Good job Butler, best of luck as you move on...

Well, on the plus side the Terps got one game further in the 2007 NCAA Mens Basketball Tournament than archrivals Duke did, but not any further than that.

Congrats Butler.  Your team played tough and worked hard for that win and you deserve to continue on the quest.  I wish you all the best of luck as you go.

My beloved Terps just couldn't stop Butler today, partly because of what I think is somewhat a systemic problem for them -- a very poor outside game, and poor defense against same.  For whatever reason Maryland seems to be a team that rarely has an outside game.  It just isn't their style, and they never seem to have the pure shooters that can hit it from 'downtown' the way that other teams (see Duke and UNC as examples.  see also Butler in 2007) do.

If the Terps can't play an inside game, they can be beaten, and that was the case today.  Butler beat 'em from outside, and Maryland just didn't clamp down the defense to stop that from happening.  I'm sure they put effort into it, but the execution wasn't commensurate with the effort, and Butler, like other teams that Maryland has a hard time with, was able to capitalize on it.

I get to go back to waiting for next year, hoping that the Terps will return to glory.  In the meantime, I hope they put a lot more effort into recruiting some outside shooters so they can play a more balanced game.  If they don't, then I suspect they may wind up back in the Not Invited Tournament sooner than they get back into the NCAA Tournament.