Maryland is set to host Ohio State on Sunday in their second-to-last home game of the 2021-22 season, but it’ll be met with a heightened sense of celebration as the 2002 national championship team will be honored both before and after the game. With former head coach Gary Williams, Steve Blake, Juan Dixon and Lonny Baxter expected to be in attendance, fans will get a chance to relive the Terrapins’ greatest postseason run in program history.
After drawing a one-seed following a 26-4 regular-season to the 2002 season, Maryland handily took down Siena and Wisconsin to advance to the Sweet 16 thanks to 29 points from Juan Dixon in each game. Maryland then defeated a Kentucky team led by Tayshaun Prince before handling a UConn team led by Caron Butler, Emeka Okafor and Ben Gordon to set the stage for the Terps’ second Final Four appearance.
Maryland would have their hands full against a Kansas team led by Kirk Hinrich, Nick Collison and Drew Gooden. "I'll never forget the timeout, down 13-2. I was going to kill everybody. And Juan [Dixon] got in the huddle and he killed everybody for me,” former head coach Gary Williams recounted with Chris Knoche this week. “But he could do that because he went out and I think he hit back-to-back threes or something to get us right back to the game.” Thanks to 33 points from Juan Dixon, Maryland handled Kansas despite dominant big man Lonny Baxter in foul trouble seemingly all night.
“Lonny gets in foul trouble, normally would that be a crisis right away that early in the first half. But you know, you put it in Tahj Holden, you put in Ryan Randle and like you said, there's not much of a drop-off.” Holden was one of three Terps in double-figures and finished with 13 points and five rebounds in 24 minutes. It wasn’t a runaway win for Maryland as the Jayhawks cut the lead to five with two minutes remaining, then again to four in the final 30 seconds, but a late Juan Dixon free-throw followed by another two from Byron Mouton iced the game to set the national championship stage against Indiana.
But after a back-and-forth matchup in the Final Four, Maryland earned a trip to the national championship against fifth-seeded Indiana. “We were nervous,” Williams added. “I mean, you get to a championship game. You’re nervous because we hadn’t been here before. We got to the Final Four the year before, lost, but here we are in the championship game. We got a chance to do something that, you know, is going to be a forever thing.”
The two teams combined for 32 turnovers and combined to shoot just 38.6% from the field, but Maryland capitalized after Jared Jeffries’s second personal foul just eight minutes into the game. The Terps carried their slim lead through the first-half before Indiana’s last-second to end the first-half cut the lead to 31-25 heading into halftime.
shot gave Maryland a 31-25 lead at half. But the Hoosiers would bounce back to open the second half, then found Jeffries at the rim to give Indiana their first lead at 44-42 at the halfway point. That’s when Steve Blake picked up the inbounds pass, split a pair of defenders in the Hoosiers’ fullcourt press to find Juan Dixon wide open along the perimeter in a 4-of-3 situation, giving the lead right back to Maryland.
“They spent the whole game trying not to give open shots to Juan on the perimeter and by trapping [Blake], created this,” Williams added. It was the start of a 22-8 run for the Terps, ending with the iconic on-court celebration from Juan Dixon as Maryland won their first national championship.
“It was different because with about a minute left, we probably had it won, so you had a chance to gather your thoughts a little bit which was a good thing,” Williams recalled. “For these guys, that was the big thing for these guys was to get another shot because it doesn’t usually happen. Get to the Final Four, great, but you’re not getting back there the next year because the reason you got there, you lost a lot of good players from that team or whatever. I wasn’t sure, you know, but by the time we got into the season I knew we were good. I knew there were other good teams out there, so I wasn’t thinking we had a lock or anything, but to go back again was very fulfilling.”
Maryland will have the 2002 coaches and players available to media prior to Sunday’s 4 PM tipoff, followed by Legends Chat beginning at 2:30 PM. Students in attendance will each receive commemorative 20th anniversary t-shirts.
Comments