Today in Men's Basketball History: March 22
3/22/2020 8:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
(NCAA Sweet 16 - Anaheim)
- Gary Williams' Terps advanced to their first NCAA Elite Eight since 1975 as they defeated crosstown rivals Georgetown, 76-66, in California.
- Lonny Baxter was sensational in the win, posting 26 points and adding 14 rebounds, while Juan Dixon had 13 points, five rebounds and three steals.
- Future NBA vetreran Mike Sweetney was held to 10 points
- According to the Washington Post, more than 1000 fans from both teams traveled across the country for the game.
- Quotable: "You win one more game in the tournament, and all of a sudden I'm a lot smarter. That's the way it goes in college basketball now." - Gary Williams on breaking through to Elite Eight on his fifth attempt at Maryland.
(NCAA Sweet 16, Syracuse)
- It was by no means a perfect display, but the Terrapins did what they had to do to reach their second consecutive NCAA Elite Eight under Gary Williams with a win against "blue blood" Kentucky.
- Four Terps reached double-figures: Juan Dixon (19), Lonny Baxter (16), Chris Wilcox (15) and Byron Mouton (14)
- The Terps won by 10 points despite not making a basket in the final 6+ minutes of the game.
- Mouton hounded Kentucky superstar Tayshaun Prince, who managed 17 points on just 6-of-15 shooting. Prince had scored 41 points in the previous round.
- Quotable: "We are not surprised when we win. We go in thinking we're good enough to win the game and when we do, we move on to the next game." - Gary Williams
Terrapins Turn Their Triumph into Senior Night
Published: March 23, 2001
SYRACUSE — Lonny Baxter threw his 260 pounds inside like a pinball. Byron Mouton stuck on Kentucky's Tayshaun Prince like a Secret Service agent. And Juan Dixon showed why he is the most heralded Maryland senior of them all. In addition, the junior Drew Nicholas moved into shooting position like a wisp of smoke.
But it was the seniors who carried Maryland's Terrapins to a 78-68 victory over Kentucky tonight and into the East Regional final against Connecticut. With 51 seconds left, Dixon made two free throws to give Maryland (29-4) a 72-65 lead and close the door on a comeback that the Wildcats (22-10) had been threatening to cap since tying the score at 45-45 with 16 minutes left.
"They're a veteran team," Maryland Coach Gary Williams said. "Sometimes I wish they had more emotion. We are not surprised when we win. We go in thinking we're good enough to win and when we do, we move on to the next game."
Not only did Dixon slash his way to a game-high 19 points, but he also helped Mouton guard Prince and roamed the perimeter to disrupt Kentucky's other top shooter, Keith Bogans. Baxter, meanwhile, took control in the middle, grabbing 5 rebounds and scoring 16 points. And Mouton managed 14 points to go with his defense.
"Prince is going to get his looks," Williams said. "We just wanted to make sure he didn't get a lot of open looks. Byron Mouton did a good job on him, and we tried to help off the screen and convince him he wasn't open."
Prince shot 6 for 16 and scored 17 points.
Nicholas spelled guard Steve Blake, who was struggling, and ran the offense for most of the second half. Nicholas scored 8 points and had 5 assists.
This promised to be a matchup of two teams with Final Four talent -- Kentucky with a royal basketball history and Maryland trying to show it belonged with the Wildcats, Duke, North Carolina and Kansas in the college basketball history books. Bogans endorsed the Terrapins' campaign, singling out the Maryland seniors Dixon and Baxter as the superb talents on a deep and explosive team.
"I think we're going to have to take away more than one guy," Bogans said. "We are going to have to work as a team to take a lot of things away from them. If you take away one guy, they have somebody else that can step and play."
The Terrapins took a 39-33 lead into halftime because the Wildcats failed to slow Dixon, who had 11 points, or Mouton (8 points) and Chris Wilcox (7), who slammed thunderous dunks. They also failed to disrupt Blake's direction of the offense as he handed out three assists.
Of late, Kentucky had run afoul of its demanding fans who looked past the Wildcats' national title in 1998 and focused instead on a disappointing regular season. The ghost of Adolph Rupp and seven national championships will do that to you.
Maryland followed its first taste of the Final Four last year with its best regular season ever. The Terrapins won the Atlantic Coast Conference regular-season title for the first time in 22 years and earned a No. 1 seeding in the N.C.A.A. tournament for the first time.
All that was left was a national championship.
Struggling or not, the Terps saw Kentucky as an obstacle to that goal.
"They go 9 of 10 deep with a lot of athletes," Dixon said. "They have a lot of pressure and go to the offensive boards hard. So our job is to contest shots and hold them to one shout and get out on transition and play our game."
Maryland handled Kentucky's depth early and forced nine turnovers. Before the game, Williams understood that his team might have its hands full with the 6-foot-9 Prince, but Prince couldn't come close to matching his 41 points in a second-round victory over Tulsa.
