40 for 34 # 24 - June 7
- Dave Ungrady
- Jun 6
- 2 min read
Senior Setback
Bias and Some Teammates are Suspended for Breaking Curfew
Things seemed to be on the upswing when Maryland beat Clemson to win its second consecutive ACC game, then traveled to Raleigh to play N. C. State. Bias scored a team-high 21 points and made two free throws with about a minute and a half left that helped clinch the one-point win for Maryland. Having now won three consecutive ACC games, Maryland was on a bit of a roll. But that momentum fizzled after coach Lefty Driesell suspended Bias and teammates Jeff Baxter and John Johnson for violating a team curfew after the N.C. State game.
Media reports said the three players returned at about 4 a.m. to Maryland’s hotel after watching a replay of the game at a friend’s room on the N.C. State campus, but that’s not what happened. Baxter admits that the three were actually at an off-campus party with an N.C. State player whose name he declined to make public. He insists that neither he, Bias nor Johnson drank alcohol or took drugs.
The party included what Johnson, a freshman, calls a “Freak Momma” contest set up to select the most attractive female. “We were just dancing. And we had a ball,” Baxter says with a laugh. “We were pumped up that we won the game. I still remember to this day how much fun that was.”
Baxter, a senior, added that they returned to the hotel by about 1 a.m. and were greeted by Maryland’s assistant coaches and Driesell, who asked, as Baxter delicately put it, “ ‘Where the bleep, bleep have you been?’ We knew we weren’t supposed to be out, but we didn’t think the impact would be anything big. For me, it was, OK, we didn’t do anything. We didn’t think it was a big deal.”
Driesell benched Bias, Baxter and Johnson for the next game, a loss to Clemson.
Excerpted from the book,
The audio for this post was narrated by the author,
Dave Ungrady.
And listen to more about Len's early life in Episode 2 of the narrative podcast series, Len Bias: A Mixed Legacy
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