Maryland Terrapin's Basketball Season Sinks or Swims Sunday at Clemson

Let's jump into the time machine for a moment, shall we? Let's go all the way back to the year 2009. It is late December. As holiday revelers nurse eggnog hangovers and pick pine needles out of the carpet, the Terps basketball team is busy watching itself lose to a scorching William & Mary squad. 

All the way back then, it might have been difficult to foresee Maryland going into Littlejohn Coliseum in January with a chance—a good chance, even—to knock off the No. 21 Clemson Tigers and defend their first-place position in the ACC.

But here they are.  After spending the month chowing down on some choice scheduling after going 6-1 by a combined score of 605-451 over teams with a combined record of 69-52, the Terps now stand eye-to-eye with an unadulterated big dog. 

Whatever happens will reveal what kind of Maryland team we're really dealing with this season.  Are they going to stand up or shrink back?  Not to over-dramatize, but there are a lot of chips on the table Sunday at Littlejohn Coliseum.

Clemson is a big dog to be sure, but at the moment, they're a wounded dog (or Tiger, if you will). Clemson has lost three straight and just coughed one up against dreadful Boston College. They're feeling the loss of point guard Demontez Stitt, who sprained his foot Jan. 16 at N.C. State.

This injury is bad for Clemson because Stitt is the team's second-best player and a crucial offensive counterweight to apparent 17th-year senior, Trevor Booker. With Stitt gimpy and sworn Maryland enemy Terrence Oglesby  having inexplicably left the program after his sophomore season for the green, green pastures of the Italian leagues, Clemson is suddenly a pretty one-dimensional offensive club.

If Stitt can't play, they can collapse on Booker (just a 58 percent free throw shooter) and make the other players beat them.  If a gimpy Stitt is available, he would be a comparatively easy cover for Greivis Vasquez or Sean Mosely.  It's all just a matter of whether Maryland can take advantage.

Clemson can still pack a punch though, especially at home in that Littlejohn loony bin. Booker is always a load and could be trouble for a Terps front court that has struggled against rugged post players this year (see Yancy Gates, Al-Farouq Aminu).  

Nevertheless, Maryland has a real shot at a signature win here, particularly if they can stay hot on offense.  Clemson is ninth in the ACC in field goal percentage defense.  The team that is tops in field goal percentage is Maryland.  I'm no mathematician, but there's a theorem to be proved in those numbers somewhere.

Sometimes, as any Terps fan knows too well, it is all between the ears for Maryland.  But, conditions aren't going to get more favorable.  This Sunday the Terrapin gets pushed out of the nest and we will truly see what kind of hand Gary Williams is playing with.