A New Year is Upon Us

First of all, a very happy and healthy new year to you and yours. Hope you're as excited as I am for 2008, and hope you're enjoying your January 1, whether you're spending it with family, alone in disbelief that you actually had that much to drink, or (like me) with a comfortable spot picked out on the couch to watch the 30 million bowl games that are on today.

Thursday marks the start of ACC play for the Terps. They closed out the non-conference slate with a bang, throttling UMBC and Richmond in the Terrapin Classic. Admittedly, there were some great individual performances by the Terps' opponents, but this past weekend was essentially an exhibition for the team. They weren't ever truly challenged, and frankly, the final scores showed that. I don't think anyone seriously expected any sort of a test.

Wake Forest will be an interesting start to the ACC season for Maryland. Which Wake team will show up? Will it be the one that pulled off nice wins against Texas A&M and Indiana en route to a tournament victory in the Virgin Islands in the Paradise Jam? Or will it be the Wake team that sandwiched that tournament victory with losses at James Madison and at home to Radford? If it's the former, Maryland is possibly in for one heck of a fight. If it's the latter, this game might be over by halftime.

That's not to say that Maryland's performance is completely dependent on how their opponent plays Thursday. Undoubtedly, the four worst games (or, at best, four of the five worst) the Terps have played so far have been true road games - a loss at Rutgers, a rocky road trip against UC Santa Barbara and UCLA, and a scare at James Madison. Plain and simple, Maryland needs to play well on Thursday to establish that they've got a strong road presence. They can't afford to head into the conference slate being uncertain of how they can play outside of Comcast.

So how will things play out? You'll have to wait and see. Norm Carter and I will be on WMUCSports.com live from Winston-Salem, NC, at 6:40 PM on Thursday, getting you ready for a 7:00 tip. Be sure to listen in!