Duke/Maryland Has To Go On After THAT?!

Wow. Tough encore.

After I finish recovering from that (and after I finish worshiping the ground that Greivis Vasquez walks on), I'll post something recapping the epic Maryland/Duke rivalry over the past few years.

Friday Links: Terps Peaking, MD/Nova?

Two days away.

First of all, I've confirmed that I'll be a part of the WMUC Sports broadcast on Sunday so no liveblog. However, I should be able to post a couple of short updates during pregame and/or halftime while I'm at Comcast. The atmosphere should be unreal. The Maryland official athletic site has been advertising tickets for the game for most of this week, there are multiple Facebook groups about the game (mostly because it is Greek Night) and the hope is for a sellout or close to one. Comcast Center holds 17,950 people and according to the ACC media guide, it has sold out twice for women's basketball games: the Duke and UNC games in 2007 (January 28 and February 18, respectively.) If nothing else, the attendance on Sunday will almost assuredly crack in to the top 8 biggest women's basketball crowds in ACC history, all of which belong to the Terps (and all but # 7 belong to the Comcast Center.)

Anyway, I'll have a lot more on that game tomorrow. For now, I just want to take a look at a couple of ESPN.com articles from this week that prominently feature the Terps.

The first is Mechelle Voepel's piece on how the Terps are currently peaking at the right time. I thought it took a little while to get going and there was a bit too much about Brenda and her kids, but all in all it was a solid article once she got in to the meat of the team and the impact that a rejuvenated Frese has had on the players. Those who follow the Terps intently aren't going to learn too much, although little factoids like how the 2006 national title victory happened on Lynetta Kizer's 16th birthday or that Dee Liles wanted to be a Terp pretty much since childhood, are nice. But I thought the article did a great job of really highlighting Kizer and Liles, two players who most women's basketball fans might not know too much about because of the spotlights that Toliver and Coleman always receive. I also agree with the notion that the Maryland season changed with that loss at Duke. Battling back from that 13 point deficit in Cameron with no Marah Strickland and a very limited Marissa Coleman was the kind of thing that builds character, especially on a team with two first-year starters and a lot of other young pieces that help compose its core. Toliver especially showed a ton of character; she was absolutely awful for most of that game (1/11 from the floor to start) but then absolutely caught fire late to lead the Terps back. Her last second game-tying three rattled out but even Coach Frese essentially called the game a moral victory because of the heart that Toliver and the rest of the team showed. It seemed like an odd quote at the time for a team like Maryland that expects more than "moral victories" against Duke (or just about anyone) but now it makes much more sense. Maryland has won 9 of 10 since that game, including 6 in a row, and they avenged their only loss in that stretch last Thursday in emphatic fashion against Virginia.

Voepel also has a blog that puts this one to shame. Her latest post on Tennessee is just paramount.

Speaking of blogs, Charlie Creme has one on ESPN and in his latest entry, he muses about various matchups he'd like to see in women's college basketball. One is of particular interest to Terp fans:

Villanova vs. Maryland: In boxing, the phrase is "styles make fights." If that is true, perhaps Villanova and Maryland could play this one in the ring. Leonard vs. Hagler. Ali vs. Foreman. Balboa vs. Creed. Terps vs. Cats? Are there two styles in the game more different? The Terrapins want to play fast, push the ball up the floor. They have two All-American candidates who can take over a game, and Maryland can score in bunches and is never out of a game. Villanova, on the other hand, has no superstars. The Wildcats are defined only by Harry Perretta's philosophy -- slow down the game, use the entire shot clock, spread the floor and take only good shots. Does every Villanova player on the court touch the ball on every possession, or does it just seem that way? The Terrapins average 78 points per game. Villanova's opponents score a mere 52. Sure, Maryland could exact its style on the game and blow out Villanova. But if the Wildcats got ahold of the tempo, they could surely frustrate the Terps. The wrestling match for that control would be the game within the game, and it would be captivating.

