Photo by Chris Rief aka Spodie Odie.Going into yesterday’s big game at Cameron Indoor Stadium, here were Maryland’s last five results against the Blue Devils spanning the past two years: loss by six, loss by 11, loss by 41, loss by 12, loss by nine.
Uh, well, make that oh-for-six.
Based on that recent history, we probably shouldn’t be too shocked that Duke came out on fire from behind the arc and buried Gary Williams’ guys early, leading by double digits for most of the game en route to a 77-56 victory. The loss knocks UMD back down to a tie for third in the conference. Unlike the Blue Devils, the Terps couldn’t get it going from long-range, although they did manage to avoid not making a three for the first time since 1999.
Maryland’s recent home win against North Carolina was great for pride — but they have come up short against upper echelon teams this season. The Terps still don’t have a single win against the RPI Top 40 this year, and a pair of wins over bubble team Florida State currently serve as the team’s biggest victories. Of course, they still have home games against Clemson and Georgia Tech and a rematch with Duke still left on the slate. A couple of wins in those games would do real wonders for the Maryland resume, never mind the Terrapin faithful.
The Hi:
>> How about Morgan State? The Bears have been getting some love on national TV this weekend for being one of the last few teams in the country with an undefeated conference record. Sitting pretty at 10-0 in the MEAC, Morgan squeaked past Bethune-Cookman on Monday, and took care of business against the similarly hyphenated (but nonconference) Winston-Salem State yesterday.
>> Speaking of Morgan State, they are one of five D.C. area teams included in the most recent iteration of College Insider’s Mid Major Top 25 poll, cementing our belief that you’d be hard-pressed to find another region in the country so fertile with quality mid-major basketball programs. VCU, Old Dominion, George Mason, and William and Mary also garnered enough votes to be ranked.
