Early Late Returns

The Terps were supposed to return to intercollegiate competition last Tuesday, October 30th, with an exhibition game against Catholic U. But that early pre-season game fell victim to Hurricane Sandy.  And so the Terps returned to action a bit later than they'd planned this fall, tonight playing an exhibition game at Comcast against D-II Goldey-Beacom. 

No big surprise: Maryland won, 84-46.

If you thought "who?" when you first read the name of tonight's opponent on Maryland's schedule, you weren't alone. The BCs had never heard of Goldey-Beacom.  We thought it sounded like a company that manufactures heavy industrial equipment.  But we were wrong.  Turns out G-B is a private college outside of Wilmington, Delaware, that has been around, in one incarnation or another, since 1886. 

No offense to the G-B Lightning, but the BCs decided this morning that we were going to skip the pleasure of an hour-long (or more) bumper-to-bumper drive up to College Park during rush hour this evening to watch Maryland play an exhibition game against a school we'd never even heard of prior to the release of the Terps' schedule.  

It wasn't just the drive that influenced our decision to stay home and catch all the "action" on Gametracker. Our main reason for not staying out late tonight is that we have a very early wake up call tomorrow. In Virginia, the polls open at 6 AM, and the BCs expect to be waiting in line when the doors open.  With the presidential and many other races and ballot questions predicted to be so close, we're also expecting that we'll be up much later than normal tomorrow, following the returns.

Tonight's exhibition game provided both teams with some early season competition, but not much more.  It didn't really count for anything.  But tomorrow, the stakes are much higher.  Tomorrow's election  really does count.  So if you haven't availed yourself of early voting, go to the polls tomorrow and cast your vote. Tomorrow's contests aren't exhibitions -- they're the real deal. Please Vote!

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And if you find yourself standing in a long line tomorrow and need some reading material, Guru Mel Greenberg has a long post here covering a number of topics, including the Mystics' failure to snag Bill Laimbeer, who is returning to the WNBA as the new GM/HC of the New York Liberty.  As Mel observes, the college season is starting without anyone at the helm of the Mystics. In other words, no one yet in place to  begin evaluating players for the 2013 draft, in which the Mystics will pick 4th.  It's not a promising situation.  No news right now is not good news.

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Tuesday morning update:  In case you need some more reading material while you are waiting in line to vote, the Washington Post's Gene Wang has a nice feature about the Terps, here.

The BCs cast our ballots at 6:20 this morning.  Be sure you cast yours!