Gary Williams to Enter Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Basketball Hall of Fame

Gary Williams, Maryland's all-time winningest basketball coach, will be inducted into the Washington, D.C Metropolitan Basketball Hall of Fame Thursday night in a ceremony at the North Bethesda Marriott Hotel and Conference Center. Williams will be joined by Archbishop Carroll legend George Leftwich and former Gonzaga High School coach Dick Myers.

The gala will benefit The Five Star Foundation in the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan area, which provides Five Star camp scholarships to financially disadvantaged youth dedicated to their personal growth both as student-athletes and as people.

Williams just completed his 17th season as head coach at his alma mater, where he has led the Terrapins to unprecedented success, including the 2002 NCAA National Championship and the 2004 Atlantic Coast Conference Championship. Now with 353 career victories at Maryland, the former Terp point guard recently became the school's all-time winningest coach after surpassing the legendary Charles "Lefty" Driesell on Feb. 7. Williams also ranks ninth among active NCAA Division I coaches with 560 career wins in 28 seasons, while ranking third all-time among ACC coaches with 147 conference victories.

Other recent honors bestowed upon Williams include:

In June of 2005, he received the University's highest alumni honor when he was inducted into the University of Maryland Alumni Hall of Fame.

In January of 2005, Williams was named one of the Washingtonian Magazine's "Washingtonians of the Year."

In September of 2005, he was one of the inaugural inductees into the Greater Washington Sports Hall of Champions.

1:17 PM - 6/1/2006 - comments {4739} - post comment

Maryland Coach Gary Williams - Day 1 of "Operation Hardwood II"

Williams begins practice sessions with troops from Camp Navistar, Kuwait.  Head coach Gary Williams has made the trip to Kuwait along with 12 other NCAA basketball coaches and sports personalities, to coach a military team in the Operation Hardwood II basketball tournament May 23-28. Williams will be coaching 13 troops from Camp Navistar, Kuwait.

7:49 AM - 5/25/2006 - comments {1997} - post comment

Gary Williams Earns Champion Award for Charity Work

Maryland basketball coach Gary Williams has been honored as the winner of the 2006 Coaches vs. Cancer Champion Award for his "passionate support" and "unwavering commitment" in the fight against cancer through his fundraising efforts, community presence and exemplary leadership among his peers. The award is presented on behalf of the American Cancer Society and National Association of Basketball Coaches.

Williams' involvement with the Coaches vs. Cancer program began with the establishment of the national Coaches vs. Cancer Golf Invitational at Caves Valley Golf Club in Owings Mills, Md. in 2000. The golf event has raised more than $600,000 over the past six years. Williams also hosts a tip-off breakfast each year which not only marks the official beginning of basketball season and attracts faithful supporters of the basketball program, but more importantly raises funds needed to support the life-saving work for the American Cancer Society. The tip-off breakfast has raised more than $115,000 the past four years.

The Coaches vs. Cancer program, which is alive and thriving after nine years, has raised millions of dollars since its inception, and Williams has been one of the key national figures in the cause. He recently filmed a recruiting video aimed at attracting other coaches to join the program. Williams' charitable causes and passion for helping others does not just include the Coaches vs. Cancer program:

7:19 AM - 5/18/2006 - comments {552} - post comment

Terps' Harper finally living the dream

Now that it's just over a month since Maryland won the NCAA women's basketball championship and sophomore Laura Harper was named the tournament's most outstanding player, the Cheltenham High graduate finally accepts that those events in Boston were more than a dream.

The 6-foot-4 forward, during a recent phone call from College Park, mentioned several events that have happened since the Terrapins overcame a 13-point second-half deficit to beat Atlantic Coast Conference rival Duke, 78-75, at the TD Banknorth Garden.

Harper was one of three Terrapins with 16 points in the title game. That came after she had scored a career-high 24 points in the 81-70 semifinal upset of tournament favorite North Carolina, another ACC rival.

A few days after their return to campus for a wild celebration, the Terrapins made the short trip to the White House for a presidential salute.

"That was really cool," Harper said. "Seeing Lang with President Bush and all the pictures, I definitely liked that."

Lang is Harper's teammate, sophomore Crystal Langhorne, a graduate of Willingboro High.

"Just getting congratulations from everyone, walking around and being known, seeing the game again, seeing all the posters and clippings, it's starting to be more real and less of 'Oh my God. Did this actually happen?' " Langhorne said with a chuckle.

Harper, Langhorne and the rest of the Maryland players are also scheduled to make a trip to Europe later this month that had been scheduled before the Terrapins' rise to the top of the women's basketball world.

