When I checked into my hotel on Wednesday down in Durham, I flipped on the TV to find a Maryland-Duke game from 1995 airing on ESPN Classic.

This, of course, was the Joe Smith Game, during which the future No. 1 overall pick rolled up 40 points and 18 rebounds.

It was also a game Gary Williams missed because of pneumonia, and fill-in coach Billy Hahn looked nearly as sick by game's end thanks to the tense game and sweltering conditions at Cameron.

But one of the plays in the final minute that I was able to catch was Keith Booth picking up his fifth foul, ending his night with only three points and four rebounds.

Apparently, I wasn't the only one watching. Maryland sat down for its team meal about the same time, and Booth couldn't escape some torment.

"Booth comes in, and he just starts hacking," senior guard Jason McAlpin said. "He's hacking, and he had four fouls in like four minutes. We let him have it for that."

However, this isn't going to turn into a pick-on-Booth post. I ran into Keith on Friday, and he jokingly chided me for letting some anonymous team sources influence me into writing about his eating habits. Someone brought up the ESPN Classic airing, and he insisted "I was playing my role. It was Joe's year. I was just playing my role. Guys need to learn how to do that."

The record book shows Booth averaged 10.9 points and 7.3 rebounds that season, so no one will confuse his outing that night against Duke as either good or typical. But when your best player is going off for 40, it isn't the worst thing in the world to stay out of the star's way on offense and get busy fouling/"wearing down" Cherokee Parks on the other end.

Booth, by the way, would go on to put up 15 points and 11 rebounds at Cameron as a junior and 22 points and five rebounds there as a senior. Guess his role had changed by then.

--- Patrick Stevens