Saturday, Feb. 4th at 4pm– Comcast Center: College Park, MD
Last game: UNC: def Wake 68-53 MD: lost to Miami 90-86, 2 OT
Leading Scorers: UNC- Harrison Barnes– 17.3 ppg MD- Terrell Stoglin– 21.8ppg
Outlook:
After watching SportsCenter all week and hearing the name Rob Gronkowski mentioned over and again, I invented a little drinking game whose rules are simple: every time he is mentioned or shown on television you drink. How does this parlay into the Maryland/UNC game? It’s simple: for every North Carolina fast break that is started from a Terps missed shot you drink. That game is sure to get you intoxicated and is the main reason why North Carolina is one of the favorites to win the National Championship. Not only do they have size and maybe the best player in basketball in Harrison Barnes, they also run up and down the floor on the offensive end putting pressure on their opponents to make shots and match them score for score. Where the Tarheels do struggle, however is against physical teams that can score inside, get the Tarheels in foul trouble, and also can rebound. Florida State was also able to that as well as knock down shots in their rout of the Tarheels earlier this season. While Mark Turgeon and his staff are sure to be watching film of that Florida State game, they will surely realize they don’t have that kind of personnel and will have to take a different approach. The Tarheels looking ahead to the Duke game in a few days might be the only shot, albeit slim, that the Terps have.
Maryland for years has always risen to the occasion and played well against top teams at home; that was their mantra under Gary Williams and one they look to continue. I have been hearing all week from other Terps fans that are saying, “We played Duke tough so that means we should play Carolina tough.” However, that is the furthest thing from the truth. Basketball is about match-ups, and Maryland’s erratic style plays right into the hands of the Tarheels. I love Terrell Stoglin but he is no Greivis Vasquez, and this Terps team is not like one of the teams from the Williams era that were proverbial giant killers. The only way to win this game is to be efficient in the half court offense, working the ball inside ad nauseam and get a lot of second chance opportunities to limit the offensive possessions for the Tarheels. James Padgett, Alex Len and Ashton Pankey will be key inside, and Nick Faust and Sean Mosley will need to knock down outside shots if the Terps want to compete at all in this game. I just think the odds of this happening are about as good as someone on the Wizards not tweeting something ridiculous. Of course, as Terrell Stokes once proclaimed after his Terps knocked off the Tarheels, they could “shock the world”.
Prediction:
I am by no means a hater: I am a loyal Terps fan and would love to see a win, but I tell it like it is. This game will not be close. Tyler Zeller will destroy the Terps on the inside and Carolina’s fast break will be too much to handle. They will run the Terps right out of their own arena.
We know our founding editor had a birthday this week, but did you know that on Tuesday Ben “Honey Buns” Cavil turned the big 4-0? Who’s Ben Cavil? And you call yourselves Ravens fans. As we all know, he saw regular time and started about half the games at guard for the vaunted 1997-1998 Baltimore offensive line. I would say more, but in 2007, the Sun’s Mike Klingaman wrote THE DEFINITIVE Ben “Honey Buns” Cavil piece in the history of the Internet.
The only info Klingaman’s piece (which is about 50% pastry-related) is missing is that Cavil also played a year in the famed XFL for the NY/NJ Hitmen. I would be severely disappointed if he didn’t have “HONEY BUNS” on his jersey.
Ravens linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo is coming off one of the best seasons of his career. He played in more games in 2011 than he did in the previous two years combined and posted a career high 31 tackles.
I was surprised to see just how big of a role he played this season on defense because I’ve always thought of Ayanbadejo as only a special teams player.
Ayanbadejo enters this offseason as a free agent and he tweeted on Wednesday that the Ravens should expect “no discounts.” He added that it wouldn’t take much to keep him in Baltimore and said that he just wants to “be treated fairly.”
When asked directly if he would take less money to stay with the Ravens, Ayanbadejo responded “Nah.” READ MORE >>>
We all should have known that Jack Del Rio wouldn’t reunite with the Ravens. I cited “different eras” as my reasoning when first discussing candidates to replace Pagano. Del Rio came from the Brian Billick era Ravens, a team and method that the front office and ownership have decided to put behind them.
Martindale comes to Baltimore with 18 years of coaching experience in both the NFL and at the college level. Not surprisingly, he was on Jack Harbaugh’s coaching staff at Western Kentucky. READ MORE >>>
In the spirit of Jimmy the Greek, we’re going to offer you some stone cold Superbowl XLVI locks, or, just some spurious guesses based on cursory analysis and casual observation. Either way, this being Baltimore, we thought we’d hear from our favorite wholesale narcotics importer: the man known simply as “The Greek.”
Greek’s 2011/2012 Record ATS: 37-39-2
Greetings Readers. Are you ready for the Big Game? I assume that it’s being met with disdain by most who grace these pages given the geographical skew. Anyhow, 2-2 for Championship Sunday, nailing the game lines, but coming up short on the over/unders. Despite the push I’m still sitting at a 67% clip over the last 5 weeks (15-7-1) and have a chance to bring the season over .500. I’ll be giving you my thoughts on the game line, the over/under and some of my favorite prop bets. READ MORE >>>
The Ravens decision to shut down training camp at McDaniel College has been something that irked me from the minute the team snuck the news out late on a Friday afternoon. I still believe that this decision proves the team no longer has a desire to grow their fan base or thank the diehards and shows that this team wants to remain out of the spotlight as much as possible.
