Tonight's game against Georgia Tech at the Greensboro Coliseum marks the first time Maryland has been the more rested team going into the ACC quarterfinals since the league expanded. In other words, it's the first time the Terps came into the ACC tournament with a bye.
You'd think that would give Maryland a decided advantage, especially after the stretch the Terps endured to close the regular season. But after watching the games here this afternoon, and having seen what happened at other tournaments around the country this week, I'm not sure it will be an advantage at all.
Duke beat Virginia in the opening game this afternoon, but it was a lot closer than the final score (57-46) and a lot more competitive than their game was in Charlottesville (an 18-point win for the Blue Devils that wasn't as close as it looked) two weeks ago. Miami and Virginia Tech split during the regular season, but the No. 12 seed Hurricanes were the fresher team at the end of their 70-65 win over the Hokies.
I see this being a difficult game for the Terps for some other reasons I think that Georgia Tech has a lot more at stake than the Terps, with a win basically locking up an NCAA bid for the Yellow Jackets. There's also the revenge factor, given what happened in College Park a few weeks ago.
And, most significantly, Georgia Tech creates some monster matchup problems for Maryland, particularly inside with Derrick Favors (21 points, 18 rebounds). Jordan Williams will have to play even better than he did in College Park (nine points,12 rebounds), and the Terps are going to have to find a way to limit second-chance baskets, a big problem in the first game.
That said, you know Maryland is going to show up mentally for this game. The same isn't always true for the Yellow Jackets.
We'll see in a couple of hours, but do you think this could be a tough test for the Terps?