Admittedly, the styles clash would be interesting and could lead to a very close game if the Wildcats controlled tempo and the Maryland offense was rattled. However, I have two potential problems with this matchup. One, it kind of just happened. Now granted, Villanova might be a bit better than Rutgers this season and the teams are different, but the similarities are certainly present. Not sure why Creme is getting overly excited about Maryland vs. a decent-to-good Big East team that slows the tempo when Maryland just slaughtered a decent-to-good Big East team that slows the tempo. My other big problem with this is Villanova and whether or not they're really that good of a basketball team. 17-9 (9-3) in the Big East is nothing to sneeze at, but let's be honest: 6 of the 9 conference wins are against the bottom half of the league and two of those are over 9-16 Providence. Furthermore, the Cats just got crushed by # 22 Pittsburgh the other night and they've yet to face # 9 Louisville (they do tomorrow in Philly) or # 1 UConn (they will on the 24th in Storrs.) They're unproven against the heavyweights in the league and in their one litmus test, they lost by 16 despite 35 points from Laura Kurz (ironic, considering Creme talks about how Villanova "has no stars.") If they can compete with or even beat either or both of the Cardinals and Huskies, maybe then we can consider them a legit very good team that could hang with the Terps. Until then, forgive me for my skepticism.

So that's it for now. Hope you enjoyed those reads on a relatively light Friday. Again, we've got no games in the top 25 tonight and a mere 18 games total on the dockett. Things will pick up tomorrow.

Until then...

Around the Nation - February 19

Wow. Big night last night in women's college basketball, mostly in the ACC and SEC. We'll get to the latter in a minute because that's where all the night's biggest storylines happened, but first we need to check in on Maryland's intersectional rivals.

--# 12 Florida State got a career high 24 and 9 from Jacinta Moore and they are just three victories away from their first ACC title in program history as they knock off Clemson 75-58. Like the Terps did (and like another ACC team would do), the Noles blew it open in the second half, outscoring the Tigers 40-28. FSU has actually never finished higher than third in the ACC and they'll ensure themselves of better than that by winning at least 2 of their final 3. Again, they close with Miami, Virginia, and @Wake Forest. Unless they play tight and choke, they should win all three of those games and wrap up the ACC regular season title. We'll see though. That's a huge second half for the Noles however; great teams have second halves like that one and put away bad teams with ease when they need to. Every day I believe in that team more and more. I really hope they meet Maryland on a neutral floor. Say, the one in Greensboro perhaps? Oh man, how fun is the ACC tournament going to be?

--Want to see Exhibit B in "Why The ACC Tournament Could Be Life-Changing"? Check out what # 10 North Carolina did in the second half in Beantown.

The Tar Heels led 42-37 at the break. They outscored the Eagles 50-31 in the final 20 minutes and rolled to a 92-68 victory, snapping a three game ACC road losing streak. Boston College now has lost 4 of 5 with the one win being a closer-than-it-should-have-been 71-64 win at Miami (although the Eagles aren't the only ACC team who's had problems with the Canes recently, more on THAT in a moment...) and they are going in the wrong direction at the wrong time. They're still a game above .500 in ACC play but that could quickly change as they are now staring down a two game road swing through Charlottesville and College Park next week before hosting N.C. State in their regular season finale. This is an incredibly disappointing loss for them, though. Remember, they led 18-6 in the early going. That means North Carolina outscored them 86-50 the rest of the way. Ouch.

--# 8 Duke used a 16-0 first half run to put away bottom feeding Virginia Tech 62-46. Not a lot to say here. The Blue Devils could've looked ahead to Sunday and struggled here, but they didn't. Instead, they dominated with defense like they've done so often this year, posting 16 steals and forcing 21 Hokie turnovers. Abby Waner had 15 to lead all scorers, which is a big boost for her going in to Sunday's titanic clash with the Terps. She's a mercurial scorer and player who's had a star-crossed career, to say the very least, and she's going to need to be on her A game when she goes up against Kristi Toliver on Sunday if the Blue Devils are going to have any chance.

--# 21 Virginia's probably still safely in the NCAA tournament. They have Lyndra Littles to thank for that.