Harper said she was "shocked" when her name was called for the MVP award after Maryland beat Duke.

"I went from not playing [most of] last year" due to a ruptured Achilles tendon injury "to MVP," Harper said. "I would have never thought I would have gotten such an honor.

"Everyone assumed Crystal was going to get it, and I was happy for her. That moment they were about to announce it, I was happy because Crystal was going to get it."

Harper, the daughter of Maria and Haviland Harper, the Central High boys' coach, said that winning a national basketball title was never an objective before she got serious about the sport.

"I played field hockey and really liked that," said Harper, who got serious about hoops when she was a junior at Cheltenham. "My thing about basketball is, I wanted to win a state championship in high school.

"My mom always had me in gyms. She knew she couldn't personally help me, but she wanted people to help me. So she threw me in gyms, threw me with trainers.

"My dad was always at practice."

Harper said Cheltenham wants her to speak at a few events, but she won't get involved until returning home from the European trip. She and Langhorne will also make a homecoming visit next season when Maryland visits Temple.

"It's a shame [Candice Dupree] won't be there," Harper said of the former Temple star who graduated this year. "But playing Temple is still pretty cool."

Although it was tough to miss most of last season with the Achilles injury, Harper said the injury was "a blessing in disguise."

"Everything always happens for a reason," Harper said. "I got stronger internally. The team got stronger without me, and coming back, I was like an addition that made the team stronger."

With an eye to the WNBA two seasons from now, Harper said she plans to work on her game this summer.

"I was happy with the overall outcome, but as far as me, I didn't get to work on personal things," she said, citing the injury. "I'm a very hard worker in the off-season. I want to work on my overall strength and quickness. I want to work on my post jumper from inside the lane.

"Those types of things can take me to another level as a player."

9:08 AM - 5/9/2006 - comments {7519} - post comment

Williams Joins Other Coaches for Kuwait Trip

Maryland basketball coach Gary Williams will travel with other coaches to Kuwait later this month.
They'll be part of Operation Hardwood-Two and will coach military members in a basketball tournament.
It's the second trip for several coaches, including Michigan State's Tom Izzo, Alabama's Mark Gottfried, South Carolina's Dave Odom, Charlotte's Bobby Lutz, Indiana's Kelvin Sampson and ESPN basketball analyst Jay Bilas.
Williams is one of several first timers, along with Kentucky's Tubby Smith and Texas coach Rick Barnes.

9:26 AM - 5/5/2006 - comments {2841} - post comment

Maryland to Play Illinois in ACC-Big Ten Challenge On Nov. 28

The University of Maryland will face the Illinois Fighting Illini as part of the 2006 ACC-Big Ten Challenge. The Terps' first official date of the upcoming season was released Tuesday with the announcement of the pairings of the eighth annual event, which features college basketball's top programs vying for conference supremacy and the Commissioner's Cup. Maryland will travel to Champaign, Ill., to face the Illini on Nov. 28 at 7 p.m. in a nationally-televised game on ESPN.

Maryland's complete 2006-07 schedule will be released in mid-August.

The Terps are 4-3 all-time in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge, including an 83-66 win over Minnesota in College Park this past season, while the ACC has claimed all seven Challenge titles over the Big Ten. Since 2000, the two conferences have combined to make 13 Final Four appearances and have captured four of the last seven national championships. In addition, the ACC and Big Ten rank either first or second in all-time NCAA Tournament bids, victories and Final Four appearances.

Maryland is 3-2 all-time against Illinois, including a 76-63 victory over the Illini at Cole Field House in the 2001 ACC-Big Ten Challenge. The Terps faced Illinois four consecutive years from 1998-2001, including match-ups in the NCAA Tournament (1998), BB&T Classic (1999) and the Maui Invitational (2000).

For the second consecutive year, the event will feature 11 games from 11 different college campuses. Each contest will be televised on the ESPN family of networks with nine of the games airing live on ESPN and ESPN2.

1:36 PM - 5/3/2006 - comments {4812} - post comment

Burney could help Maryland right away

Jerome Burney is a bit of a rarity when it comes to college basketball prospects.

His defense is ahead of his offense, and that bodes well for his chances of contributing right away to the Maryland program.

Division I rosters are full of players whose high school resumes overflow with imposing offensive statistics. There aren’t that many kids, however, who are ready for the college game defensively.

Burney, a 6-foot-9, 210-pound power forward, appears to be an exception. He averaged a triple-double for Atlanta’s Westlake High this past season, getting 13 points, 12 rebounds and 10 blocked shots per game.

