Are You Sure Today Isn't Sunday?

The calendar says Friday, but today didn't feel like a Friday. Fridays are for early round advancing in tournaments, not back-and-forth, tightly contested, down to the last second, down to the last shot contests between the #1 seed and the #9 seed. Fridays are not supposed to follow the day when you knock off the Tar Heels, and then have to face the Blue Devils. That's supposed to play out on Saturday and Sunday, with the Championship on the line. Only this year, it all happened on Thursday and Friday.

And though it wasn't the Championship Final, it would seem somebody forgot to tell the players. This afternoon -- Friday afternoon -- the Terps and the Blue Devils played another classic Red vs Blue battle, one that, unfortunately, the Blue team won, 66-64. We don't know what the rest of the tournament holds for the winner, but it would be hard to imagine any team pushing Duke any harder than the young Terps pushed them today. #1 vs #9 isn't supposed to be that close . . . but it was. And the Terps nearly, almost, not quite, pulled off the upset.

It would be a lie to say we aren't disappointed. The team no doubt is heartbroken, and their fans -- hundreds and hundreds of them here in Greensboro today -- feel very bad for them. But all the Red People (and even some of the Blue People we spoke to after the game) had nothing but praise for the come-to-play, leave-it-all-on-the-floor effort that the Terps brought today. Once again, they made us proud to be Maryland fans.

For the second game in two days, "veteran" Lynetta Kizer was a Beast on the floor, and showed again why she will be a force to be reckoned with as an upperclassman in the coming two seasons. Netta led Maryland with 16 points (and once again was perfect from the free-throw line, hitting 8 of 8). And what can we say about Anjale Barrett? Wow! Anjale came off the bench and made several big shots that were absolutely critical in Maryland's keeping the game close. Anjale was second in Maryland scoring, finishing with 15 points. Lori Bjork and Jackie Nared both finished in double figures as well (14 and 10 points, respectively) and both made significant contributions to today's effort. Though they didn't win, the Terps played their hearts out, and they certainly made Friday feel like Sunday.

And so ends the 2010 ACC season for the Terps. What lies ahead (or doesn't) for the team in the coming weeks nobody knows. All we can do right now is thank the team for all their hard work and all the fun and excitement they've given us (their fans) and keep our fingers crossed that there is still some more fun and excitement ahead for all of us later this month.