Riot time

When I was little and I went with my sister to Maryland football and basketball games, they used to give out pins that said things like "Destroy the Deacons" and "Declaw the Paws." Well, the object of the first game of the ACC Tournament was to "Declaw the Paws." Clemson had beat Maryland twice in regular season games. But it was pretty much imperative that Maryland win today against Clemson. Without this win, it would be pretty much impossible to get into the NCAA Tournament. So, I thought that Maryland would come out swinging. Yeah. Somewhere during this two and a half hour game, they forgot how to swing. Maryland decided to show up at the beginning of the game, sink some shots, give us all a false sense of hope. Then, in the second half, they forgot to show up. This is the same Maryland team that beat Duke twice this season. But they can't be bothered to win the game that would ultimately decide whether they will even make it to the NCAA Tourney this year. Clemson beat the Terps 84-72.

I'm not sure how the students at UMCP are going to take this final loss. We know how they deal with wins - they riot. It would seem to make sense that if they lose, they would also feel the need to riot. Now, I haven't heard anything yet about riots on the Metro after the game (although given the nature of the people who ride Metro, it wouldn't surprise me if some scuffles broke out), and it is too early in the day for the students to go down to the Route and start burning and breaking things. But, it will be interesting to see if the students can suck up this loss, or if the local news tonight will show burning trash cans and students being shot with pepper balls. Yeah, sounds like good times to me.

As for the NCAA Tournament, I guess there's always next year.