“Jerome is a defensive gem,” Westlake coach Darron Rogers said. “He is quick off the ground and he has excellent timing. He has very long arms, with the wing span of a 7-footer.

“And he doesn’t just block shots, he keeps the ball in play. Last year, he had a lot of those spectacular blocks, the ones where he would swat the ball up into the stands. People would ooh and ahh, and the other team would bring the ball inbounds and have another chance to score.

“We talked some about the way Bill Russell used to do it,” Rogers said, “how he would tap the ball and either grab it himself or a teammate would get it. This year, Jerome did more of that, and his blocks started a lot of fast breaks for us.”

Burney, who became a starter in the middle of his sophomore season, blocked 18 shots as a junior, setting school and Charms Classic records versus Decatur (Ga.) Redan. Playing in the same tournament against the same team this year, he had 14 blocks.

“He does most of his scoring down low,” Rogers said, “but we had two 6-6 guys that we played in the post, and we would go high-low with Jerome around the foul line. He hit some jump shots from there and he made a few three-pointers this season.

“Jerome (who is right-handed) has a nice left-handed hook, and he hits a lot of jumpers from 5 to 6 feet. He runs like a gazelle. There were several times that he would block a shot, grab the ball himself, pitch it out and get a dunk in transition.”

Burney, a 3.4 student who scored 1,000 on the old-format SAT as a junior, picked Maryland over Miami, Clemson, Stanford and Alabama-Birmingham.

“He liked Maryland’s style of play,” Rogers said, “and he really liked Gary Williams, who makes kids better, especially big men. He sends players to ‘The League.’

“Maryland coaches liked the fact that Jerome, although a little raw, is an athlete. And they really liked the way he plays defense and blocks shots.”

8:24 AM - 5/2/2006 - comments {6} - post comment

Men's Basketball Adds Power Forward Bambale Osby to 2006 Signing Class

The University of Maryland has added power forward Bambale Osby (pronounced bom-BAH-lay AHZ-bee) to its 2006 recruiting class, head coach Gary Williams announced today. The 6-foot-8, 250-pound sophomore played last season at Paris (Texas) Junior College and will have two seasons of eligibility at Maryland. Osby is a physical inside player who is an excellent rebounder and strong finisher. The Terps inked four players during early signing in November and the signing class was ranked as the 18th best in the country by Rivals.com.

"Bambale has the ability to be an inside scorer," said Williams, who just completed his 17th season at Maryland. "Hopefully, he will help improve our ability to generate offense from the post position."

Osby, who played his freshman season at New Mexico before transferring to Paris JC, averaged 6.0 points and 5.0 rebounds last season for the Dragons, who went 24-7 and finished atop the Region XIV standings with an 18-4 league mark. Paris, which won the 2005 NJCAA National Championship, lost to Tyler Junior College in the Region XIV quarterfinals.

As a freshman, Osby played in 31 of 33 games for New Mexico, which won the Mountain West Conference Tournament and made its first NCAA Tournament appearance in six years. The Lobos went 26-7, the second-best win total in school history and a 12-game improvement from the previous season. Osby averaged 1.6 points and 1.9 rebounds in 7.4 minutes per game off the bench. One of the best games of his freshman season came when he had seven points, a team-high four rebounds (all offensive) and a steal in 15 minutes off the bench at Utah.

Osby played his high school basketball for coach Bruce Croxton at Benedictine Catholic High School in Richmond, Va., where he averaged 16.5 points, 16.8 rebounds and 3.0 blocks as a senior. He helped lead the Cadets to a 25-6 record and their second consecutive Virginia State Catholic League Championship as he was selected to the All-Metro Team by the Richmond Times Dispatch. As a junior, he helped lead Benedictine to a 24-5 mark and its first VISBA Division I Championship in school history.

Following his senior season, Osby traveled with the SCORE International high school team to the Dominican Republic, where he averaged 7.3 points, 12.0 rebounds and 1.0 blocks as the team went 4-0. He also played his AAU ball for the high-profile Richmond Squires, which were coached by Ken Greenway.

Maryland signed combo guard Greivis Vasquez (Montrose Christian), small forward Landon Milbourne (Oak Hill Academy), point guard Eric Hayes (Potomac (Va.) High School) and power forward Jerome Burney (Westlake High School) during the early signing period in November.

12:58 PM - 4/28/2006 - comments {3} - post comment

Terps' Annual Basketball Banquet

Seniors Travis Garrison and Nik Caner-Medley were among many honored Thursday night at Maryland basketball's 2006 end-of-season honors banquet at Comcast Center. More than 300 family members, friends and Terrapin supporters came out for the annual event held on the arena floor to celebrate the careers of Ledbetter, Garrison and Caner-Medley, as well as senior manager Brent Hartman.

