They're running this right down to the wire, Maryland and Georgetown. They're going the wrong direction at the wrong time and might have to produce something dramatic to reach the NCAA tournament.
The locals didn't come out very well in yesterday's championship foursome. There wasn't anything particularly sweet about home for Georgetown, which lost to Villanova at MCI Center, nor for Maryland, which lost to North Carolina in College Park. In fact, Maryland has lost consecutive home games and despite a pretty impressive RPI might have to win a difficult road game at Virginia Tech in Saturday's regular season finale. Georgetown, with its borderline RPI, has lost three straight and goes on the road for a really tough date at Connecticut.
At MCI Center, Villanova's Will Sheridan grabs a rebound against the Hoyas' Roy Hibbert in Georgetown's loss.
(John Mcdonnell -- The Washington Post)
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"At this time of year, you need every game," John Thompson III said after Georgetown's 67-56 loss to Villanova. His words, his demeanor, his body language were exactly the same at 2 p.m. as Gary Williams's words, demeanor and body language were at 7:30 p.m. after Maryland's 85-83 loss to North Carolina.
Georgetown couldn't make a shot.
Maryland couldn't come up with a loose ball.
And the result was the same: a huge home court loss on the final weekend of February with very little time to recover.
Georgetown has kids with no practical experience at dealing with the madness of March. "For this group," Thompson said, "we're in uncharted waters."
Maryland has kids who can handle themselves against the very best in the nation, like North Carolina, but also have undermined themselves much of the season.
It all amounts to the same thing: big tension in the first week of March.
Maryland could have assured itself of a tournament spot by beating North Carolina and didn't mostly because the Terrapins played an unintelligent final 10 minutes of the first half. Georgetown, with a home game against Providence remaining, could have assured itself of a tournament spot by beating a radically improved and hard-charging Villanova team and didn't mostly because, well, Villanova is just better.
But as the final week of the regular season begins, Maryland has more to lament than Georgetown.
John Thompson III may have gotten everything he can get out of this group, which shouldn't be seen as damning the Hoyas with faint praise. Who, at the beginning of the season outside the Georgetown basketball family, would have given a nickel for the team's chances to win 16 games with a new coach installing a radically different system that would have to be run by freshmen and walk-ons in a conference featuring the last two NCAA champs?
Thompson's first Georgetown team has earned not just the respect, but the admiration, of his peers. Yesterday's loss to Villanova put on display most if not all of Georgetown's strengths and weaknesses. The Hoyas pass the ball beautifully and rarely take bad shots. They space the floor, move efficiently, and much more often than not know exactly what to do at the right time.
Still, the Hoyas cannot hit enough shots to beat really good opponents. The Georgetown players give their coach everything they have, and it just ain't enough. They don't have the physical talent to challenge the really good teams as February turns to March. Villanova's primary defensive strategy was to not allow Georgetown's best offensive player, freshman Jeff Green, to touch the ball and to make other Georgetown players hit shots. "And we couldn't make a shot," Thompson said.
Maryland's problem is more subtle than that. The Terrapins can do everything well enough to beat Duke twice and challenge the second-ranked Tar Heels right down to the final shot. But Gary Williams, like an increasing number of coaches each season, has been victimized by his players' fascination with the NBA. It's no secret in hoops circles that junior point guard John Gilchrist, the most important player on the Maryland team, has had his mind at least part time on what he perceives will be an NBA career. Funny thing is, a lof of NBA teams project Gilchrist to be a second-round pick, if they have paid attention to him at all.
But hey, people get to these kids. Street agents, their boys and sometimes family members who have not a single clue. And pretty soon the kid is thinking, "Maybe I should leave college for all those millions of dollars." Of course, the best thing Gilchrist can do to appeal to the pros is what Steve Blake did, which is run the team right into and through the NCAA tournament. That's what the NBA scouts want to see, especially from a playmaker. Anybody who tells this poor kid he's a lottery pick should be arrested for grand lying.
Did that specifically have anything to do with Maryland's loss to North Carolina yesterday? Probably. A team with a distracted player or two is diminished. Roy Williams and his Tar Heels are way too good to beat if key players on the opposing team aren't locked in.
Yet, Maryland played with them because Chris McCray and Mike Jones put on a shooting clinic after halftime and because Maryland always has the guts and savvy to play tough no matter how good the opponent.
But those losses to Clemson and North Carolina State, four of them to be exact, threaten to kill their NCAA tournament chances. Too bad Maryland can't just play No. 1 seeds in the tournament; that might be just the scenario it needs to reach the Final Four. As is, as Jones said of the trip to Virginia Tech: "That's pretty much a must-win game."
Given the chance earlier in the day to lobby for the Big East getting eight bids (which would be a record), Thompson said: "We have to get our own ship righted now. That's where my emphasis is."
