Seven Top 25 college basketball teams were found wanting Saturday, including the previously undefeated North Carolina squad that lost at home to previously forgotten Maryland, which just goes to show you the ever-egalitarian nature of the game.
These are not the Terps of yesteryear destined to be in the NCAA tournament in March. These are the Terps that lost to modest Ohio and American at home last month. These are the Terps that fell to 6-6 after the loss to American and appeared on the verge of becoming one of the dregs of the ACC.
All that changed in Chapel Hill, N.C., where the Terps overcame the crowd and a late surge by the Tar Heels that left the visitors facing a four-point deficit with 2:28 left.
The outcome restored the relevancy of the Terps and reminded anew that the difference between the elite of college basketball and those teams banished to the NIT in March is sometimes a couple of plays.
College basketball is creeping slowly to the day that a 16th seed will upend a top seed in the NCAA tournament.
Because of the NBA, the brand-name programs of college basketball are having to remake themselves so quickly that continuity has become an antiquated notion.
And those programs, no matter how promising their blue-chip personnel may be, are increasingly susceptible to losing to mid-level programs that may have rosters stocked with fourth- and fifth-year players. Or losing to a conference opponent thought to be bereft of national standing.
The latter notion perhaps has no place in the game today, judging from the latest poll-rattling results.
UNC was one of seven ranked teams to lose to unranked opponents Saturday. No. 4 UCLA, No. 10 Texas A&M, No. 15 Pittsburgh, No. 18 Mississippi, No. 21 Miami and No. 22 Arizona State each hit a speed bump on the road to the NCAA tournament.
This equal-opportunity dimension of college basketball certainly makes for high drama, no better exemplified than George Mason’s march to the Final Four in 2006.
The overall quality of the game is a level down from the college basketball glory seasons of Michael Jordan and Ralph Sampson roaming the hardwood floors of the ACC and Patrick Ewing and Chris Mullin doing the same in the Big East. But the in-any-given-game aspect has risen accordingly.
It almost trivializes the national polls, which merely serve as a fragile guide these days.
The Terps delivered that apt message to the crestfallen crowd. There were plenty of blue faces in the throng at the end, both in mood and paint.
It was no accident. It was not predicated on the Terps milking the shot clock on each possession. The Terps and the Tar Heels traded a series of shots during one stirring sequence in the second half.
The Terps even endured the poor call of the referees in the waning seconds, which resulted in the Tar Heels retaining possession after television replays showed the ball caroming off the hands of one of the Tar Heels before going out of bounds.
This resulted in the Tar Heels getting two more shot attempts to either win the game or force an overtime.
It didn’t happen, and the 18-point underdogs erupted in glee.
It was a hint of March on display in January, when teams seeking to be included in the NCAA tournament start to make their cases in earnest.
That is the challenge before the 12-7 Terps, whose win haul has been fashioned mostly with the assistance of the cupcakes on their nonconference schedule. Their win over the Tar Heels was their first against a ranked opponent this season.
It is one coach Gary Williams will point to if the Terps find themselves listed among the selection committee’s maybes in March.
The Terps have 12 regular-season games left and the conference tournament to avoid that prospect.
And now they have the bounce of a quality road victory.
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