"Voice of the Terps" Johnny Holliday served as master of ceremonies for the evening, which featured the 2005-06 season highlight video, the presentation of awards and an address by Maryland head coach Gary Williams. Williams was also honored by his daughter, Kristin Scott, in a surprise emotional presentation for becoming the Terps' all-time winningest coach on Feb. 7.

Caner-Medley, who capped a solid four-year playing career by earning All-ACC honors for the second straight season, was tabbed team MVP after leading the Terps with 15.3 points per game during his senior campaign. Williams presented the award to Caner-Medley, who played in all 127 possible games at Maryland and leaves among the Terps' all-time leaders in scoring, rebounding, steals, blocks, three-pointers and free throws.

D.J. Strawberry earned the Most Assists Award after leading the team and ranking seventh in the ACC with 4.0 assists per game. The junior from Corona, Calif., dished out 128 assists and started all 32 games after moving to the point guard position prior to the season. Strawberry also became just the eighth Maryland player in the last 20 years to lead the Terps in both assists and steals (58) en route to Honorable Mention ACC All-Defensive honors. Assistant coach Michael Adams presented the award.

Junior forward Ekene Ibekwe was presented the Charles "Buck" Williams/Len Elmore Rebounding Award after leading the Terps and ranking 16th in the ACC with 6.6 boards per game. The Carson, Calif., native led the team in rebounding on 13 occasions and hauled in 10-or-more boards in six games. Ibekwe also posted a team-best five double-doubles during the season. Assistant coach Keith Booth presented the award.

Assistant Athletic Director for Academic Support and Career Development Anton Goff presented freshman forward Dave Neal with the Maryland Basketball Academic Award for boasting the teams' most outstanding grade point average. Neal, who is enrolled in the College of Letters and Science and will be majoring in criminal justice, appeared in 13 games during his rookie campaign.

Junior walk-on Gini Chukura was honored with the "Mr. Hustle Award", which is sponsored by the Maryland Fastbreakers. Chukura joined the Terps as a walk-on at the midpoint of last season and has been a model of consistency and effort in practice and games when called upon. Chukura, who appeared in 11 games this season, was presented the award by Hall of Fame athletic trainer J.J. Bush, who is in his 34th season at Maryland.

Mike Jones was presented the Outstanding Free Throw Shooter Award by assistant coach Rob Moxley. The junior guard shot a team-best 90 percent from the line connecting on 44-of-49 attempts. Jones converted 32-of-35 free throws (92 percent) in ACC play and missed just one attempt from the charity stripe the final eight games.

The Sixth Man Award was presented to Garrison, who averaged a steady 8.0 points and 5.3 rebounds in 18.0 minutes of action off the bench this season. The senior forward provided the Terps with experience and maturity as he played in 31-of-32 games. Garrison finished his career ranked eighth all-time at Maryland with 136 career blocked shots, while also ranking among the all-time Terps with 623 career rebounds and 939 career points. Director of Basketball Operations Troy Wainwright presented the award.

Garrison and Caner-Medley were also recipients of senior awards, as was team manager Brent Hartman.

Hartman was a four-year manager from MeCanopy, Fla., who was part of the Terps' 2003 NCAA Sweet Sixteen team and the 2004 ACC Championship squad. Hartman, who traveled with Maryland to Italy in August of 2004, will graduate from Maryland in May with a degree in history.

Williams presented the senior awards, showed his appreciation to the fans for their support and thanked the staff for their efforts. He also presented the Coach Morgan Wooten Lifetime Achievement Award to this year's recipient, Bob Mitchell.

The Morgan Wooten Lifetime Achievement Award is named after America's all-time winningest high school coach and Maryland graduate from the class of 1956, Morgan Wooten. Wooten retired with a lifetime coaching record of 1,274-192 (.869) after 46 seasons at DeMatha Catholic High School in Hyattsville, Md., boasting five high school national championships and 13 NBA players.

Mitchell is the former president of the Terrapin Club, of which he has been a member for 32 years. He is a founding member of F.O.G., the Friends of Gary booster club, and is credited with establishing the club's name. Mitchell is currently a member of the University of Maryland system Board of Regents and is also a Building Partner of Comcast Center.