Littles had 27, no two being more important than her no-look foul line heave with 3.7 seconds to go to force overtime against a Miami team that didn't play like the 13-13 (2-9) team that it is for most of the night in Charlottesville. In that overtime, the Cavs took over, outscoring the Canes 14-5 to escape with an 84-75 victory that likely keeps them a safe distance from the cut line in regards to NCAA tournament at large bids. The Cavs improve to 20-7, 6-5 in the ACC and had they blown this game, it would have been a disaster as it would have been their third straight loss and fourth in five games, it would have knocked them out of the top 25 in both polls, and it would have kept them stuck on 19 wins and dropped them to below .500 in conference play with trips to Tallahassee and Atlanta to close the regular season after a home date with Boston College on Sunday. Man, could you IMAGINE the bubble battle that would have been between two reeling teams if the Cavs hadn't come back tonight? It still is a huge game for both teams, but the Wahoos have a bit more breathing room than the Eagles at the moment. That will change if they lose, though. On the other side of the floor, it was a valiant effort from the Hurricanes, who are playing better basketball in the past week or two and now have to deal with a trip up to the panhandle to face the conference leaders on Sunday where the Terps will be cheering them on (actually they'll be preparing for the slightly meaningful game they have later that afternoon.) Remember, Maryland still has a road trip to Miami to close the regular season on March 1 and with the scares that the Canes have thrown in to some good teams recently, the Terps better not take that game too lightly.

--Okay, this is a Maryland women's basketball blog. Maryland plays in the ACC. That's why I led by recapping the ACC games (also I had mentioned them in earlier posts so I had to follow up on them.) Make no mistake about it, however: the biggest stories tonight were all in the SEC. I said it to begin this post and I'll say it again.

Not one, not two, but three upsets rippled through the Southeast on Thursday night and shocked the entire nation. First of all, # 3 Auburn went down for only the second time all season as # 20 Vanderbilt tied them for the conference lead with a 73-70 victory. The Commodores finish the regular season unbeaten at home and the Tigers are the second top 10 team they've beaten at Memorial Gym in the past 11 days (Florida was the other; more on them in a moment.) They're 21-6 overall and 10-2 in the SEC as the Tigers fall to 25-2 (10-2.) Actually, this is Vandy's 14th straight win over the girls from the Plains, but it's safe to say that if Auburn fielded teams like this one every year, that streak wouldn't exist. Jence Rhoads had a career-high 16 to pace the 'Dores, who led pretty much the entire way but needed two Merideth Marsh free throws to hang on at the end. Tough loss for the Tigers, but if they can hold serve in their two remaining games, both at home, against Georgia (who handed them their other loss back on Jan. 29 in Athens) and Arkansas (who pulled off an upset tonight, more in a minute), they could still win the league outright because Vandy finishes up with trips to Ole Miss and then to Knoxville, where they've never won. Ever. But this might be a good year to break the hex...

--...because # 19 Tennessee is down this year. Way down. So down that they just lost at Kentucky's Memorial Coliseum for the first time in 23 years and lost to the Wildcats for only the second time in the past 30 meetings. 66-56 was your final and Pat Summitt was not pleased by it:

"In 35 years coaching, this probably has been the least energy of any team I've coached," Summitt said. "I'm not good at coaching effort. It was a total lack of passion. I don't know that you can teach that to a player."

Well then. With all due respect, I'm gonna go ahead and say that Pat Summitt knows a thing or two (or 1,000) about coaching effort and that she's pretty good at it...but wow. What a quote. Summitt's been harsh on her young team at times this year but I think tonight takes the cake. The two-time defending national champions fall to 18-8, 7-4 in the SEC, which is good for a tie for third (in the loss column) in the conference. Not exactly up to Tennessee standards. I mean obviously this was going to be a tough year with all the losses from the two national title teams but Summitt doesn't seem to care and nor should she. That's why she's the best coach college basketball (either gender) has ever seen and I'm writing a blog at 6 in the morning while eating Pop Tarts. It's not like she doesn't have reason to be upset; Tennessee got out to a 10-0 lead to start this game as Kentucky didn't score for the first 5 minutes, missing their first 7 shots. The Wildcats then went on a 10-2 run to get back in to it before going up by as many as 17 (!) in the second half before the Vols cut it to 8 but could get no closer. It's the first time they've lost back to back games this season. Kentucky improves to 14-12 (4-7) and the NCAA tournament is still probably a long shot but if they're going to go on a miracle late season run, this was a great start.

