Record: 23-5, 9-3 (2nd place)
ACC Tournament: Lost in final
NCAA Tournament: Did not make it
Final AP Ranking: 4
All-ACC Players: John Lucas (1st), Len Elmore (1st), Tom McMillen (2nd)
All-Americans: Len Elmore (2nd)
They say timing is everything. Perhaps there is no better illustration than the 1974 Maryland Terrapins.
Here is a team that featured three players (Tom McMillen, Len Elmore, John Lucas) who were named to the ACC 50th Anniversary team of the 50 greatest players in ACC history. The only other teams who can claim that are the Laettner/Hurley/Hill Duke teams and the Worthy/Perkins/Jordan Carolina team. They are one of only two teams in my Top 25 (can you guess the other?) who did not win the ACC championship or make the Final Four. If you could pick this team up and time travel to another season, they would have been the best team in the country and the favorite to win a national championship.
But in 1974, they were not the best team in the country, or even the second-best. They were stuck behind UCLA, who had merely won 76 straight games and the previous seven national championships and had one of the greatest players in the history of college basketball in Bill Walton. And they were stuck behind NC State, who would break that streak of national championships and was led by another of the greatest players in the history of college basketball in David Thompson. The Terrapins lost five games that season: one at UCLA by a point, three to NC State, and one at fourth-ranked North Carolina.
Both of their regular season matchups with NC State followed similar scripts: tense, tight, and too much David Thompson. In the first game, DT scored 41 on 14-for-20 from the field; in the second, he went for 39 on 16-for-26. The best player, in the biggest game, doing his thing. The Wolfpack needed every bit of it to overcome subpar performances by Tommy Burleson. The Newland, NC senior shot 3-for-19 in the first game and scored only 11 in the second.
The ACC Tournament, of course, was everything. The big storyline was whether Maryland could finally get over the hump against NC State. Including the 1973 season, they were now 0-5 against Thompson. With all the attention on Maryland and NC State, North Carolina probably felt overlooked and ignored. The Tar Heels had been ranked in the top 5 all season and hadn’t lost to anyone other than NC State and Maryland. So when Maryland and Carolina faced off in the semis, it was a titanic game in its own right. Both teams had been swept by NC State; they had split with each other; and the only other loss by either team was Maryland’s one-point loss at UCLA. Maryland was ranked #4 and Carolina #6.
It was an absolute beatdown. Maryland put up 105 points, shot 63% from the field, and all five starters scored at least 17 points, which is pretty incredible if you think about it. It was one of the worst beatings that a Dean Smith-coached team ever suffered.
It’s worth pointing out that by this point in the season, Maryland was playing five guys. That’s it. Against Carolina, their starters played 196 of the 200 minutes. The only reason Lefty took a starter out was foul trouble, and sometimes not even then; he would just play the guy until he fouled out. They were supposed to have Wilson Washington, a highly touted freshman big man from Norfolk, but Washington left after playing one game and eventually transferred to Old Dominion (where he would lead the Monarchs to a Division II national championship).
As for the final, I don’t have anything fresh or new to say about it. Jack McCallum of Sports Illustrated wrote a fine article about it in 1998, and I would encourage you to read that. Or just watch the game. It really was that good, and Maryland really was the most deserving team ever to miss the NCAA Tournament.
One interesting coda that fans might not realize is that Maryland did go to the tournament in both 1973 and 1975. In 1973, they were the runner-up to NC State but got the bid because of NC State’s probation. In 1975, they were the first ever at-large bid from the ACC. So at least all of these great players did get an opportunity to play in the NCAAs. Both teams lost in the regional final. Without doing an exhaustive study, I would conjecture that Lefty is the greatest coach who never made the Final Four. His teams went 0-4 in regional finals (two at Davidson, two at Maryland).