a bang.