Yea, I knew you followed the Blazers closely. I'm glad to see Blake doing well and playing a key role on a good team. He did well with Denver and has proven he can be effective in an uptempo or half court game at this level. I was hoping Dixon would have more success. He had a tough childhood and was a fan favorite at UMD. At the time, most people thought he would have more success as a pro than Blake. Baxter was expected to do a lot more, too. A lot of people doubted Blake's potential despite his elite playmaking skills. He has improved his outside shot tremendously over the years. That Terps championship team was really fun to watch. I still lived in D.C. back then. Blake, Dixon, Wilcox, Baxter, Muton, etc... I remember a couple of real good games against Duke that season. I think the Terps came back from a huge deficint in one of their meetings. I can't remember if it was in the tourney or regular season without looking it up. I believe Jay Williams was playing for Duke.
I never would have thought Blake would play as well as he has this year. He's one of those rare guys who truly achieved his potential in the NBA. The key for him is adaptability and fit. He is very adaptable to different situations and has been fortunate to play alongside creative perimeter stars like AI and Brandon Roy that mesh well with him. Blake is the kind of guy who can fit in the rotation of a championship level team as a reserve. For the Blazers to take the next step, they need a starting PG that can push Blake into a reserve role. Maybe Bayless will do that next season or Pritchard signs a free agent.
I don't know if you got it confused or you could be talking about another game, but when that Maryland team played Duke (Jay Will,Battier,Boozer), Maryland was up 10 with a minute left and then Duke came back to send the game to OT. Duke would go on to win the game.
I mixed it up a little. That OT game was the year before they won the championship. They blew a big lead to Duke in the Final Four semis. The next season, the championship one, they got their revenge and took over the #1 spot for the first time in school history by beating Duke. Battier was no longer on the team but Jay Will and Boozer were still there. I was just remembering an exciting win over Duke. It wasn't close though. http://terps.fandome.com/video/75186/Final-Minute-of-2002-Victory-for-Maryland-over-Duke/ (Click on this link if the embedded video doesn't work) <object width="504" height="440"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /><param name="allownetworking" value="all" /><param name="wmode" value="transparent" /><param name="quality" value="high" /><param name="flashvars" value="stretching=exactfit&autostart=false&backcolor=AD0000&frontcolor=FFFFFF&lightcolor=FFFFFF&enablejs=true&volume=100&logo=http://www.fandome.com/img/watermark.png&image=http://s3.amazonaws.com/lazyimgbig/75186.jpg&link=http://terps.fandome.com/video/75186/Final-Minute-of-2002-Victory-for-Maryland-over-Duke/&linktarget=_blank&linkfromdisplay=true&plugins=yourlytics-1,quickkeys-1,googlytics-1,viral-1&yourlytics.callback=http://www.fandome.com/ajax/updateViews.php?vid=75186&viral.onpause=false&file=http://s3.amazonaws.com/lazyjock/75186.flv" /><param name="src" value="http://www.fandome.com/flashplayer/sportsbox.swf" /><embed src="http://www.fandome.com/flashplayer/sportsbox.swf" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" id="videoId" name="videoId" allowscriptaccess="always" allownetworking="all" quality="high" allowfullscreen="true" wmode ="transparent" width="504" height="440" flashvars="stretching=exactfit&autostart=false&backcolor=AD0000&frontcolor=FFFFFF&lightcolor=FFFFFF&enablejs=true&volume=100&logo=http://www.fandome.com/img/watermark.png&image=http://s3.amazonaws.com/lazyimgbig/75186.jpg&link=http://terps.fandome.com/video/75186/Final-Minute-of-2002-Victory-for-Maryland-over-Duke/&linktarget=_blank&linkfromdisplay=true&plugins=yourlytics-1,quickkeys-1,googlytics-1,viral-1&yourlytics.callback=http://www.fandome.com/ajax/updateViews.php?vid=75186&viral.onpause=false&file=http://s3.amazonaws.com/lazyjock/75186.flv"></embed></object><div><a href="http://www.fandome.com" title="Sports Videos, News, Blogs"><img src="http://www.fandome.com/img/poweredBy.png" style="border:none;" alt="Sports Videos, News, Blogs" /></a></div>
Funny what happens when you put him up against a moderately good team. Blake is good, but not deserving of the record in my opinion.