10:25 AM - 4/25/2006 - comments {567} - post comment

Barnes Arico Named All-Met Co-Coach Of The Year, Clark And Wright Earn First Team Honors

Red Storm women's basketball head coach Kim Barnes Arico was named Co-Coach of the Year by the Metropolitan Basketball Writers Association (MBWA), the organization announced Monday. Juniors Angela Clark and Kia Wright, meanwhile, were named to the All-Met First Team. The trio will be honored at the MBWA's annual dinner on Wednesday, April 19, in East Rutherford, N.J.

Barnes Arico, who shares this year's honor with Rutgers head coach C. Vivian Stringer, guided the Red Storm to its second-straight 20-win season and first NCAA Tournament berth since 1988. St. John's bowed out to eventual national champion Maryland  in the second round, but finished the season with a 22-8 record. This is the second MBWA Coach of the Year honor for Barnes Arico, as she was the 2002 Division II Coach of the Year at Adelphi prior to arriving at St. John's.

3:33 PM - 4/18/2006 - comments {2068} - post comment

Israeli Leads Maryland Basketball Team to National Championship

Shay Doron wasn't supposed to be here, standing on the temporary stage in a Marriott hotel ballroom. Less than two hours before, she'd helped will the Maryland  Terrapins to the national basketball title with a 78-75 overtime victory over Duke. Now, she stepped to the microphone to address the families and faithful Maryland fans who followed their young team to Boston for a game they weren't supposed to win.
"I want to thank everyone who believed in us, especially those who where here for the 10-18 season," she said.
Shay talked about her love for her teammates, for her family, for the fans. She talked about those who said Maryland could never win. And she said she wasn't going to cry.
Then, she stepped away from the microphone, and of course, she cried.
She wasn't supposed to be here. The experts said Maryland was a year away, and a young team that was lucky to reach the final four, much less the title game. The critics said she'd made a mistake picking Maryland when Tennessee and Stanford were calling.
Her parents said maybe she was supposed to go to Harvard, which would tell her to come play hoops while studying among the best and brightest.
But Shay Doron has a mind of her own. Leaving Israel to play basketball in the United States was her idea. Playing for Maryland was her idea. Believing that the Terps could win a title three years ago was her idea, too.
So there she was, hat turned backward, in her white Maryland NCAA championship T-shirt and sweats, jumping up and down with her teammates as the Maryland band blared and the couple of hundred fans in the ballroom cheering. Off to the side, a glass championship trophy sparkled under the lights, reminding the young Terps that this wasn't a dream.
And there was Tamari and Yuda Doron, wiping away the occasional tear, watching their daughter live her dream. Tamari had spent the weekend in Boston, while Yuda, a computer software developer, flew up and back between games.
They'd seen their daughter hit a pair of three-pointers in the first half to keep the Terps from falling to far behind in the first half. They'd seen her make a steal, score and run back the court, pumping her fist and screaming.
It seemed to ignite her teammates, who wiped out a 12-point deficit to pull even with six minutes to play when Shay hit two free throws.
The Dorons looked on, hands to their faces, when their daughter got tangled up with Duke's Mistie Williams and was left lying on the floor, writhing in pain. She was already playing with tape on her dislocated left thumb and more tape on her broken right pinkie. Now, the doctor was helping her to the sideline, when he wrapped more tape around her right elbow.
And they watched Shay rush back in the game the Terps would tie on a three-pointer in the final seconds by freshman Kristi Toliver. When the last few seconds ticked off the clock, in OT, with Maryland ahead by three, they watched their daughter run over to the section of Maryland fans, leap atop the dividing wall and beat her chest to the cheers of the faithful.
Minutes later as Shay was climbing a ladder to make the first cut of the net, Yuda stood among a large circle of friends. A big friendly man who rarely is without a smile, he was quite possibly the happiest man on the planet.
At dinner an hour or so before the game, his friends had teased him about his desire to send Shay a few miles away from the restaurant to Harvard. Now, as they exchanged hugs and high-fives, they were teasing him again.
His daughter would be named by ESPN the game's MVP.
"She wasn't supposed to be here," he told them. "But she didn't listen to her father. Thank God for that."

