NCAA: Burning down the house: A night to forget

By Josh Levine CPKSports Feature Writer

COLLEGE PARK, MARYLAND. Losing in the Final Four is bad. Losing to the hated Duke Blue Devil's is worse. Losing to the Duke Blue Devil's in the Final Four after you had a 22 point lead is the worst possible thing you could imagine. I know, I was there, in College Park, Maryland on Saturday night.

As an alumni of Maryland, I was very excited all day for Maryland vs. Duke IV. What would it mean if the Blue Devils were to lose to the beloved Terps? All week all I heard was how much more police were going to be present in College Park to keep the peace. They didn't. Saturday night April 1, 2001, I was embarrassed for the way the fans and many students of Maryland acted. I was embarrassed by what took place on campus and in the city of College Park and one of my very close friends could have lost his life.

When the final buzzer sounded, Maryland fans were stunned as the realization that Duke completed a 33 point turn around to defeat Maryland 95-84. The chaos began as Maryland students and fans began setting bon fires, lighting fire works and destroying anything and everything in site. Cheers for the Terps could be heard all over town (Am I the only one who realized that we lost the game?). On Fraternity Row, a bon fire was ablaze, on Knox Road, near the famed Knox Boxes and Knox towers, fires were burning and perhaps the biggest and most dangerous fire of them all came at the corner of Knox Road and Dickinson Ave. at the corner of the old Tep (Tau Epsilon Phi) house. Some brilliant scholars thought it would be a good idea to light a fire under a huge tree, several fire poles, and cable wires. As luck would have it, the wires caught fire and eventually exploded causing several houses to lose cable service.

However, on this night this was least of my worries as a friend of mine accidentally was pushed to the fire and was burned and at one point, had his heart stop beating. Luckily EMT's and fire people were able to revive him and he is OK. But seeing a close friend and hearing that his heart had stopped sure does put everything into perspective. This is just a basketball game. That's it. It's 40 minutes, one team wins and one team loses.

What really puzzles me about this whole night is what the Maryland fans were trying to get across. We lose a basketball game, so we decide to burn down our campus. That makes a lot of sense. I mean, go to Duke and do it there and that could get your point across (I am not suggesting this by the way). All that Maryland proved by their ridiculous rioting and fire starting on Saturday night is what many people have been saying about Terp fans all season long, they are the worst fans and most classless fans in the NCAA. I am ashamed to admit that because I am a huge Terp fan and I want the team to do well, but after Saturday night, I think it would be safer to lose in the first round of the tourney.

The last part of this column is reserved to College Park Police for what I feel was a terrible job that they did in handling the situation on Saturday night. I have been told that there was additional help provided by Maryland State troopers, Park Police and Prince George's County Police, but their presence was nowhere to be found. Most of the police department spent their time blocking off Route 1 (Baltimore Ave) than patrolling the real problems, including brawls and destruction.

Maryland vs. Duke IV was a terrible game for Maryland fans. It is never fun to see your team blow a 22 point lead to the most hated school in your conference. When it happens to your school, just be disappointed and leave it at that. Don't be destructive you only make yourself look like a fool. Worst yet, this past Saturday’s events placed people in harms way and that's the bottom line.

Article courtesy of CPKSports.com