Lefty Driesell, Gary Williams, Tom McMillen, Albert King, Len Bias, Juan Dixon. It’s all in the history books now. Florida State emphatically sent Maryland to the Big Ten when a Boris Bojanovsky dunk with four-tenths of a second on the clock eliminated the Terps from the 2014 ACC Tournament on Friday.
After the game, it was time to reflect on a move that a lot of folks still don’t understand in terms of it making any sense.
“We knew what the ACC meant to our fans, and we just weren’t good enough to get the win today,” said Maryland coach Mark Turgeon, whose season may very well be over with the team falling to 17-15 overall and teetering on the edge of an NIT berth.
“We knew what it meant to our people. We’re going to miss it. It’s a great league, great coaches. We’re going to miss Greensboro. It was a great tournament, well run. We’re going to miss that part of it. But the good thing is we’re going to another great league, great coaches, great tournament. “
So there you go with a kick in the pants to the ACC from the Maryland coach on his way out, but then again, what else can he say? Maryland, financial troubles and all, still pays his bills.
Florida State coach Leonard Hamilton might have every reason to kick back at Maryland on behalf of the ACC, which of course isn’t losing much at all in the trade off, with defending national champion Louisville joining the conference next year in a trade that works out well for John Swofford, to say the least.
Hamilton took the high road.
“Maryland has been a premier program in the ACC for many, many years. And they’ve had some of the greatest coaches, with Lefty and his personality and what he brought, and Lefty coaching at Davidson for a while and moving up to Maryland, kind of had a little North Carolina flavor in it. And he was always a colorful guy, and I thought he brought a lot to the ACC. And then Gary with his aggressive style, so Maryland has meant a lot to the legacy of the ACC. But they’re moving on, and we’re going to wish them well,” Hamilton said.
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