--That leaves us with one upset in the SEC last night. I already mentioned that I'd have more on both # 15 Florida and Arkansas later in this post. This doesn't take a rocket scientist.

Yep, the Hogs went to Gainesville and sent the Gators to their third straight loss after climbing in to the top 10 last week, 83-74. The worst part about the three straight losses is that tonight's 9 point defeat is the only one by single digits. Vandy beat the Gators by 16 and LSU beat them by 19. Clearly, something's wrong and a flaw (or two) has been exposed in Florida. They were 22-2 with wins over Florida State (by 15), Pitt, and Arizona State before this recent stretch, but the two losses were head scratching in two entirely different ways. One was a 16 point loss to Auburn. The other was a two point loss in the opener...but it was to Florida Gulf Coast. As good as this Gator team has been for much of the year, something just feels...off...about them. Three of the five losses being by double digits, three of the five losses being to unranked teams (including the FGC disaster), trailing for the entire second half and pretty much the entire game at home against a mediocre Arkansas team last night (that needs a miracle run a la Kentucky to make the Dance)...I don't know. Obviously they're usually very good but there are just a lot of inexplicable performances in there and three of them have come in their last three games. They'd be wise to stop the bleeding against South Carolina on Sunday before closing the regular season with a trip to Georgia.

--I'll rush through the other three top 25 matchups last night. Two were the Bay Area Pac-10 powers flexing their muscle against the Oregon schools, as # 4 Stanford blew out Oregon State 72-43 and # 6 Cal crushed Oregon 84-42. Those two are tied for first in the Pac-10, with each having their one conference loss on the other's home floor. As for out of conference play, Stanford has losses at Baylor, Duke, and Tennessee and Cal has a home loss to TCU and then that 26 point, second half collapse against Oklahoma in San Jose back in December. For what it's worth, Cal only won by 3 in Berkeley against Stanford as opposed to losing by 17 in Palo Alto this past weekend so advantage Cardinal there. That alongside with the fact that Stanford (a) hasn't lost to an unranked team (b) hasn't lost at home and (c) hasn't blown any 26 point halftime leads, leads me to believe that they're a nose ahead of their arch-rivals, but both are elite teams that should be among the favorites to make it to St. Louis.

The only other top 25 game tonight was # 17 Ohio State going to Minnesota and picking up a nice 73-62 road win to keep pace with Michigan State in that first place tie in the Big Ten. The Gophers actually won in Columbus, so this was an important revenge victory for the Buckeyes. Samantha Prahalis had 17 to help prevent Minnesota from sweeping the Bucks for the first time in program history.

Phew. There aren't any top 25 games tonight but things pick back up on Saturday with 12 of the top 25 in action, highlighted by # 5 Baylor at # 2 Oklahoma. Then on Sunday you've got 10 of the 12 ACC teams in action as well as 12 more top 25 teams. The two marquee matchups are # 24 Notre Dame at # 1 Connecticut and, of course, # 8 Duke at # 7 Maryland. Guess which one of those games is getting an all-out blitz of coverage this weekend. Actually, the correct answer might be "none of the above", because I have an incredibly busy weekend but if absolutely nothing else, I'll preview the Duke game on Saturday night or Sunday afternoon and maybe get another post or two up before the Terps and Blue Devils take the floor.

INSTANT REACTION: Maryland 87, Georgia Tech 79

It's never easy on the road, is it?

Maryland was up 23 (75-52) at the under 8 timeout (7:58.) They won by 8.

The Yellow Jackets actually got as close as 86-79 with 45 seconds to go but they couldn't complete the comeback. This one was never seriously in doubt as again, the lead never fell below 7, but that had to be scary for Brenda Frese watching her team give back so much of the huge lead they had built. Georgia Tech outscored the Terps 27-12 over the final 7:47.

