Bring on the Terps...

[tonyparker]

As a Hoya grad from Maryland who has always been a Hoya supporter, this game is huge.

A big part of our recent rise has been our local dominance in recruiting. Let's face the facts, JTIII has 3 McDonald's All-Americans, couple B-More players of the year, couple DC players of the year, etc., etc. at his disposal.

Gary has a couple of honorable All-Met's he gets to overachieve. If Gary is able to pull this out tomorrow, I'll be one of those guys willing to question JTIII coaching tactics.

As someone who played high school ball in the area too, I worry it could effect our recruiting. The boys better come out and represent tomorrow.

[hoya95]

Didn't really want it, but IT IS ON NOW! This is a game that should mean more to the local fans than the teams themselves. Not only do I want to win, but I'd like to find a way for DeJuan to dunk on Junior Feinstein in the process. As anti-climatic as this game might be (a consolation game in Orlando on a Redskins/NFL Sunday), there will probably still be a bigger crowd than at the BB&T.

[vcjack]

This is why I love this tournament, not only do we get experiance with really good teams (Tennessee) and fiesty mid majors (WSU), but we get a mediocre team that will play out of their minds to beat us. This will come in handy against the Seton Halls of the world. Not to mention beating them will feel good

[Just Cos]

Gary and the Twerps are going down. Can't wait to see JTIII shake Gary's hand after a monster performance by the Hoyas.

Even if it seems like once a decade we play the Twerps, they still are a rival.

[blueandgray]

Question for the board... I know that there is a lot of bad blood between our program and theirs, but am not 100% sure why? I totally get the rivalry with the Cuse...starting when Big John shut down their fieldhouse.... but what's the story with the Twerps? Hoping someone can give me a brief summary.

[strummer8526]

I JUST GOT IT! JTIII threw the Tennessee game! Have you ever seen Jesse bounce pass an in-bounds STRAIGHT to the other team? Or Austin casually lob the ball across the court in crunch time? Never. A five second call?! Ridiculous. This was our plan all along.

No one ruin my fun. After short post-game downer-time, I'm now looking forward to Sunday again.

[tonyparker]

I've already let my Terp friends know I'm looking forward to the Greg Monroe v. Dave "YMCA" Neal matchup.

[krukster201]

It will be embarrassing to lose to them ... yea they beat Mich St. (without a key player) , but they are not a good team .. I watched them play and I'd go on a hunger strike if we lose to them ... besides that .. their fans on Scouts.com are so annoying .... and beyond delusional .. GREG IS GONNA ABUSE THEM in the worst way! lol

[jacko]

Nov 28, 2008 19:47:43 GMT -5 blueandgray said:

Question for the board... I know that there is a lot of bad blood between our program and theirs, but am not 100% sure why? I totally get the rivalry with the Cuse...starting when Big John shut down their fieldhouse.... but what's the story with the Twerps? Hoping someone can give me a brief summary.

I might not be spot on with this, but I believe we used to schedule them more frequently. JTIII talked to their people about renewing a series, but they insisted that we still "owed them a home game" from the 80s or something. I think the scheduling thing is fallout from JTII.

I think we hate them because we compete with them for local recruits, they don't graduate any of their players, and Gary Williams is more generally despicable than Boeheim (or any college coach for that matter - right up there with Jim Harrick as far as I'm concerned).

On a more objective note I'd say that they want to play us in years when they appear to have a stronger team, whereas we want to play them when we appear to have a stronger team - like how GW thought they wanted a piece of us in '06 but were silent in '07 while we would welcome a "challenge" from them. I think at this point we generally have a stronger team than Maryland, but they are capable of playing well enough to beat anyone on any night (see: UNC last year, not perennially overrated preseason power MSU).

[jhoyafan]

and Gary Williams is more generally despicable than Boeheim (or any college coach for that matter - right up there with Jim Harrick as far as I'm concerned).