8:40 AM - 4/12/2006 - comments {9671} - post comment

Boston a launching point for women's ball

Just over a decade ago, Maryland   freshman Kristi Toliver's three-point shot with 6.1 seconds remaining in Monday's NCAA women's basketball championship game would have sparked only peripheral interest in most Boston sports fans.
Even as women's college basketball has gained national momentum and popularity, this trend has not been reflected in Boston, known for its professional sports franchises and home to largely academic and Div. III colleges.
The past weekend's Final Four festivities certainly revealed a changing attitude toward the sport: Boston has done a complete 180 over the past few years, and that transformation was completed when the city became a sort of Mecca of women's hoops this weekend.
Despite the early exit of Connecticut and Tennessee - the two goliaths largely responsible for the game's growth and popularity - and the lack of local players on the remaining rosters, all Final Four games were played in front of packed houses. The title game sold 18,642 tickets alone, drawing more fans than any Boston Celtics game this year, and television ratings were up 19 percent from last year.
As many as 2.77 million households across the nation tuned into the game, a sizable increase from the 2.37 million who watched last year. In its 11th year covering the tournament, ESPN averaged a 1.48 rating, the second highest in the network's history.
Women's basketball reached its greatest heights in 2004 when it averaged 3.8 million household viewers for the championship game between UConn and Tennessee, the second highest rating for any game on ESPN ever.
The NCAA has been working to increase exposure and interest in the women's game for the past several years. In an attempt to rescue it from the shadows of the men's game and place it in its own spotlight, the NCAA scheduled the announcement of brackets for a Monday night this year, rather than on the coattails of the men's traditional announcement on Selection Sunday.
"Selection Monday expands our commitment to the women's game by seizing an entire day to focus on the sport's most exciting time of the year across multiple ESPN entities," said Carol Stiff, ESPN Senior Director of Programming and Acquisitions, in a press release. "This program enhancement will allow college basketball fans to center their attention on the women, while also contributing to our ongoing efforts to grow the sport." ESPN has noticed and propagated the greater interest in the other half of NCAA basketball, and as a result has increased its primetime coverage. It broadcast 125 games in the 2005-2006 season, 25 games more than in the previous year.
Riding the wave of publicity in Boston, the WNBA held its draft in the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center less than 24 hours after Maryland completed its astonishing 13-point comeback victory. Additionally, on the same day as the championship game, Emerson College hosted the WNBA pre-draft camp, showcasing the top prospects of 2006.This was the first time that the draft and pre-draft camp were held in the Final Four city and with such close proximity to the conclusion of the NCAA season.
Having little time to recuperate from her losses, LSU's Seimone Augustus was the No. 1 draft pick; she went to the Minnesota Lynx. Rutgers' dynamic guard Cappie Poindexter went No. 2 to the Phoenix Mercury, and Duke guard Monique Currie, still facing pointed questions about the Blue Devils' loss to Maryland in the championship game, was the No. 3 pick, drafted by the Charlotte Sting.
The draft was only the beginning for WNBA promotions in 2006. In honor of its 10th season, the league will select an All-Decade Team and the 10 Greatest Moments in its history. It will also launch a season-long campaign, "10 Years of Caring," in which the teams will demonstrate their ongoing commitment to local communities. Each team will host a themed-game to celebrate the milestone.
"This celebration marks the accomplishments of our past and embraces our vision for the future," said WNBA President Donna Orender at a press conference at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center. "We are so thankful for all of those who paved the way and contributed so much, and for the ongoing support of the current generation of players, coaches and executives as well as our business partners and fans with whom we will take this league into the future."

8:01 AM - 4/7/2006 - comments {55} - post comment

Final Four

For the Atlantic Coast Conference, the road to the women's Final Four was as easy as counting to three.

In an unprecedented achievement for a conference, ACC powers North Carolina, Duke and Maryland  all are headed to Boston for the national semifinals Sunday. Never before has one league advanced so many teams so deep into the NCAA tournament, now in its 25th year.

The outsider is Louisiana State, which hardly needs an introduction to Final Four audiences. The Lady Tigers of the Southeastern Conference are going for the third straight year, the only team standing in the way of an all-ACC final.

"LSU's got to feel like the Lone Ranger," ESPN analyst Nancy Lieberman said.

Notice anyone missing? Yep, neither Tennessee nor Connecticut, who have won a combined 11 national championships, is in the field. It's just the second time in the last 12 years that at least one of them failed to make the Final Four. Six times in that stretch, they both made it.

Tennessee was eliminated by North Carolina in the Cleveland Regional final. Connecticut lost to Duke in front of a pro-UConn crowd in the Bridgeport Regional final.

Even without the sport's two marquee programs, this is an impressive group.

Each has won at least 30 games. Duke (86.2), Maryland (83.5) and North Carolina (82.6) are the three highest-scoring teams in the country. LSU is one of the nation's top defensive teams and has Seimone Augustus, the only unanimous All-American and last season's national player of the year.

It's also a Final Four of favorites. North Carolina, Duke and LSU all are No. 1 seeds, while Maryland is a No. 2. What's more, they held four of the top five spots in the final AP poll, with North Carolina finishing No. 1.