Lynetta Kizer scored her 21st and 22nd points on a layup with 9:19 to go to make it 70-52 Terps. She didn't score again. She also didn't get another rebound after my last post, ending with 10. I mean, it's still easily the game of her career. I neglected to note that she had 4 steals in the first half to go along with all the other great things she did and she ended up with 5. Her final stat line: 22 points on 9/12 shooting, 10 rebounds (6 offensive), 5 steals, 3 blocks, 2 assists. If that's not filling up the stat sheet, I don't know what is. WHAT A GAME. If you're going to pick flaws, there are two big ones, however. Aside from the one I already touched on (a quiet final 10 minutes or so), she was just 4/8 from the free throw line. That's actually the weakness in her game; she's just 56% from the line for the year, not including tonight.

That doesn't seem to matter though with the rest of this team, especially Marissa Coleman.

Okay first of all, Marissa Coleman has just turned on God mode the past couple of weeks. Already the reigning ACC Player of the Week, she goes for 23 tonight to lead all scorers, with 15 coming in the second half. She also narrowly missed a triple double with 8 rebounds and 7 assists. I really don't know what else to say about her that I haven't said over the past week or two; she's just a special basketball player. Brenda Frese has used that word "special" to describe her many a time and it really does ring true. Marissa was 6/10 from the field tonight, which is superb, but even more impressively, she was a perfect 11 for 11 at the free throw line. She's 115/140 from the line this season, good for 82%. She goes to the line more than anyone else on the team, so her being such a rock at the charity stripe has been huge for this team all season long, especially in close games. She too was not perfect tonight; she turned it over 6 times, but she really came through when the team needed her to, just as she has for the past few games.

Two other Terps scored in double figures with Marah Strickland pouring in 15, 12 of them on three pointers (4/7), and Kristi Toliver added 11. It was an off night for Toliver, as she was just 4/12 from the field and a putrid 1/7 from three, but she chipped in with 4 rebounds and assists as well. That's two of the special things about this Maryland team: (1) even when their scorers are off, they can contribute in other ways and (2) when someone has an off night (Toliver), one or more of their teammates (Coleman and especially Kizer) will raise their game to pick them up. That's what winning teams and winning players do.

For Georgia Tech's part, they fought hard to make it respectable but they just fell too far behind in the first 10 minutes of the second half. Alex Montgomery led them with 19 and Deja Foster added 17 but it just wasn't enough and the Jackets are left on the wrong side of .500 in ACC play and fail to pick up what would have been a resume-making victory to go along with their UNC scalp. They'll need to win 2 of their final 3 to finish above .500 in ACC play. No matter what, they'll likely need at least one win in the ACC tournament in Greensboro to feel safe about their NCAA tournament chances. Their final three regular season games: @Clemson, @Virginia Tech, Virginia. They should do no worse than 2-1 and could very well run the table so they have to still like their tournament chances. Still, tonight's a big missed opportunity.

Huge win for the Terps. Like I said, Georgia Tech always battles them hard but they prevailed. They continue to roll and now it's time to get really excited. Now only three days stands between them and the showdown with Duke. A lot more on that to come in the days that follow. Also later: recap of the rest of the night in women's college hoops.

QUICK UPDATE: Terps Break It Open, New Career High For Kizer

Maryland's outscored the Yellow Jackets 20-13 to open the second half and they now lead by 15, 65-50 with 11:44 to go.

I think we all know by now that seemingly insurmountable leads held by Maryland teams are never completely safe, but the women's basketball team isn't exactly as flimsy in the second half as their male counterparts. Also, they're just 18 million times better in general.

As for Kizer, she's got her new career high in points with 19 and counting. Congratulations to her. She's also got a double double, with 10 boards and still the 2 blocks and only one personal foul. Amazing game.

I didn't mention the help she's getting from Coleman and Marah Strickland. Marissa has 15, including the last 5 for the Terps. Marah has just caught fire in the second half, with 9 of her 12 to help spur Maryland, including two of her three 3's.

I'm out of here for real this time. Back with more later tonight.

