Remote learning

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Practice is long since over. So is any extracurricular shooting once the coaches have left the court. Dinner and studying are long since finished.

So what does it leave a college basketball player to do on any random night?

How about watching more basketball?

Maybe the Wizards are on, or the Mavericks or the Suns or the Spurs. Perhaps there's a chance to see a college team still looming on the schedule, or -- thanks to a mixture of confidence, optimism and hope -- a potential opponent when the NCAA tournament arrives.

"I'm switching channels every night," Maryland forward James Gist says. "I wish we had more than just Comcast so I could have NBA League Pass or something like that so I could just watch all types of games."

Some option is almost always present. The proliferation of televised games in the last 15 years has made the game's presence so ubiquitous that it's hard to remember when chances were a major conference game wasn't on TV and the chances of seeing a Missouri Valley or Horizon League game outside of the arena were infinitesimal.

Today's game between Maryland (21-7, 7-6 ACC) and No. 5 North Carolina (24-4, 10-3) at Comcast Center is part of the ACC's Sunday night package with Fox Sports Net. It has long enjoyed a relationship with ESPN, so much so that one of network's presentations is dubbed "ACC Wednesday."

But there's more to this than a blossoming of the sport or a chance to plop in front of the TV and unwind after a hectic day. The extra time around the game provides an opportunity to pick up on nuances, both to tuck away for future use and to burnish their individual games.

"If you're a fan of the game, you have to watch it, you have to study it," Maryland guard D.J. Strawberry says. "You have to know what other teams do. You never know who you're going to play against."

In tune