The opportunity

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/terrapins-insider/post/mens-baskeball-attendance-down-13-percent-at-comcast-with-one-home-game-remaining/2012/03/02/gIQAKGiYmR_blog.html#pagebreak

The process

http://terrapinclub.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/seatadjust_brochure215b.pdf

Currently I have a not very good seat in the Comcast Center after 20 plus years of being a season ticket holder. I haven't missed a home the last two years and have seen the decline around me. I believe that I give a reasonable amount of money to the University, the Terrapin Club, for Football Season Tickets, for Basketball season tickets and for individual tickets for the women. I will most likely get a season ticket for the women for 2012. I don't think that the athletic department has reached out to me as a season ticket holder during the decline. I don't hold a grudge but I am disinclined to go overboard in order to secure a better seat. I got really disgusted with the student section after a student blurted out an obscenity during the singing of the National Anthem sung by a fellow student. One advantage of the bad seats is that there is minimal contact with the current crop of students who leave a lot to be desired as sports fans.

Maryland was not very successful on the road this year. I am sure that will be a theme that everybody will hammer home until we do start winning onthe road. We played Temple on the road this year. Does it make sense to schedule a road game next year with a team that has a large enough arena and is a team the Terps should beat? Get the "can't win on the road" behind them early in the season.

The link below has the video highlights from the Duke Maryland game on Sunday. It includes the monster block at the end of the game

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=7593047

This is one of the most exciting plays I saw all year. A great ending to a great game. Friday is the last home game of the year. It will be a ding dong game particularly given that is Senior day for three great seniors.

This is not meant to be a sarcastic or rhetorical question. At various times I have heard that fill in the blank (Stoglin, Faust, Howard) is not getting the team into the offense for the game or for a half.

I really don't what the Maryland offense is trying to do. We are not a running team. We don't seem to prefer to work it in or shoot from the perimeter. I really don't have the faintest idea of how Maryland tries to get an advantage over the opposition on offense

Tianna Hawkins set a career high of 23 points shooting 11 for 13 from the floor. Alyssa Thomas also had 23 points as the Terps rallied in the second half to beat Georgia Tech. For the year Alyssa Thomas was 22 for 22 from the line against Tech. The Terps play Clemson on Thursday before coming home in the big game against Miami. The Lady Terps close out the season with Miami, Duke and UNC at home.

I follow this website and I read the local sports papers. I don't understand the damning faint praise accorded to Terrell Stoglin. Terrell is the next banner in the making. He is a star of the first magnitude.

So what that he took 20 3's against Miami. He took 9 of those during the span of time that the Terps were behind Miami in the second half. He made 4 of them which is a good percentage given how closely he is marked. Given the situation it was the shot to take. He struggled with his free throws against Va Tech but had regained his perfect stroke against Miami. He will shoot around 50 per cent from 3 against Carolina. He will because he is Terrell

There are kids in the process of becoming Terp fans for whom Terrell will be the one just like a John Lucas or a Len Bias or a Juan Dixon or a Greivis Vasquez will always be the the one for us.

Neither the men nor the women have won at Gary Williams court. The women looked flat out awful collapsing against Virginia Tech last night. Were they jinxed by the lame dedication ceremony from the previous night or is something missing from this team. Without Alyssa Thomas on the court the Lady Terps seemed lacking in intensity. The game reminded me of the loss to FSU the year the men went to the final four. All the air seemed out of the Comcast Center but because it wasn't the same type of crowd that goes to mens game the Ladies weren't booed off the court.

According to this article in the Washington Post they will be reseating the Comcast Center next year

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/maryland-looking-for-ways-to-boost-revenue-from-basketball-team-comcast-center/2012/01/13/gIQA57K7wP_story.html

My opinion based on my experience with my season ticket is that currently the athletic department hasn't done a lot for the average season ticket holder who attends every game but doesn't have a lot of disposable income to spend on the basketball program. My own downfall is that I go to a lot of Nats games and that's where the money goes. Based on seniority and given the current number of season ticket holders I think that I would get a significant upgrade in my seat selection everything else being equal. But because I feel forgotten as a season ticket holder I am a little apprehensive about the process for 2012-2013.

The Lady Terps play 3 significant games in a row - at home tonight vs Georgia Tech and then on the road against North Carolina and then Miami. For those of you who haven't had the pleasure to attend one of the Lady Terps game in person tonight will be a wonderful opportunity. The Carolina game on Sunday will be televised and will be a classic. Time to get on the bandwagon

More info on the Lady Terps

http://dcbasketcases.blogspot.com/

I thought that Elena Delle Donne had a Greivis-like performance in the second half but was no match for the combination of Laurin Mincy and Anjale Barret. Anjale started the second half slowly enough that I was begging for my fave Brene Moseley.

It was a big win but I thought the Terps were uneven in their defensive intensity. I am still of the opinion that Brene should start and play more minutes but Anjale was great in the second half

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/dc-sports-bog/post/maryland-florida-international-attendance/2011/12/15/gIQAyQasvO_blog.html

I fully expect that as bad as these pictures look it will be a lot of worse tonight. It is hard to avoid the inescapable conclusion that we suck as fans. What should the Athletic Department do? Should they try and fill the lower half of the ComCast Center by relocating a majority of the student seats upstairs?