HALFTIME: Maryland 45, Georgia Tech 37

Back to McKeldin, fresh off of a men's lacrosse crew meeting. If the final paragraph or two of my game preview felt rushed, that's because it was because I was running late to said meeting. Anyway, I won't be here long; I just quickly came back because I didn't have time to make my ESPN Streak for the Cash pick before heading over to the meeting so that was obviously a necessity >_> Anyway, to my dismay, Florent Serra apparently got wiped off the court in straight sets by Dudi Sela, so screw him and boo to my modest 1 game winning streak being broken. Time to start anew with the Columbus Blue Jackets. Why them? Because they're in Toronto tonight against the Maple Leafs and the Maple Leafs are a joke. The 1 game winning streak I had was because of the Buffalo Sabres beating the Maple Leafs on Tuesday night and every time I pick against the Maple Leafs, I seem to succeed. Probably because, well, they're a joke. So I'm going to keep doing it until it fails, which it probably will tonight since Columbus is on the second leg of a back-to-back roadie but whatever. Steve Mason's the man; I like having my money on him (even though I don't really have money on him.)

Oh yeah, this is a Maryland women's basketball blog and they're playing tonight. So, yeah, about that...

At the half, the Terps lead 45-37. The story has been Lynetta Kizer. She went for SEVENTEEN in the first half, to go along with 6 boards and 2 blocks to lead all players in each of those three categories. She's 7/8 from the floor, which is just ridiculous. I haven't been watching the game because I was busy with the lax meeting and then I swung over here (and neither the WMUC Sports headquarters nor McKeldin Library gets ESPNU), so I can't say for sure if Kizer's getting uncontested layups or if she's having to bury jumpers (or both), but whatever she's doing, it's clear that the Yellow Jackets simply don't have an answer for her. She's already tied a season high (and obviously a career high, since she's only a freshman) for field goals made in a single game, she's a basket away from a new career high in points, she's a block away from tying a career high there...just what a half for her.

Coming in to the season, she was by far the newcomer I was most excited for because of all the hype she got coming out of high school as one of the top recruits in the nation and being named the preseason ACC Rookie of the Year. A 6'4 center with range, you knew she would be special when she posted a double-double in her first career game at TCU, scoring 12 points and grabbing a career-high (for now) 15 rebounds in that opening night loss. In fact, I knew she would be special when I saw her step on to the court at Midnight Madness and how she just towered over everyone else and how easily her team was able to dump it down to her in the low block and the range she showed with her jumper in the 10 minute scrimmage. She even looks the part when you see her on and off the court and boy, has she performed up to expectations. She really can do it all and she's money at the foul line as well. I have no doubts that she will evolve in to one of the best centers in women's basketball in the next few years. In fact, she might already be well on her way. If she keeps putting up halves like that one, she could be included in the conversation with your Courtney Parises sooner rather than later.

Also, there are other games going on tonight, many of them of poignant interest to the Terps. First and foremost is the team that the Terps are chasing for the ACC regular season title: Florida State. Maryland needs Florida State to lose in one of their final four games or else the Terps cannot win the regular season championship. Tonight, the # 12 Seminoles are in Clemson tonight taking on the lowly Tigers. Actually, Clemson's not looking too lowly tonight as they're giving the Noles all they can handle but still trail 35-30 at halftime. Then, of course, you have the team that the Terps will be facing in an epic showdown on Sunday: Duke. The # 8 Blue Devils are hosting Virginia Tech, the ACC's last place team, and unlike FSU, they're swiftly taking care of business, as they lead 33-18 at the half. # 10 North Carolina is in Chestnut Hill to take on feisty Boston College and that one's been both a game of runs and a back-and-forth affair. The lead changed five times in the first half, but Boston College got out 18-6 before the Tar Heels came back to eventually grab a 42-34 lead which has been trimmed to 42-37 at the break. And folks, what is wrong with the Virginia Cavaliers? Coming in to last week, they were # 15 in the country. Then Maryland blew them away in the second half last Thursday, N.C. State upset them in that Hoops 4 Hope game on Sunday in memory of Kay Yow, and now they're in trouble yet again against one of the ACC's minnows, except this time it's on their home floor. The Miami Hurricanes, just 13-12 and 2-8 in ACC play, have walked in to John Paul Jones Arena and they are ahead 29-24 at the half.

I'll be back at the conclusion of the Maryland game and all the other ACC games.