An underdog? Not in this bunch.

North Carolina (33-1) meets Maryland (32-4) in the first semifinal at TD Banknorth Garden, putting the Tar Heels against the only team that beat them this season. Duke (30-3), a 30-game winner for the sixth straight season, will carry the ACC banner against LSU (31-3).

"We've felt like we've had a great conference for the last two years," Duke coach Gail Goestenkors said. "It may be the best conference in the country from top to bottom. But until you can back it up and get teams to the Final Four and win the national championship, it's all talk."

North Carolina is the only ACC team that has won the NCAA championship, taking the title in 1994. This is the Tar Heels' first trip to the Final Four since.

They've done it with a fast team that pushes the tempo at a breath-sapping pace on offense and rattles opponents with a swarming, trapping defense. The fastest is All-American Ivory Latta, the team's pocket-sized point guard who made one key play after another down the stretch against Tennessee.

"She's the engine that makes our offense go," North Carolina coach Sylvia Hatchell said.

North Carolina's '94 championship team also relied on a speedy point guard. You might know her better from another sport: Marion Jones.

Maryland earned the program's first Final Four trip since 1989 with an incredibly young team. The Terrapins start two sophomores, including second-team All-American Crystal Langhorne, two freshmen and a junior.

The thing is, they don't act their age.

"What makes this team so special is the fact that they don't take any of it for granted," Maryland coach Brenda Frese said. "They understand the big picture. There is no guarantee for us next year. They understand that."

Maryland beat North Carolina 98-95 in overtime at Chapel Hill on Feb. 9. Their third meeting this season will come a month after the Tar Heels beat Maryland 91-80 in the finals of the ACC tournament.

That familiarity does simplify one task.

"We both have our scouting reports already done," Hatchell said.

Duke is making its third Final Four trip in five years and fourth overall. Under Goestenkors, the Blue Devils have won ACC regular-season and tournament championships, they've been ranked No. 1 several times and they've won a game at the Final Four.

Now they've got another chance to add the one thing they're missing: a national championship. This is why the team's star, Monique Currie, passed up a chance last spring to go the WNBA.

"We took a huge step making it to Boston," Currie said. "We've tried to keep that in the back our minds all season. It's finally here. We can get closer to what we want to do."

That same goal has driven LSU, which has a chance to double up because the men's team also made the Final Four. The Lady Tigers are 0-2 at the Final Four, losing to eventual national champion Baylor last year after blowing a 15-point lead.

"You want to go out on a high note," said Augustus, a senior and the nation's leading scorer. "It's a great opportunity to play the best ever."

6:43 AM - 3/31/2006 - comments {7023} - post comment

Maryland women not taking run for granted

Patience isn't a virtue for the Maryland Terrapins and Coach Brenda Frese. Poise and perseverance are.

It took Frese just four years to take Maryland from a middle-of-the-pack ACC team to the Final Four, and she did it with a lineup loaded with freshmen and sophomores.

Maryland (32-4) locked up a spot in Boston with a 75-65 win over Monday night in the Albuquerque Regional finals. The Terrapins will play top-seeded North Carolina (33-1), a 75-63 winner over No. 2 seed Tennessee last night.

The Terrapins, with six sophomores and two freshmen, may be young in years, but they know that these moments can be a once-in-a-lifetime thing.

"I'm definitely not taking this for granted," said point guard Kristi Toliver, a freshman who delivered punch after punch at Utah's zone defense while setting career highs with 28 points and six 3-pointers.

"We're not guaranteed a certain bracket next year," she said. "We could have injuries. You've got to play every game like it's your last."

Next season has to wait because the Terrapins still have plenty left on this year's plate. Maryland is in the Final Four for the first time since 1989. It got there by overcoming fifth-seeded Utah's tough zone defense and motion offense and battling through a nasty stomach virus that swept through the team, coaching staff, band and cheerleaders in the 24 hours leading up to the game.

"I just shows you the heart of this team, to be able to grind out such a difficult game," Frese said. "What are the odds that you would see something like this happen to a team?"

Better yet, what were the chances that Frese could get Maryland so far so fast?

Athletics Director Deborah Yow was banking on it when she hired Frese away from Minnesota, where Frese led the Gophers to a 22-8 record and the second round of the 2002 NCAA Tournament in her only season there. Before Minnesota, Frese had led Ball State to back-to-back winning seasons.

"As far as I was concerned, there wasn't any risk," Yow said. "Brenda had already made a mark at Ball State and Minnesota. That doesn't happen by accident."

