Maryland
- Dec 6, 2021
- 6 min read
Maryland Terrapins (5-2) vs. Virginia Tech Hokies (5-2)
Wednesday, December 1, 2021 @ 7:15 PM
College Park, Maryland
Xfinity Center
ACC-Big Ten Challenge
THE SCHOOL
The University of Maryland, College Park is a public research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856 (I assumed it would be older, didn't you?), UMD enrolls 40,709 students and has an endowment of nearly $700 million. It's the largest university in the DC-Maryland-Virginia area. Famous alumni from Maryland include Sergey Brin (co-founder of Google), Jim Henson (creator of the Muppets), and Larry David (co-creator of Seinfeld).
The Maryland Terrapins compete in the Big Ten Conference in NCAA Division I. Maryland's men's basketball program has been relatively successful lately, but the program's still pining for their glory days of the early 2000s, when they went to five Sweet Sixteens in six years and won the 2002 national championship.
Let's just come out and say it now: it's dumb that Maryland is in the Big Ten. They were in the ACC for over sixty years, but they threw away generations of tradition and history, rivalries with Duke and Virginia, and any type of regional identification just so their lousy, mismanaged football team could generate a little more money. Maryland's move to the Big Ten epitomizes much of what's broken with American college athletics.
The Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (known to everyone as Virginia Tech) is a public research university in Blacksburg, Virginia. The Hokies compete in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), meaning these two were conference opponents from 2004 to 2014. Coming into the game, Maryland leads the all-time series 15-8.
THE TOWN
As you can see from the map, this one's pretty easy for me to get to. I live in College Park, I take classes at UMD, and I work on campus, so getting to the game was pretty simple; I just met Allison on campus after I got done with work and walked right over there.
Thus far, I've lived in three "college towns": Tuscaloosa, Lincoln, and College Park. College Park is... not like the two others. Both Tuscaloosa and Lincoln have independent cultures of their own. The popular local college teams greatly contribute to the area, but both Tuscaloosa and Lincoln have communities of their own outside of the university. There are clear distinctions between what is campus and what is the town, all within city limits.
College Park really only exists as the home of the university. It doesn't have many of the aspects I've associated with "college towns": there aren't team apparel shops lining the streets; there aren't small local restaurants serving locals and professors for generations; there's very little camaraderie between campus and town. College Park is mostly "suburban highway ---> large university and overpriced apartments ---> suburban highway."
Part of the problem is that all the towns in the DC metro area are so small and squished together that there isn't room for anything else. (In fact, I have a College Park address but I'm really closer to Greenbelt and Berwyn Heights.) Additionally, while UMD's sports are fairly popular in the area, it doesn't come close to the devotion that Alabama and Nebraska residents have for their flagship universities. When all of these factors combine, the results are that College Park lacks some personality. Don't get me wrong - I like living here, it's very nice. But it does lack aspects of places I've enjoyed in the past.
Maryland has a pretty campus. It's a mix of Georgian and neoclassical architecture. The included picture is of McKeldin Mall, their quad-like area by the main library. My main gripe with Maryland's campus exists at many large universities: never-ending construction. No matter what part of campus you're on, you're going to encounter a lot of orange cones blocking the exact part of the road you want to be on. I thought this would get better as more people got on campus this past semester, but I was wrong. It just never ends.
Xfinity Center can hold nearly 18,000 people, making it the second-largest arena in the Big Ten. Additionally, in the 2019-20 season, Maryland had the thirteenth-highest average attendance in NCAA basketball (two spots behind Nebraska). Needless to say, Maryland likes basketball. The arena is nice, if kind of uninteresting. It's a bit sterile; there's nothing about it that truly stands out. One interesting note is that it's built into a hill, which makes this giant building come out of nowhere if you're approaching from the wrong angle. Overall, I'd rank it behind both Nebraska's and Creighton's arenas, but it's a nice enough place.
THE GAME
I wasn't late this time!
I reserved my student ticket two weeks prior to the game, left work about forty-five minutes before tipoff, and got there with ten minutes or so to spare. The student section had already filled up, so I sat in a little spot in the upper level.
It was Len Bias night at the Xfinity Center. Bias was Maryland's all-time points leader and - according to many who saw him play - one of the best college basketball players to step on a court. After his four years in College Park, he was drafted second in the 1986 NBA Draft by the Boston Celtics, but died of a cocaine overdose before he could suit up for Boston. From what I can tell, Maryland spent many years trying to put the incident (and Bias) behind them, but they now fully embrace his legacy. For tonight's game, the school gave out Len Bias jerseys and brought his family out to the court during a timeout.
Honestly, I was a little disappointed by the attendance. Students showed up in a big way but there were large patches of empty seats throughout the arena. With this being a game against a major, somewhat local opponent, I expected a full house.
Thus far, masks have been required at every game I've attended. The state of Maryland does not have an indoor mask mandate but each school or county I've been to has required a mask thus far. By far, the Maryland Terrapins get the award for worst mask usage. Look, I'm vaccinated, I'm triply-jabbed, so I'm not particularly scared of getting sick. It's an easy rule to follow, though, and folks just weren't really trying.
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These two programs have had incredibly similar seasons so far. Both are 5-2 and coming off disappointing losses, both received votes in the preseason AP poll (Maryland was ranked 21st and Virginia Tech was 30th) but both have totally fallen out, and both run a very slow tempo.
All these similarities made for a tight game.
The Terps and Hokies traded leads early with neither squad taking more than a four-point advantage at any time in the first half. Maryland's #33, Qudus Wahab, was the home team's early star with 14 points and dominant defense in the half. He wasn't quite enough, however, and Virginia Tech went into the break with a 31-29 halftime advantage.
Maryland started the second half hot and took a 37-33 lead at the under-16 timeout, followed by a 43-36 lead at the under-12. Things were looking up for the Terrapins, until a massive cold spell overtook the whole team. Between 11:58 and 8:15, Maryland did not score and Virginia Tech soon tied the game at 46, before taking the lead with 5:50 left.
For the next five minutes, Tech held firmly to the lead. Virginia Tech's #22, Keve Aluma was the primary reason why the Hokies led, as he started to take over the game (he finished with 17 points and 12 rebounds). #0, Hunter Cattoor, also hit a couple big threes during this stretch.
Finally, with 52 seconds left, Maryland got a break when Tech missed a free throw and #24, Donta Scott, converted an easy layup that made it 59-58, Virginia Tech. All Maryland had to do was get a stop and they would have a chance for the lead. They did their best, but Tech's #25, Justyn Mutts, hit a tough shot at the rim to extend the lead to 3. The Terps missed a three on the other end and that pretty much did it. Mutts made a free throw with 12 seconds remaining to seal the victory.
Final: Virginia Tech 62, Maryland 58
Two days after this game, the University of Maryland and head basketball coach Mark Turgeon parted ways. Usually when something like this happens in the middle of the season, it means the coach is getting pushed out, but reports seem to indicate that neither side was happy.
On Maryland's side, Turgeon hasn't been a bad coach. He went to the NCAA tournament five times in his nine full seasons, including one Big Ten conference co-championship, one Sweet 16 appearance, and a couple top 5 AP rankings. But Maryland fans and administration think they should win more consistently, and a third disappointing loss this early in the season was apparently too much.
For Turgeon, I also get it. He got booed during his game introduction and he's become a villain among Terrapin fans on Twitter, Reddit, and message boards. His name's been dragged through the mud simply because his team hasn't quite won enough basketball games, and that's gotta be tough. From an outside perspective, it's tough to see a guy go out like that.
Anyway, I'm glad I went to a game before Maryland gave up on their season.
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