Terps and Tar Heels are who we thought they were

The Terrapin men's basketball team beat North Carolina today, and nobody stormed the court.

The Terps beat the Tar Heels, 92-71, earning a win against North Carolina for the fourth year in a row. But unlike when D.J. Strawberry scored 27 to beat the then-No. 5 Heels in 2007 and unlike when Greivis Vasquez scored 35 to beat the then-No. 3 Heels last year, this win didn't warrant any stampedes to the arena floor.

Terp forward Jordan Williams raised his arms to the crowd as he walked off the court, and Vasquez hugged a few children standing courtside, but that was about the extent of the celebration.

The Tar Heels are obviously in the middle of a down year, having lost six of their last seven games and several players from last year's national championship team to the NBA.
But regardless of what's going on down in Chapel Hill, this is the way things should be here in College Park.

The Terps are good enough right now they should expect to win every time they take the floor. They have earned the right to be confident.

With so many different players playing so well, they should be the aggressors, the team playing with more energy and the team with the trust in its system to execute better than its opponent.

The Terps did all of those things today, and they deserve their lofty 6-2 conference record halfway through their ACC schedule.

The relatively subdued reaction in comparison to recent wins over North Carolina should tell you as much about the Terps as it does about the Tar Heels.

"This win means a lot to us," Vasquez said. "Yeah, we won last year, and it was a huge win when everybody was against us. But now it means a lot because we good. Everybody was expecting us to win, and that's the way it should be."

As usual, it started again with Vasquez, who finally has a team playing consistently well enough to back up his trademark bravado.

Vasquez finished with 26 points and 11 assists, continuing to lead the offense with both his shot and court vision.

He spoke after the game about not only making the NCAA Tournament for the second straight season but making a deep run, and he has his team believing it can win.

Vasquez has talked about the Terps doing big things since the day he got here, but now when he speaks there's a little more substance behind his swagger.

It's realistic when his play brings his teammates closer to his level.

"Like he's been all year," coach Gary Williams said, "just a great player who improves the other players in the game."

In past seasons, the Terps' truly impressive wins came only every so often and were pleasant surprises. The Terps would show flashes of their potential in a big victory, only to come out and frustrate everybody in their next game.

This year, it's starting to become surprising when the Terps don't play well.

Their six conference wins have come by an average margin of 16 points, and disappointing losses like their turnover-ridden performance at Clemson last weekend are now the surprising aberrations.

"I'm not surprised [by our big wins] because I know how hard we've worked," forward Landon Milbourne said. "We're just trying to get as many wins as we can and at the end of the season we're trying to get to where we want to be."

The Terps have two more opportunities to make statements this week when they play Virginia at Comcast Center on Wednesday and at No. 10 Duke on Saturday.

The Terps will go into each game expecting to win, and if they play like they did today, they'll have a pretty good chance.

"We're just tough," Vasquez said. "We have a tough team."

schimmel@umdbk.com