Remembering Past Maryland Basketball Snow Games

Editors note: This story was originally published last March. But with today's snow storm burying most of the East Coast, we decided it would be worth sharing again, as most of us are off from work/school today.

GAME ON! Over the last ten years, there have been a few times when the D.C. area received a significant snow storm that coincided with a Maryland basketball game. (By the way, tonight's game is on as scheduled and the University has said any student with an ID who does not have a ticket can enter, depending on availability, so make sure you attend if you're on campus). Many of us thought today would be another example of that, but for the most part the storm that was expected to dump up to 18" in the areas surrounding D.C. has done next to nothing for most. Admittedly, the storm DID drop a lot of snow to the west, with some places about an hour from D.C. getting 25"+ of snow, but most in the immediate area just received a bunch of slush or simply rain. For those of you students who got off today because the school closed, I hope you enjoyed the unnecessary snow day.

Anyway, back to the times when snow actually fell and impacted games. The most recent was the Snowmageddon game of 2010, when Maryland took on UNC at home. I was unable to get to that game because of the storm, but Greivis Vasquez described the atmosphere at Comcast as "loudest I've ever seen it since I was here." Maryland won that game by 21 behind solid play from their three star seniors - Greivis Vasques (26 pts, 11 assists), Eric Hayes (16 pts, 5 assists) and Landon Milbourne (15 pts, 5 rebounds, 3 blocks).

The Tar Heels made it to Comcast just before tipoff and had to do their pre game run through at the hotel before bussing over. Gary Williams even slept in his office the night before to make sure he'd be there for the game. Students packed Comcast and many braved the snowy conditions to make it out to College Park for the game.

Another snow game, which occurred while I was at Maryland, was the Wake Forest game of 2003. For that game, Maryland blew out the #10 ranked Demon Deacons in front of a mostly student crowd. The Wake team traveled up to College Park early, as did the officials, so they could arrive before the storm him. The storm prevented virtually anyone from being able to travel to the game, so the decision was made to still have the game and open it up to anyone who could get there. Maryland was ranked #13 at the time, so there was a buzz in the air for such a big match up. But the game ended up being super lopsided and the Terps won by 23, 90-67. Steve Blake had a monster game, scoring 21 and dishing out 9 assists, while three other Maryland seniors scored in double digits. It was definitely one of my favorite games while I was a student.

What other snow games can you remember? Anyone have any memories from either of these games?