Record: 32-4, 15-1 (1st place)
ACC Tournament: Lost in semifinal
NCAA Tournament: Won
Final AP Ranking: 3
All-ACC Players: Juan Dixon (ACC POY), Lonny Baxter (2nd), Steve Blake (3rd), Chris Wilcox (3rd)
All-Americans: Juan Dixon (1st)
One of the most compelling storylines in sports is the Almost Team. They’re clearly one of the best, they’re right there, they’re oh-so-close, but there’s a final hurdle they just can’t clear. Maybe it’s one team they can’t beat, or a tournament round they can’t get past. Think of the Brooklyn Dodgers of the 1940s and 1950s, the Red Sox of the early 2000s, the Jim Kelly-era Bills, or the Pistons of the late 1980s. Will they get over the hump, or won’t they?
Sometimes the momentum towards a breakthrough seems to build steadily over time. Think of Rafa Nadal. He played Roger Federer in the Wimbledon final three straight years from 2006-2008 when Federer was the best player on the planet. In 2006, Federer won in four sets. Considered a clay court player, Nadal was praised for putting up a spirited fight on grass, but Federer was in control. In 2007, Nadal’s improvement was evident. Federer won in five exhilarating sets, but for much of the match Nadal looked like the better player. You came away thinking “how much longer can he hold this guy off?” When they met again in 2008, it seemed like the pressure had built up so much that the dam was going to break – and it did. Nadal outlasted Federer 9-7 in the fifth set in one of the greatest matches ever played.
But these storylines don’t always have happy endings. (Ask Lefty Driesell.) It takes something extraordinary after repeated heartbreaking failures to keep picking yourself up, finding ways to get better, and perhaps the hardest thing of all, truly believing you can win. I have immense respect for those teams who finally get over the hump.
Maryland 2002 is one of those stories. Through the 2000 season, Maryland had had 16 teams over the 47 years of the ACC that finished in the AP Top 20 (only Duke and Carolina had more). Six of those teams finished in the Top 10. They’d had great coaches in Driesell and Williams and great players in Bias, Lucas, Elmore, McMillen, and King.
And what did they have to show for all that excellence? Two ACC Tournament titles, zero Final Fours, and a lot of heartbreak. Fair or not, the storyline of Maryland’s first 47 years in the ACC was one of unfulfilled promise, bad luck, and missed opportunities.
Gary Williams’ first really good team was the 1995 team led by ACC Player of the Year Joe Smith. They were ranked in the Top 10 most of the season. They made it to the Sweet 16 before losing to an outstanding UConn team with Ray Allen. It was a joyful run for Terps fans who were happy to be nationally relevant again and excited for next year. Unfortunately for them, Smith turned pro after the season, and that set them back a bit. They still made the tournament the next few years, but it wasn’t until 1999 that Williams moved the high water mark up. That team (#47 on my list) was one of the best in the nation, and when they lost in the Sweet 16 to St. John’s, it felt like a missed opportunity and a “here we go again” moment for Maryland fans. Then Steve Francis unexpectedly turned pro, and the 2000 team took a small step backward.
At this point, Williams had made the tournament seven straight times, but he hadn’t gotten past the Sweet 16. Fans were feeling that old familiar feeling that their coach and their program couldn’t win the big one. All the more challenging is that they were trying to climb the ladder while Duke was in the midst of one of the great stretches of all time with their juggernaut teams from 1998-2002, and North Carolina under Bill Guthridge had reached the Final Four in both 1998 and 2000. It must’ve felt like an impossible uphill battle.
But there were signs. Maryland had swept the Tar Heels in 1999, split with them in 2000, and finished ahead of them in the ACC standings both years, so that no longer felt like an immovable object. As for Duke, the breakthrough came on February 9, 2000, when the Terrapins walked out of Cameron Indoor with an immensely satisfying 98-87 victory over a Duke team that had been running roughshod over them and everyone else for a few years. A month later, Maryland reached the ACC Tournament final for the first time in Williams’ tenure before losing the rubber match to Duke. But those subtle signs of progress were lost on Maryland fans after the Terps, as a #3 seed, were humiliated 105-70 by an unranked 20-11 UCLA team in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
Despite the terrible finish, there were plenty of reasons for optimism going into 2001. Everyone was back from the previous year, and the Terps had added highly touted freshman big man Chris Wilcox. With such a talented roster, Maryland was ranked fifth in the national preseason poll. But a 1-3 start got them behind the eight ball right away. After a February 14 home loss to Florida State, Maryland stood at 15-9, 6-6 in the ACC and was barely clinging to a spot in the Top 20.