Ok, not fair to compare Gary to those guys IMO - esp not Harrick. He comes across as an @ss sometimes but i dont believe he's ever been accused of being dirty. For his sake I hope not B/c it has not been paying off recruiting wise.

[blueandgray]

Thanks guys. Its amazing how something so stupid as a scheduling conflict 20 years ago is still alive today.

I did go to the Sweet 16 matchup between us in 2003...but for for terrible calls, we win that game. I have never, ever, been so ticked off as when they called a BS intentional foul on Sweetney at a critical juncture in the 2nd half. Its payback time.

[jacko]

Nov 28, 2008 23:30:50 GMT -5 jhoyafan said:

and Gary Williams is more generally despicable than Boeheim (or any college coach for that matter - right up there with Jim Harrick as far as I'm concerned).

Ok, not fair to compare Gary to those guys IMO - esp not Harrick. He comes across as an @ss sometimes but i dont believe he's ever been accused of being dirty. For his sake I hope not B/c it has not been paying off recruiting wise.

It's not fair to compare him to Harrick for recruiting reasons, but at least Harrick tried (sometimes too hard) to help his players graduate. I think to put it lightly he rubs GU fans the wrong way with his personality, demeanor, and "we are better than anyone thinks we are" sound bites.

[hoyarooter]

You guys have this all wrong. Maryland hatred goes back to Lefty Dreisell. My worst experience at a GU game was the bush treatment Hoya fans received at a game against Maryland at Cole Field House. We even had an "EDITED" of the month contest in our cluster that resulted in an "EDITED" of the year election in which the winner by acclimation was Lefty. And the sweetest win during my four years at GU was the clobbering we delivered to the Twerps at McDonough the following season. I have hated Maryland basketball for 40 years, and I don't expect that to ever change.

[HoyaChris]

A short history of the Maryland Georgetown rivalry.

Prior to John Thompson Jr's arrival at Georgetown for the 1972-3 season The Hoyas and Terps had played annually for 26 straight years winning 8 of those games. By Thompson's arrival, Maryland seemed to be on its way to fullfilling Lefty Driesell's dream of becoming the "UCLA of the East". Maryland and ACC basketball absolutely dominated the DC metro area and Maryland's overtime loss to eventual National Champion NC State in the final of the 1974 ACC tournament is still considered one of the best college basketball games ever played.

The Hoyas were second class citizens in the DC area, and even as we began to enjoy some national success making the NCAA in 75 and 76 and the NIT in 77 and 78 (and being nationally ranked in 78) we could not beat the Terps. Even in 78 when we were clearly a better team Maryland won - helped in no small part by an officiating crew that took the concept of the touch foul to new levels. As Hoya fans, we had an appropriate level of resentment towards Maryland who belonged to the preeminent league in the country and who we could not beat.

Then, with the arrival of Sleepy Floyd, things changed abruptly. In only his second game as a Hoya, Sleepy scored about 27 (it would have been 37 if we had had the 3 point line) and we beat Maryland by three. The next year we beat them twice, including a 6 point win in the regional semifinal against a Maryland team with two All American forwards (Albert King and Buck Williams).

And then we stopped playing each other, and the Hoyas went on to dominate the 1980's, the Big East and its ESPN TV coverage eclipsed the ACC and Maryland fans got to enjoy the inferiority complex. We have played twice since then, first in the 1993-4 regular season and then in the 2001 Sweet Sixteen, both Hoya losses. A lot has been written about the reason's we haven't played, but the reality is that we have not beat Maryland in 28 years.

IT IS TIME!!!!

[2ndRyan]

Great summary, HoyaChris. That '80 NCAA regional semifinal win over Maryland was huge and really did put the Lefthander and his "UCLA of the East" show on the road to DC second fiddle.

Part of the current antagonism I think relates to our prior history with Williams. He was an annoyance when he coached at American and I disliked he and his teams at Boston College in the mid-eighties.

[DanMcQ]

another excellent summary of the scheduling "difficulties" can be found on DFW's front page:

www.hoyasaxa.com/sports/bball.htm