Cavaliers, Terps will have to work around Obama’s inauguration

Barack Obama's inauguration is next Tuesday, Jan. 20, in Washington. About a dozen miles away in College Park, Md., Virginia and Maryland will play an ACC men's basketball game that night.

Typically, U.Va.'s traveling party spends only one night in a hotel before a road game. Because of the inauguration, however, the Cavaliers will leave Charlottesville on Sunday and stay that night in Columbia, Md. They usually stay in Greenbelt, Md., but they're heading farther away from Washington to avoid the inauguration-related congestion.

The extra travel day won't cause the Cavs' players to miss any classes. U.Va. will observe Martin Luther King Day on Monday, Jan. 19, so there are no classes that day.

Maryland coach Gary Williams said he was a little surprised that the ACC scheduled a game at Comcast Center on Jan. 20, given that nightmarish traffic conditions predicted for the Washington area surrounding the inauguration.

"It's going to be a problem in terms of people getting here, there's no doubt about that," Williams said today. "We're going to do whatever we can to make it as smooth as possible. It is an 8 o'clock game, and hopefully the parades will be over and things like that.

"The various inaugural balls will be going on, but it won't be a problem for me, because I didn't get an invitation."

-- Jeff White