At that point, something clicked. A 16-point win at #23 Wake Forest, a blowout win over a not very good NC State team, and a home win over #16 Oklahoma gave the Terps some momentum going into another visit to Cameron to take on second-ranked and eventual national champion Duke – on Shane Battier‘s Senior Night no less. Improbably, for the second straight year, Maryland walked out with a decisive 91-80 win, and Juan Dixon was the best player on the court. They followed with a 35-point blowout of a Top 10 Virginia team. Suddenly Maryland was on fire.
A two-point loss to Duke in the semifinals of the ACC Tournament was disappointing, but did little to dampen the sense that this Maryland team had turned a corner. Sent out West as the #3 seed, they survived a scary opener against George Mason, then mowed down Georgia State (coached by Lefty!) and Georgetown to reach the regional final where they faced second-ranked, 31-2 Stanford. The Cardinal had an impressive resume, having beaten Duke on a neutral court earlier in the season, and they were playing close to home in Anaheim. Maryland was unfazed. Lonny Baxter dominated Stanford’s highly touted frontcourt, Dixon was his usual efficient, ball-hawking self, and the supporting cast was solid as Maryland ran away with with an 87-73 victory to send them to the first Final Four in school history – where a fourth game against Duke awaited. Maryland fell apart in the second half of that game with turnovers and fouls, and Duke streaked to the national championship.
That is a very long preamble, just to get to the season that we’re actually talking about. But I don’t think you can fully appreciate what happened in 2002 unless you understand what led up to it. It wasn’t something that came out of nowhere. Gary Williams’ program had been chipping away at the edifice of the ACC elite, knocking down one barrier after another. Going into 2002, Terence Morris was gone, but everyone else was back, and the Terps had a deep, experienced, complete team led by seniors Dixon, Baxter, and Byron Mouton. They were ranked second to Duke in the preseason poll.
They lost the opener to a young but talented Arizona team. Wins over Temple, Illinois, and UConn got the Terps’ ranking back to #2 before a clunker of a loss at Oklahoma, an eventual Final Four team.
It was a bit of a weird year in the ACC. With North Carolina in the Matt Doherty doldrums, there was a chasm between Duke/Maryland and everyone else. NC State was OK, Wake Forest as OK, Virginia was OK, but it wasn’t that meat grinder of a schedule that you typically associate with the ACC. Duke and Maryland split their regular season games with each team winning handily at home. Maryland coasted through the rest of the ACC schedule and finished atop the standings with a 15-1 conference record. The ACC Tournament figured to come down to a rubber match with Duke, but NC State had other ideas. The Wolfpack played a beautiful semifinal game, crushing Gary Williams’ ACC Tournament hopes yet again.
As much as that loss must have hurt, Maryland was still the top seed in the East region. The Terps cut through their regional opponents like a buzzsaw, culminating with a 90-82 win over a UConn squad that featured Caron Butler, Emeka Okafor, and Ben Gordon. Juan Dixon was balling, scoring 29, 29, 19, and 27 in the four regional games.
The national semifinal against Kansas was one of the most entertaining Final Four games ever. Like Maryland, Roy Williams’ Jayhawks had lost only four games and had dominated the regular season in their conference only to lose in the tournament. Both teams played at a very fast pace and had extremely skilled offensive players. It was a shootout. Baxter got into early foul trouble and ultimately played just 14 minutes. But the Terps had quality depth in Ryan Randle and Tahj Holden, and of course they had Dixon. JD scored 33, Chris Wilcox chipped in 18 points and 9 boards, and Steve Blake dished out 11 assists to lead Maryland to a 97-88 victory.
Instead of Duke waiting in the final, it was Indiana, the team that had upset the Blue Devils in the regionals. The Hoosiers went on to beat Kent State and #3 Oklahoma to reach the national final. After beating #1 and #3 on the way to the final, I’m sure the Hoosiers thought they could do anything. But their magic ran out. They managed but 52 points on 34% shooting in a championship game that wasn’t very pretty.
It’s so hard to win a national championship, and it’s that much harder for a non-blue blood program. Not only do you have to beat all the other great teams, but you have to beat back the ghosts of failures past. What an amazing job by Gary Williams of putting this team together and then executing at the highest level in the NCAA Tournament. They earned everything they got.