When the Ravens quietly released the heartbreaking news of a closed training camp in 2012, they promised to provide free practices at M&T Bank Stadium. Personally, I’ve never been a big fan of the practice experience at the stadium, but at least it’s something.
I’ve eagerly awaited the day that Brian Billick gets his next head coaching job so that I can add my second favorite NFL team. I love the guy. The demeanor, attitude and confidence of the Ravens during his tenure were a direct translation of his personality and became my favorite attributes of the early Ravens.
“It’s a general manager’s game. I’m not what they’re looking for,” Billick said according to Jamison Hensley of ESPN.com. ”That’s fine. They want a head coach today that doesn’t have to worry about personnel, the cap or even the media. We’ll lock you in a room and you come out with a genius game plan. They’re looking for X’s and O’s guys. That’s the world we live in right now.” READ MORE >>>
Gary auditioned for the PA Announcer job with hundreds of other fans at Orioles FanFest on January 21 and now he finds himself among the remaining few for the role.
I spoke with him about the process, fulfilling the dream, his PA Announcing experience and heard a sample of what Baltimore fans could expect to hear at Camden Yards this season.
The Ravens were one play away from playing this Sunday in Indianapolis. All Lee Evans has to do is fall down with the ball and it’s a Super Bowl 35 not a Super Bowl 42 rematch.
But Evans dropped the ball and Billy Cundiff missed a 32-yard field goal that killed the Ravens chances of sending the AFC Championship to overtime. It still stings just typing it.
After reading the quotes and watching the press conference I’ve come to the conclusion that Bisciotti and the Ravens front office really believe that this is a championship caliber team. Bisciotti is content with this coaching staff and the talent on the field. He believes in Cam Cameron and thinks Joe Flacco will win multiple rings. READ MORE >>>
During his annual State of the Ravens press conference, owner Steve Bisciotti acknowledged Flacco’s critics and took the side of his franchise QB. ”I don’t think I’ve ever seen a guy as maligned as him,” Bisciotti said according to Jeff Zrebiec of the Baltimore Sun. ”We believe in him.”
Bisciotti added that he plans to sit down with Joe Flacco and “start grinding out contract terms.”
Sidney Lowe, the former coach of the North Carolina State men’s basketball team was shown the door for not winning enough with the talent he was able to recruit. New coach Mark Gottfried, with a roster not completely devoid of talent, had the Wolfpack tied for first in the conference standings through five games, with the possibility of making the tournament if they can keep up the good play. Last week was a big week for the Wolfpack, with games against North Carolina and Virginia-games that if they could win one or both, would be additional proof that the team could hang around in the conference for the long haul.
Unfortunately, the Tar Heels were the Tar Heels-meaning the team that was thought to be a national contender. They ran the Wolfpack out of the Smith Center 74-55. In the home game against Virginia, the Wolfpack didn’t shoot the ball well, but battled all game long before falling short by a point. While the two losses don’t doom the Wolfpack’s chances at the NCAA tournament, nor by themselves prove they can’t play with the big boys, they represented missed opportunities. Now they face of week of winnable games against Boston College and Wake Forest, which can help rebuild their confidence, if not necessarily enhance their tournament profile. READ MORE >>>
Michael Irvin might have completely glossed over thirty years of NFL history in Baltimore. The NFL Network analyst chimed in on this week’s most popular topic — no, not the Super Bowl — Peyton Manning’s future in Indianapolis.
Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay has publicly gone back and forth with franchise quarterback Peyton Manning about respecting the organization’s image. ”I don’t think it’s in a good interested to paint the horseshoe in a negative light,” Irsay said.
Perhaps it was nothing in Indianapolis, but that isn’t the case in Baltimore.
“This horseshoe was garbage without Peyton — it was garbage when he got here and garbage when he left here this season,” he said according to Nate Davis of USA Today. READ MORE >>>
After spending a season without a quarterbacks coach, the Ravens decided Joe Flacco could use a little love.
The team officially announced on Monday that former Colts head coach Jim Caldwell would be mentoring Flacco. Former Ravens wide receiver and WBAL radio analyst, Qadry Ismail, spent a season with Caldwell in Indianapolis and he thinks that adding Peyton Manning’s former coach will be very beneficial to J-Flaccolicious.
Here’s a motto Ravens fans live by: when in doubt, blame it on Kyle Boller.
Back in the 2003 draft, the Ravens selected Boller with the 19th overall pick. The Ravens were so high on the QB out of California (probably because they saw how far he could throw the ball from his knees) that they traded their second round pick in 2003 and first round pick in 2004 to the New England Patriots to get him.
Wilfork registered 74 tackles and two interceptions this season. He leads the Patriots with 2.5 sacks and three quarterback hits during the postseason. READ MORE >>>
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