Besides, Maryland was offering Frese all the staples for success.

"She was at Maryland, where we had financial support, administrative support, a beautiful arena," Yow said. "The ACC as a conference and academics. We have 73 academic programs ranked in their respective top 25."

Maryland, the only team to beat North Carolina - 98-95 in overtime at Chapel Hill - is now a win away from its first trip to a national-championship game.

North Carolina won a rematch 91-80 in the ACC Tournament final.

"It goes to show when you have big dreams and you're able to find the kind of players and staff that have the same kind of vision as you," Frese said.

Or as the banner unfurled in The Pit by the Terrapins' fans in the game's waning seconds proclaimed: "Maryland, More Than You Can Imagine."

11:25 AM - 3/29/2006 - comments {18} - post comment

Men's basketball: Williams wants more intensity from Terps

For most college basketball programs, back-to-back 19-win seasons and a pair of National Invitation Tournament appearances wouldn't offer cause for concern. However, as his team enters the offseason, Maryland head coach Gary Williams made it clear he expects more.

Maryland, which finished 19-13, is just four years removed from back-to-back Final Fours and a national championship, three years removed from a Sweet 16 appearance and two years removed from an Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament title. Given that context, the Terrapins' last two seasons have left their coach dissatisfied.

"There are more good teams now," said Williams after his top-seeded team's listless 87-84 home loss to ninth-seeded Manhattan Saturday in the NIT. "You have to do more now so that you're one of those good teams.

"I can tell them, but it's up to each individual player to make that happen. They have to decide. We need good senior leadership (next year). We need guys pulling other guys along."

A solid nucleus of four starters returns next season _ D.J. Strawberry, Mike Jones, Ekene Ibekwe and James Gist. A promising freshman class rated among the top 20 nationally will join them. That offers some hope.

"This is the first time in a couple of years that we've had a freshman class with more than one or two guys coming in. I'm looking forward to that," Williams said. "We have some really good players as part of that freshman class who want the challenge of playing in the ACC. We'll see what happens."

Personnel matters loomed large in the Terps' failure to reach the NCAA Tournament the last two seasons after earning 11 straight bids. Last season, Strawberry missed the last 18 games after tearing a knee ligament. A season-long feud between point guard John Gilchrist and Williams also frayed nerves and hurt consistency. This past campaign, top scorer and senior co-captain Chris McCray couldn't stay academically eligible and left the team in January.

With McCray's gone, reserve Mike Jones moved into the starting lineup and showed signs of becoming a similarly reliable scorer. However, the team's ballhandling and defense suffered. With McCray, the Terps might have earned the extra victory or two needed to make the NCAA Tournament. The Terps went 13-4 with McCray, 6-9 without him. They did manage to finish .500 (8-8) in league play, one game better than the previous two seasons.

Neither of the team's most experienced players - seniors Travis Garrison and Nik Caner-Medley - could compensate for McCray's absence. Garrison lost his starting spot early in the season and never got it back. Caner-Medley led the Terps in scoring for a second straight year, but his average slipped from 16.0 to 15.3.

The numbers posted by junior Ekene Ibekwe and sophomore James

Gist were only slightly better than last season's. Strawberry (10.9 ppg, 4.0 apg) performed admirably despite playing out of position at the point all season, while Jones (10.5 ppg) had no choice but to mature after taking over for McCray.

But to Williams and others, personnel wasn't the main issue. The overall attitude and a lack of intensity were larger concerns. The Terps' repeated defensive lapses led to them finishing last in the Atlantic Coast Conference in scoring defense for a second straight season. Strong defense had been a trademark of Williams' teams throughout his 17 seasons at Maryland. But the Terps' difficulties this year guarding opponents _ particularly on the perimeter _ were apparent.

"We have to have the attitude that our man is not gonna score," said Strawberry. "If we have that attitude, it's gonna make us a better team."

"The talent is not a problem at all," said Garrison, one of the departing seniors who floundered the last two seasons. "It's just about sacrificing."

Saturday's loss to Manhattan highlighted many of Maryland's problems this season. The Terps turned the ball over 20 times and allowed nine 3-pointers, falling behind by as many as 14 points. They roused themselves down the stretch, helped by some Manhattan misses at the foul line, and scored nine straight points to give themselves a chance to steal the victory. But in the end, their efforts fell short.

"They outworked us," said Williams. "We can't let that happen. That's our responsibility. We've had a great work ethic here since 1989. We'll get back to that next year."

1:08 PM - 3/20/2006 - comments {1252} - post comment