Jeff: Unfortunately, there was absolutely nothing positive to be taken from the Maryland game. The game was played at home, Maryland is not one of the premier teams in the ACC (although they might be high on the second tier) and BC was never in the game. If I had to point out one thing that was most frustrating while watching the game it would be that defenders never seemed to put a hand up while running out to contest open jump shooters. That was the most blatant sign of the players being lazy and giving up I thought.
This team is becoming more and more frustrating to watch as it is harder to come up with excuses for their mistakes.
Tonight though, maybe there is a small chance that the Eagles (6.5 point underdogs) can pull off a victory. The Eagles played one of their best stretches of basketball when they played Miami in December and opened up a large lead on the Canes before giving that lead up and holding on to win in the end by a point. Having the confidence of already having beaten Miami in December, there is reason to believe that the Eagles will come out ready to play for 40 minutes and seize the victory we all know they are capable of but that the team seemingly doesn't care for.
I thought the Maryland game was going to give us the final indication of whether this team was headed towards a 4-12 type ACC season or if they were headed towards a .500+ conference record. Using the Maryland game as that indicator the team is headed towards a 1-15 season in conference, but this morning, being a game day, I choose, as a fan, to have faith that Skinner can do something to push the right buttons and get a victory tonight. That would then give us the opportunity to head to Blacksburg Saturday and even our conference record at 3-3 and there would be renewed hope for this season. No one doubts we have the talent to make a run at some point this season, but as long as our "star" players continue to average <5 points per game, it will be a long ACC season.