Terps Believe
11/7/2001 7:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Nov. 7, 2001
by Frank Burlison, FOXSports.com
Read this story on the FOXSports.com website
Everyone knows who the team to beat in college basketball is this season. And Lonny Baxter thinks he knows just the team that can do it.
"When you're playing Duke," Maryland's center explained, with an eye stealing a glance across the room where three of the Blue Devils were holding court on Atlantic Coast Conference Media Day, "you have to be mentally tough and believe you CAN win."
The look in the 6-foot-8 senior's eyes tells you what he thinks about his team's chances anytime it steps on the same floor with the defending ACC and national champion.
Of course, Baxter's confidence isn't just based on the Terps' victory and three oh-so-narrow and oh-so-painful losses in four games with Duke last season.
"We would feel that way," he added, smiling, "if we were playing the Lakers."
There are plenty of reasons why coach Gary Williams' Maryland team should be plenty excited about the start of the 2001-02 season. The Terps help to get the season off to a "what-more-could-you-ask-for" start Thursday night against Arizona (following the Temple vs. Florida opener) in the Coaches vs. Cancer IKON Classic in Madison Square Garden.
Baxter and three fellow starters from the Terps' Final Four trip to Minneapolis last March -- the first in the school's history -- are four pretty decent ones to start with.
Maryland, No. 3 in the FOXSports.com Top 25, should win 25 or more games in a row for the fourth consecutive season and wouldn't surprise too many folks by being one of the four teams playing in Atlanta on Final Four Weekend.
But this season, perhaps more than ever during Mike Krzyzewski's stint at Duke, the ultimate success of any of the truly elite teams in the country will be measured by how those teams fare when they cross paths with the Blue Devils.
It's anything but fair, but that holds doubly true for the Terps.
After all, they're also chasing them for an ACC title, as well as for a national crown.
"We can't let (how they play against Duke) one team determine our success," Williams said Tuesday morning. "We lost three of four games (against Duke) last season but did get to the Final Four. We're worrying about Arizona and then Florida or Temple (Friday night) right now. But the Duke thing is always out there. We'll play them twice in the ACC (regular-season play) and they should be great games. But it's not something I'm concerning myself with right now."
Indeed.
This could be the best team that Williams has coached as he begins his 13th season as the head of his alma mater's program.
Baxter is joined by returning starters in guards Juan Dixon and Steve Blake, and forward Byron Mouton.
There are plenty of high caliber returnees, too, including Tahj Holden and Chris Wilcox, one of which will be in the starting lineup against Arizona Thursday night in New York City.
The Terps are good. Their coach knows it, they know it and anyone who pays at least a scant bit of attention to college basketball knows it.
"And the guys worked work just a little bit harder (in the off-season), because we know how close we came to a national championship last season," Dixon said.
Yeah ... they came real close.
How close? They held a 22-point lead against the Blue Devils in Minneapolis before seeing it slip to 11 at intermission.
Things did some serious slipping in the final 20 minutes, when Duke outscored Dixon & Co. 57-35 en route to a 95-84 victory that moved the Blue Devils into the national championship game against Arizona two nights later.
Dixon recently watched a videotape of that Final Four loss -- and, while conceding that "Yeah, it still hurts a little bit", managed to keep from doing rude things to the monitor or VCR.
"We just stopped executing in the half-court (offense) when we were up 22," he said, matter-of-factly.
"If we had continued to execute, we would have won easily."
There are going to be opponents who step onto the floor with Duke this season who will have very little shot of knocking off the Blue Devils and will be convinced of that fact.
Those teams are already beaten, Dixon believes.
"Believing (you can beat Duke) is half the battle, especially when you go into Cameron (Indoor Stadium in Durham)," he said.
"We believe we can beat them because we're competitors. It starts with coach Williams and rubs off on all of the players."
The thing is, Dixon concedes, college basketball teams -- and players -- don't come with any more self-assuredness than is possessed by Duke.
"They," Dixon said, nodding over at Duke starters Jason Williams, Mike Dunleavy and Carlos Boozer, "believe they can win a national championship every year.
"We," he added, "have to believe that we can get back to the Final Four and just go a little bit further this time."
Even, he didn't need to add, if a certain team from the ACC is waiting for them.