Or one less cupcake

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/atlantic-coast-conference-moving-to-18-game-schedule-for-mens-womens-basketball-next-season/2011/12/15/gIQAtAghwO_story.html

One more conference home game to spice up the schedule for season ticket holders. I think that the number and the identity of the permanent rivals will also change. If the conference adopts a single permanent rival I wonder which school would be assigned to us?

Men's Statistics

http://www.theacc.com/sports/m-baskbl/stats/2011-2012/confldrs.html

Women's Statistics

http://www.theacc.com/sports/w-baskbl/stats/2011-2012/confldrs.html

The interesting statistic is that neither the men nor the women have many steals. I guess the only thievery in the ComCast Center is done at the concession stands. Just kidding

Based on the the scoring statistics the Carolina games will be very interesting for both teams. Attendance it looks like both programs are doing just okay

Dr Robert Fischell sang the National Anthem last night. He was quite good and certainly sang with feeling

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Fischell

I must admit I didn't know who Robert Fischell before was last night. They introduced him and I caught that it was his bioengineering department at the University. Like hold on here - somebody funding a department and singing the National Anthem to boot is a story in my mind . Now that I have I am glad that I made it to the game early last night.

I was at the game tonight and I thought that maybe there were 3,000 in the stands but more likely there were less people in the stands than that. There were clumps of people here and there but there were sections that were largely empty. They haven't sold all the mini packages that include tickets to the Duke and UNC games. So does 12,080 represent the total number of season tickets and the single game tickets sold tonight?
I sit upstairs and my ticket has a face value of $25. I noticed that they were selling tickets at the box office for $25 (upstairs) and $30. I always thought that all tickets for basketball had the same face value. Are they selling the unallocated student tickets for greater than the face amount on the season tickets or have they instituted differential pricing for season tickets?

The first 2 or 3 years that Gary Williams was coaching I remember that general admission tickets in excellent locations were available for all games. But then over time a new base of season ticket holders was developed and by year 5 and 6 there weren't general admission tickets any more. I wonder if we are in one of those transitional phases where a whole new base is being build again.

This is will be a very fun season this year. I was disappointed in the size of tonight's crowd but the effort on the court was excellent. There will be ups and downs but it will be fun watching Faust and Stoglinplaying. If we can make it to January in good shape then I think that team will take off. Watching Nick Faust play defense is a real pleasure. He plays  lock down defense but then he cheats and makes great steals too.

Some old school red luxury car with two ACC Championship Trophies attached to the hood rolls majestically into the Comcast Center. A camera pans the inside and the crowd realizes who just rolled in. As the crowd chants "Hall of Fame, Hall of Fame" out step Lefty and Gary. 

The Red and White teams must be coached by the two soon to be Hall of Famers. 

Gary, Gary, Gary, Gary, Gary

Lefty, Lefty, Lefty, Lefty, Lefty

Hall of Fame, Hall of Fame, Hall of Fame, Hall of Fame, Hall of Fame, Hall of Fame, Hall of Fame, Hall of Fame,.

I think that by the end of their 4 years at Maryland this years freshman class will do something special. I believe that Terrell Stoglin will have his jersey retired when all is said and done. The ACC will be uber competitive the next 3 years and I believe that the Terps will be right in the mix. I think that Jordan Williams will end up like Terrance Morris - the guy that was one year too early. On paper the final four team is as good a team that ever played at Maryland. But they weren't as legendary as the team that followed them. Even if Jordan Williams stays 4 years I think that the team follows him will be the team that sets the standard for the Comcast Center.

UMBC is the only team the Georgetown seniors beat in the postseason. They lost to VCU, Ohio and Davidson and Baylor, They ended up with a record of 1-4 in the postseason

The Maryland seniors beat Minnesota, Houston and California but lost to Michigan State, Syracuse and Memphis in the post season. They ended with a record of 3-3 in the postseason.

Georgetown will be losing 3 seniors and as much offense as the Terps did last year

Now that the final curtain has come down on the Greivis Show on Earth I don't feel that it is time to stop clapping. For four years I got to watch somebody so completely different than me epitomize every thing that I value. I never saw Greivis take a play off. I never saw him brush off a fan when he emerged from practice during the Women's games. He loves basketball and he loves Maryland.

I loved the rituals that were woven into the plot of the Greivis Show on Earth. How Greivis would cover his face in the lay-up line when Landon Milbourne would dunk. I loved watching him always makie the last basket before going into the tunnel between warm-ups no matter how long he had to wait for the other players to take their final shots. I loved the way he would take the other players aside and give them encouragement during the warm-ups. 

For somebody to sacrifice so much to follow his dream nothing was impossible. Taking the lead yesterday was testament to his never say die attitude. I believed in him every second of his 4 years and wish him the best

Coming to the ComCast Center for one night only - the Greivis show on Earth. Thrill to the exploits of Eric Hayes. Shed a tear for what might have been when Jerome Burney is honored at center court. Watch the high flying exploits of Landon Milbourne as soars through the air. But most of all give it up for Greivis Vasquez -- the greatest Terp to play at the ComCast Center. He has spent four years playing with passion and determination. Now it is our turn to show our gratitude for a man who has represented our school with pride and a relentless desire to win