While Duke fans are enjoying the afterglow of beating UNC, in
College Park, Maryland
is hoping to lay a trap Saturday. The hatred is building, so it would
behoove Duke to not get carried away with the UNC victory and realize another
extremely intense game is just ahead, featuring people who really, really dislike us.
Funny note from this article: the writer thinks it is a really
good thing to live close to the White House and the Congress. What's the
difference between living close to that and a pig farm? Aside from the
smell? (in Washington).
The skinny: Duke fans have no class and have no room to argue
about Maryland fans having no class.
That's fine, we'll let Maryland
grad and ESPN employee Scott Van Pelt lecture them about having class, and
if that doesn't do it, then
Gary Williams can take a whack:
Gary tells us that ESPN Gameday will be in College Park, and so will Cold Pizza,
and oh by the way, "[a]s you know, we received a tremendous amount of adverse publicity because of an obscene chant picked up on live TV last year and heard nationally. As usual, a few people distorted other peopleÂs opinions of our student body and our university from the one obscene chant."
Three points here: 1) as usual? and 2) if the Maryland
fans are so classy, why is their coach and a prominent alum warning them not to
screw up (again), and 3) who the hell is Gary Williams to lecture anyone
else about having a pottymouth?
Gary could always step to a microphone and ask them to clean
up their language, but to do it, he'd have to clean up his own, and anyway, it's
not like 75% of the people who heard them chant "f--- you J.J." didn't
use the same word by the end of the day. It's a pretty basic component of
the English language and, as Bob Knight points out from time to time, a very
versatile word.
And the issue at College Park isn't language, it's that
violence is a constant threat. Coaches from other ACC schools don't leave
their families at home on this trip because they haven't heard the F word before
- they hear it all the time at every ACC school - it's because they're not
convinced they'll be safe.
Gary says he's
disappointed in the student support, but expects a full house Saturday. Well
duh.
Duke's injury situation is well-known and a season-long
issue. For Maryland, they've lost D.J. Strawberry for the year and Ekene
Ibekwe won't play against Duke since he has a cracked rib. Here's
another link from the Fredericksburg rag.
One final note: those
Maryland fans who kept calling J.J. Redick, long distance, on his cell phone?
J.J. uses that sort of stuff for motivation, and his long-distance shots make
the news.
As a matter of fact, we're betting he hasn't forgotten the end of last year's game, either.