The End of the Road

Well now, this wasn't supposed to happen.

The really disappointing part of all of this is that Maryland didn't even play a bad game - on the contrary, they played pretty well. It just so happened that Stanford played out of their minds. Even after having seen lord knows how many games this season, including some of the marquee matchups featuring some of the best teams in the nation, the Cardinal may have played the best game I've seen all year. Period. Obviously it's tough to keep up the same momentum for another two games, especially with a week off in between, but if Stanford plays this way in Tampa, you've got your national champions. Nobody could have beaten them last night, and nobody will beat them if they play up to that level again.

There's no doubt that the Terps are left feeling unfulfilled - after all, the goal this year was a national championship, and nothing short of that. If anything, that shows the growth that this program has undergone in the last few years, because only a couple of teams in the nation can legitimately say that their seasons don't live up to full expectations if they don't win the whole damn thing. With that said, Maryland should still hold their heads high. A 33-4 record is nothing to scoff at, and all four losses were to teams who were among the final 12 teams still playing in the tournament.

Still though, we're all left wondering what might have been.

Obviously this marks the end of the road for us as well. One thing's for sure: It's been one hell of a ride. Scott and I are going to collect our thoughts and come back for an epilogue of sorts to completely cap off the season in a day or two.

Congrats to the 2007-2008 Maryland Terrapins for all they accomplished, even if it wasn't quite what they wanted the ending to be.