Four technical fouls aren't that much of a surprise from a school where one basketball player broke a teammate's nose with a punch in the locker room.
Oh, wait, that was Maryland's women's basketball team.
Prior to last night, the men's team had stayed emotionally stable while riding through an erratic season, losing to unranked Missouri and George Washington but upsetting both then-No. 1 North Carolina and No. 2 Kansas.
The men's team, scarred in recent years by a stint on probation, the cocaine death of star Len Bias and reports of scarce classroom attendance by All-American Joe Smith, had not had any major incidents this year. Even incendiary coach Gary Williams had stayed on his best behavior, avoiding a technical foul through the Terps' first 18 games.
It was instead the women's team, with its locker-room brawl and a verbal abuse complaint lodged against its coach, that received media attention. By comparison, the men's team looked like the angels of College Park.
And while the men's team is nowhere near its problems of the past, or the troubles of its female counterparts, the Terrapins were far from gentlemen in Cameron.
Before six minutes had passed in the first half, the Terrapins had accumulated four technical fouls.
The first one, by Sarunas Jasikevicius, came from his complaint to referee Larry Rose about what he thought was Roshown McLeod's illegal screen on a Trajan Langdon three-pointer.
"I thought it was an illegal screen and I thought I would tell Mr. Rose," Jasikevicius said. "Looking back on it, I probably said it too many times."
It was the referee's explanation of the Jasikevicius technical that angered Williams, and the coach's protests to Rose drew him a technical of his own.
Williams again complained to the referees less than a minute later, receiving another technical for excessive cursing and leaving the box. According to NCAA rules, that technical won him a trip to the locker room to listen to the game on the radio.
Laron Profit followed the trend soon afterward, picking up a technical of his own with 13:31 left in the half after slamming the ball down on Shane Battier after a layup.
While the Terps were embarking on their downward turn, the Blue Devils provided a stark contrast. Battier, a freshman, best exemplified Duke's maturity, electrifying the crowd while ignoring the Terrapins' antics.
As one Cameron Crazie stated on a sign, "Shane Battier is cooler than the other side of the pillow."
After Battier was nearly dunked on by Profit, he led a Duke charge, blocking Obinna Ekezie's shot and recording two steals.
Assistant coach Billy Hahn, standing in for Williams after his ejection, was a little less composed than the Duke freshman. He was out to preserve his undefeated record (1-0) in Cameron; his previous win came in 1995, when Williams was recovering from pneumonia.
Duke seniors may remember that loss as one of the most painful of that season. At the buzzer, Joe Smith tipped in a shot to break a tie, giving the Blue Devils yet another loss in the season that most Duke fans are still trying to forget.
This year, however, Duke showed that while Trajan Langdon, Ricky Price and Steve Wojciechowski physically remain from the squad three years ago, the situation is entirely different.
After Hahn took the helm Thursday 5:51 into the game with the score 20-10, Duke responded with a 19-2 run, sealing its lead far into double-digits.
Although the Terrapins insisted that the technical fouls were not why they lost the game, such turmoil never helps a team. They could just ask their female counterparts, who opened up their season with three straight losses.
Tonight, Duke takes on the very same Maryland women's team. Even if the Duke basketball teams do not complete the sweep of the Terrapins this season, the Blue Devils can count on moral victories.
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