In these bizarre and unprecedented days- where our toughest decisions are between what to binge watch and when to start happy hour- every once in a while you come across something kind of fun that will get your mind to wandering in a little different direction. Distractions most definitely welcomed!
When the college basketball season ended with a disappointing thud in March there were some interesting ‘brackets’ that made their way into print. There were all sorts of computer simulations as to who the NCAA National Champion may have turned out to be. To be honest, I completely tuned out when I saw one that had the Maryland Terrapins losing to Wisconsin in the final four. I mean, I’d be happy to get back to a final four on pretty much any level but losing to Wisconsin is kind of a deal-breaker for me. But I digress….
(You can discuss this on the BSL Board here.)
One of the cooler brackets I saw was a Maryland-centric bracket of all time Terp greats that was done on Testudo Times. They seeded 64 individual Maryland greats and played down to the Single Greatest Terp of all time. The final four came down to Len Bias, Juan Dixon, Joe Smith and John Lucas with Bias being the eventual ‘champion’ over Dixon in the finals. What I actually had more fun with was seeing that whoever had done this had included some lesser-known and lesser appreciated Terps in the field. Guys like Jim O’Brien, Eric Hayes and Kevin McLinton all got some love in the bracket. Some of them had short stays but all of them got the watch and parting gifts.
There were also some pretty thought-provoking matchups that would be really tough calls. Keith Booth vs Steve Francis in the round of 32? How about Len Elmore and Buck Williams in the Sweet 16? All interesting stuff, for sure. While its almost impossible to quibble with Bias over Dixon, I think I will. I’ll suggest that it may be a long time before we see somebody put together the kind of college career that Juan did. Think about it…. In this day and age, if a sophomore scores over 18 points a game in the best league in the country and is first team all-conference, he’s gone. Long gone. Dixon came back and did it all over again as a junior and took his team to a final four. Pretty good, right? None of that compared to how things ended as a senior.
When I was an assistant coach at American University in the 1980’s Len Bias – and every other big-time player in DC- came and worked out in our sweatbox of a gym every day in the summers. The guy was the man in every game he played, and he seemed like Superman to all of us. But if you look at what Juan did over four years, you’re going to see he had the numbers AND the rings. Both played in the old days of the ACC where the schedule was balanced and each played in the league’s glory years so you can go apples to apples, to a degree. I may be guilty of a little recency bias, but I’ve been accused of much worse over the years. Just my two cents….
It got me to thinking of how I would do a bracket for the 21 years that I have been fortunate enough to call Terp games. I have no real interest in filling out a bracket (hey, its Saturday, and happy hour starts soon) but there are some thoughts that came immediately to mind about these last two decades.
I like to say that Steve Blake and I were in the same class. I started doing games in his freshman year. The very first thing that stands out to me since that point is the absolutely remarkable run of quality point guards the programs have enjoyed since that point. Four years of Blake led to John Gilchrist. John was a bit of tormented soul back in the day but when he was right and, on his game, he was an absolute beast. Shortly after that there was the Vasquez/Hayes era where you had two real floor generals with the ability to play on and off the ball at any point in time. Not coincidentally those teams probably played with as high a basketball IQ of any Terp team short of the Final Four teams.
While I’d be tempted to skip over the Terrell Stoglin years I guess you do have to tip a cap to anybody who led the ACC in scoring as a 6’ guard but the volume shooting and the lack of team success is a problem here.
At one point I thought Seth Allen might be a really great Terp in a historical sense. He was a lefty with game and range and could score at will. I’m not in the locker room and I cannot say that I know all of the things that go on from a chemistry perspective but I’m not sure I will ever completely understand his leaving the program. He had a coach and a staff that gave him wide latitude. Conventional wisdom at the time said that he was leaving because he was told that Melo Trimble would be the starting point guard on day one and that Seth would be moved to the two. Maybe that was the case but, if you can play, you can play, and the NBA will find you.
Fortunately for Mark Turgeon and Terp nation the arrival of Trimble in the 2014-15 season led to a really remarkable turnaround for the program. He probably never really matched his freshman stat line of 16+ ppg and 44/41/86% shooting lines but he remains one of the most important players in program history for reasons other than his stats.
Trimble begat Anthony Cowan and the monopoly numbers he accumulated over the past four seasons. Those stats, along with the sheer number of wins he was a part of insure a place in program lore for Ant. It’s just a shame he was never able to finish the fight as a senior.
The 21 years have gone by in a blur. When I think about some of the characters – staff and players- it almost makes me think of it in a ‘class superlative’ way:
Favorite Players (limited to five): Dixon, Vasquez, Dez, Bruno, Melo.
Favorite Interviews: Tahj Holden, Aaron Wiggins, Drew Nicholas, Vasquez (only when he was saying ‘thank scott’).
Underrated: Sleepy Randle, Eric Hayes (already mentioned), Landon Milbourne, Mouton.
Leadership by example: Dez, Bruno, Vasquez, Dixon and Blake.
Did he really do that?: Dave Neal – not just for the great senior year he had as a 6’5 center but also for the screen he set on Duke’s Nolan Smith at home that year. Honorable mention to Boom Osby for the game he played in upsetting UNC and Tyler Hansbrough in Chapel Hill.
Best Individual games I’ve seen: Vasquez at Virginia Tech. Dixon in any game at Cameron Indoor. Gilchrist three straight days in Greensboro.
Favorite opposing coaches to interview: ‘Ol Roy, Izzo, Chris Collins, Painter.
Best road venues: Cameron, Breslin, Assembly Hall.
Best officials: N/A
Terp staff you want to hang with the night before a road game: Jimmy Patsos. Game over. Honorable mention to Dustin Clark. When I first met him, he reminded me of an almost Mayberryesque character. I was dead wrong. He was hungry, intuitive, eager to learn and smart enough to get out. I’ll add my daughter as a staff member to hang out with but hope that shoots way higher than the type of guy who is probably still reading at this point.
Terps Analyst
A fixture in the Washington sports scene since his days as a player and a coach, Chris Knoche has accumulated a diverse resume as a media presence in town for more than two decades. That resume has earned him opportunities on both national and local stages and made him a Washington DC staple on radio, television and in digital media.