Today in Men's Basketball History: March 20
3/20/2020 2:14:00 PM | Men's Basketball
(NCAA Sweet 16 - Las Cruces, N.M.)
- Hall of Fame coach Lefty Driesell employed a formidable 1-2-2 press as he picked up his 300th collegiate victory.
- John Lucas scored 24 points in the win, while Owen Brown added 18 points.
- Notre Dame superstar Adrian Dantley scored 25 points, but eventually fouled out. He fouled out twice during the 1974-75 season - both times against Maryland.
- The Irish came within two points after Tom Roy was assessed a technical for elbowing Dantley, but the Terps followed with a 13-2 run to take a 13-point lead with five minutes remaining.
- In an oddity, Maryland opened the game shooting a technical foul shot because Notre Dame did not get its starting lineup to the scorekeeper in time.
(NCAA First Round, Columbus)
- Varun Ram's unforgettable late strip and steal on Valparaiso's final shot attempt secured Maryland's 65-62 first round victory.
- Ram's only playing time in the game came in the final 13 seconds. He had played only 55 minutes the entire season.
- Melo Trimble and Dez Wells each scored 14 points, as the Terps secured their 13th win of the season by six points or less.
- Quotable: "I felt like I hit a game-winning shot. It meant the world to me." - Varun Ram
(NCAA Second Round, Spokane)
- A 14-0 second half run pushed Maryland and head coach Mark Turgeon to the program's first NCAA Sweet 16 appearance since 2003.
- The Terps missed their first 15 3-pointers, before Melo Trimble's 3 sparked the Terps' major run. Trimble finished with 24 points and 8 rebounds.
- Maryland made 28-of-31 free throw attempts, led by Trimble (13-14) and Rasheed Suliamon (8-9). Sulaimon finished with 14 points.
- Quotable: "We were just, like, a happy team," Trimble said. "I mean, I was even celebrating, and I don't really celebrate that much. We were just having fun."
Maryland reaches second round by surviving Valparaiso
Published: March 20, 2015
COLUMBUS, Ohio — More than two hours after he had run through pregame warmups and taken a seat on the bench Friday night, Varun Ram was told to check in with 13 seconds remaining to help preserve the Maryland men's basketball team's season.
It came during a timeout, with Maryland clinging to a three-point lead in the NCAA tournament's round of 64 and upset-minded Valparaiso drawing up one final play. Maryland had been in similar situations so many times before this season, but this time it didn't need to be saved by a Dez Wells game-winner. It needed its 11th man, a 5-foot-9, 155-pound senior majoring in neurobiology.
Ram chased Valparaiso guard Keith Carter into the corner and slapped at the ball as Carter raised his hands to shoot a potential tying three-pointer, forcing the ball loose as the buzzer sounded. On its biggest stage of the season, fourth-seeded Maryland escaped with a 65-62 win over the 13th-seeded Crusaders.
Ram ran to half-court in celebration, and fellow senior Jon Graham sprinted from the bench to lift the guard into the air.
"I felt like I had just hit a game-winning shot," Ram said. "It meant the world to me."
Maryland advanced to face No. 5 seed West Virginia on Sunday, but it will need time to let this one marinate.
Ram was previously best known for roughing up star point guard Melo Trimble each day in practice. The freshman said Ram has made him a better player throughout the season with his defensive play in practice, and he has shown flashes of it during games. Trimble finished Friday's game with 14 points and 10 rebounds.
"I was pretty nervous to start off the game. And this game right here just got the nervousness out of me. Now I'm just ready to keep playing basketball," Trimble said.
The Terrapins' thrill at making their first appearance in the NCAA tournament in five years nearly faded away against a Valparaiso team looking to create its own memory. Much of Friday's game was a slog. The Terrapins also received 14 points apiece from Wells and freshman Jared Nickens, but they encountered foul trouble all afternoon and had to withstand a barrage of 12 three-point baskets by the Crusaders.
Maryland had arrived at Nationwide Arena loose and relaxed 24 hours earlier, and at no point Friday did it seem overwhelmed by the environment. As both Wells and Jake Layman sat for long stretches of the first half with two fouls apiece, Nickens hit four three-pointers in the first 20 minutes and keyed a 13-0 run that allowed Maryland to regain control.
"I just wanted to stay patient, not force anything," Nickens said.
Nickens and senior Evan Smotrycz, who also took two charges late in the half to help the team take a 31-27 advantage into the locker room, combined to finish the game with 22 of Maryland's 25 bench points , boosting the Terps while Layman struggled. The junior starting forward went 0 for 1 from the field and fouled out after scoring just four points.
Maryland scored on four of its first six possessions of the second half to open up a 39-31 lead, but Valparaiso kept coming. Layman picked up his third foul and went back to the bench early in the second half, as did sophomore center Damonte Dodd, who immediately was hit with a technical for his fourth foul.
Valparaiso pulled within 41-37 after a three-pointer from E. Viktor Nickerson with 14 minutes 39 seconds remaining, and Tevonn Walker cut it to one with another three-pointer 90 seconds later.
Wells picked up his third foul on a charging call a few possessions later, throwing his hands up in disbelief. Maryland had expected to be tested by Valparaiso, which boasted uncommon size for a mid-major team, and it fell in and out of rhythm against the Crusaders' zone defense all evening.
Dion Wiley and Trimble hit back-to-back three-pointers as Maryland took a 47-43 lead with 9:46 left, and Smotrycz cleaned up a Wells miss to push the lead to six on the next possession. Alec Peters, who led Valparaiso with 18 points, and Nickerson hit consecutive three-pointers to tie the game at 49 with 6:41 left, and the tension only grew from there.
Maryland took a 65-61 lead with 1:44 left on a three-point play by Wells, who came out of nowhere for a rebound putback. But Layman and Dodd picked up their fifth fouls eight seconds apart, and Walker pulled the Crusaders within three with a free throw with one minute left.
Wells, so often the hero down the stretch of his senior season, missed a pull-up jumper on the ensuing possession, and Valparaiso Coach Bryce Drew called a timeout to set up a play with 13.7 seconds left. Coach Mark Turgeon needed his five best defenders on the floor. Ram was among them.
"We were just in unbelievable foul trouble, and what I had left to play, he was clearly one of our top five defenders to put in. And so it was really without hesitation to put him in. I have confidence in him to do the right thing," Turgeon said.
Turgeon had plugged Ram into the game during random moments all season. Ram gave the team an energetic spark at Iowa. He did the same at Nebraska after Trimble got into foul trouble and again last week at Michigan State in the Big Ten tournament. It all led to Friday, when he had his crowning moment.
After the game he retreated to the locker room and took off his shoes and socks, then dished himself up a large plate of pasta, meatballs and tomatoes. The celebratory feast would help him refuel for the long weekend ahead. Maryland has plenty more work to do before Sunday.
"Everybody's got to be ready to play, whether its one possession or 39 minutes," Ram said, "and that's what happened."
