Link from WBAL: http://www.wbaltv.com/news/22509276/detail.html
Cue approximately 75 people on this board complaining that Maryland will now have more time to prepare for Duke than Duke has to prepare for Maryland.
Three straight weeks. I blame Swofford.Originally Posted by arydolphin
Link from WBAL: http://www.wbaltv.com/news/22509276/detail.html
Cue approximately 75 people on this board complaining that Maryland will now have more time to prepare for Duke than Duke has to prepare for Maryland.
Wow. You might be joking (not sure why), but that is a huge huge deal for Saturday. MD with an entire week to prepare for one of the most important matchups of the ACC season. WOW!!Link from WBAL: http://www.wbaltv.com/news/22509276/detail.html
Cue approximately 75 people on this board complaining that Maryland will now have more time to prepare for Duke than Duke has to prepare for Maryland.
GTHC
What is the reason? Weather? IF they played the UNC game on Sunday, how can they possibly postpone this one? Things that make you say HUMMMM???
Has UNC made it out of DC back to chapel hell?
They had about 2 1/2 feet of snow in the DC area this past weekend, and are expecting another 10-20 inches and blizzard conditions today and tomorrow. It might make the travel a little rough...like impossible. Will it clear up by the weekend?
When will the makeup game be? Will MD have a short rest/preparation period for the VA game?
what happens, happens and Duke will deal with it as best they can, I'm sure. Fans whining "unfair" won't solve any problems.
Nothing fans say solve any problems... and yet you are here. Just sayin...
GTHC
We aren't dug out from this weekend's mess and are expected another foot of snow tonight into tomorrow. Travel is, to put it mildly, a challenge. This makes a lot of sense to me.
It does, however, give MD extra time to prepare for us. And folks here view this 3 game set (UNC-VA-DUKE) as a great time for MD to make a statement.
It'll sure be interesting.
The Washington Post's Terrapin blog has a full statement from UMD: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/terrapins-insider/
What's weird is that UVA had already left to go to DC, and apparently were sent back to Charlottesville when the decision was made. I guess Maryland got nervous because so much snow is already on the ground and more is coming tonight and tomorrow. Perhaps the concern was being able to get all of the other important people to the arena to actually have the game happen (concessions staff, arena staff, etc.).
The game is going to be rescheduled for Monday night, February 15. Both teams have games on Saturday (UMD @ Duke, UVA @ Va Tech), then will play each other on Monday, then both teams have games on Wednesday night as well (UMD @ NC State, UVA home vs. FSU). That's pretty brutal for both teams.
Technically they only have four days to prepare, since they just found out about this today. Up until now they've been preparing to play UVA. Plus they have to travel to Durham, which I assume will happen friday night, so they really don't have much advantage over us as far as number of days to prepare. Not to mention that they might face delays flying out of the area on friday.
Sounds like the biggest impact is a negative one on MD and UVa in terms of scheduling and prep time.
Apparently, expected snowfall over the next two days will make for all-time annual snowfall records in DC and Baltimore....and it's mid-February. That itself has to be disruptive to the players and teams, as it likely involves local travel problems and changes in the school calendar.
Travel is very difficult here in D.C., and will be getting worse, if that's possible.
Perhaps we should be demonstrating a little more concern for the safety of those in the area, and a little less outrage over how unfair this is to our basketball team.
I did not know that it was still snowing or going to snow again. I guess this does make sense.
Amen brother.
10-20 more inches forecast, worse NE of town, in Alaska, where Gary Williams coaches. Blizzard conditions, too.
In my yard, in the northern part of the District, we've gotten about 38 inches in the last 11 days. I'm really hoping we don't get 20 more.
Here's the ACC press release.
"College Park, MD—The Atlantic Coast Conference men’s basketball game between Maryland and Virginia scheduled at the Comcast Center for Wednesday, February 10th has been postponed until Monday, February 15th. The game’s starting time and television broadcast information will be announced at a later time. All tickets for the originally scheduled game will be honored on the 15th.
Due to the area’s continuing unprecedented winter weather conditions and historic snow accumulations, the University of Maryland, University of Virginia and ACC have agreed that the rare postponement is in the best interest of all involved, after consultation with the campus chief of police and the University’s Associate Vice President for Facilities Management.
The University of Maryland has been closed since Friday, February 5th due to the conditions created by the past weekend’s blizzard. While University crews continue to work hard to remove snow from campus roads, sidewalks, steps and parking lots, there are still large portions of gameday parking lots and sidewalks which remain impassable due to the historic snow totals, to date.
An approaching storm is projected to dump more than a foot of new snow across the region, beginning Tuesday afternoon and continuing well into Wednesday, resulting in conditions that preclude the game from being played as originally scheduled.
Director of Athletics Deborah Yow and Head Men’s Basketball Coach Gary Williams have expressed their appreciation for all of the work done by campus employees and the Athletics staff that allowed the UNC game to be played under challenging circumstances. Those circumstances now move from being challenging to impossible for campus staff to manage, with the second major snowstorm approaching in less than a week."
I'd agree if anybody here had expressed any outrage at how unfair it is. As it stands, nobody has done that yet.
Still, MD (the team tied with Duke atop the ACC standings) will be preparing for Duke Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday (travel Friday), and Saturday Pre-game instead of Thursday (travel Friday) and Saturday Pre-game. To deny that this is a significant story given the magnitude of the game seems disingenuous to me.
GTHC
It's unusual, but not anything that isn't commonplace in the PAc-10 in trms of turnaround.
Both teams are better off from increased preparation time for their first game. Even for their clash against each other given the turnaround, and at a disadvantage for their games the following wednesday. However, UVA gets a home game against Fla. St. and MD gets to play @ the worst team in the conference (not counting the tarheels), so neither team really faces a significant challenge in those games either. I think this actually works out well for both teams.
GTHC
To be fair, it's pretty commonplace for the Big East. Villanova played at Georgetown on Saturday then played at West Virginia last night (Sat/Mon). Most of the Big East does this because of television contracts.
Duke '96
Cary, NC
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