GAMEDAY: # 9/7 Maryland @ Georgia Tech

Greetings from McKeldin Library! For those unfamiliar with McKeldin Library, it is the main library here at the University of Maryland. I've been in here maybe 20 times and like 19 of those were to screw off between classes and/or to print something, as opposed to reading, doing research, or studying like good college students do. That said, it's still an awesome place with like 8 or 9 floors of books (although none of them are on apartheid, according to Adam Petty) and it's easily the coolest library I've ever been it. I really do love this place; I should come here more.

Anyway, tonight's a huge night in women's college basketball with 12 of the ESPN/USA Today top 25 teams in action. Included among them are the Maryland Terrapins, 7th in that poll (9th in the AP), traveling down to the ATL; Atlanta, GA, to face the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets.

The Terps are on a roll. They're 21-4, 8-2 in the ACC, and they've won 5 straight, 8 of 9, and 13 of 15. Last time out, they absolutely rolled a disappointing Rutgers team 67-47 to increase their home winning streak to 32 games, although that does not matter tonight because the Terps must travel to a place where they have not won since the 2004-2005 season. For perspective, that was before Kristi Toliver and Marissa Coleman even became Terps. Granted, that's a little misleading since they've played exactly once in Alexander Memorial Coliseum since that 04-05 triumph but it was a shocking 77-72 defeat on February 1, 2007. Last year, when the Yellow Jackets came to College Park, the Terps needed two overtimes to finish them off, 99-95. Simply put, Georgia Tech knows how to give Maryland problems.

Alex Montgomery, who had 26 in last year's matchup, is back and she is the leading scorer for the Jackets with 12.8 points per game. She is also their leading rebounder, grabbing 7 boards a night. Jacqua Williams and Isia Hemingway also score in double figures for the Jackets and Williams leads them with 85 assists on the season. If the Terps want to get out of Atlanta with a win, they will need to focus on those three players for sure.

They will also need to focus on the fact that not just those three, but every single member of the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets will be extremely hungry for a victory tonight. That is because Georgia Tech currently sits at 18-7, 5-5 in the ACC. They also are 30th in the RPI, play the 38th toughest schedule in the country, and own only 3 wins over RPI top 100 competition, the crown jewel of which being a 66-62 upset of then-# 3 North Carolina on January 22. However, in their last game this past Saturday, the Tar Heels repaid them in full with a 73-50 beatdown in Chapel Hill. Simply put, Georgia Tech is squarely on the NCAA tournament bubble and needs all the wins it can get to help its case to make the tournament. A game like tonight is a prime opportunity for a second huge win over an elite team to prove to the NCAA tournament selection committee that they are deserving of an at-large bid. And it is a game against a team that they know they can compete with (last year) and beat (two years ago.)

I have no doubts that tonight's game will be a dogfight. The keys for the Terps are the same as usual. Obviously they won't be taking the Yellow Jackets lightly. But they need to do what they always do; control tempo, let their star players lead them, dominate in the post, and play with a higher intensity than their opponent. I think that they will do all of those things tonight, as they are peaking at exactly the right time, and they will stave off a valiant effort from the Yellow Jackets and continue their quest for an ACC regular season championship.

PREDICTION - Maryland 76, Georgia Tech 72

Coleman Named ACC Player of the Week

For the fifth time in her career, most among active players, Marissa Coleman has been named the ACC's Player of the Week. Since I'm still an ignorant buffoon in regards to blogger and hyperlinking and I don't have the time to kill brain cells figuring it out, here's the non-hyperlinked link:

http://umterps.cstv.com/sports/w-baskbl/spec-rel/021609aaa.html

Anyway, congratulations to her. She follows Kristi Toliver, who was last week's ACC Player of the Week. I've written more than enough about those two this week and how good they are. They're two amazing players and without them, Maryland would be going through the kind of season that Rutgers or LSU are going through when they were unable to adequately compensate for the loss of some of the best players in program history. How many programs could lose Crystal Langhorne and Laura Harper and STILL be among the top programs in the country? I mean, Dee Liles and Lynetta Kizer deserve a ton of credit too, but it's been Coleman and Toliver carrying this team all season long and buoying them in to a position where they can still accomplish a whole lot of great things.

Two other quick news bytes before I haul ass to the WMUC Sports studio for the Terrapin Rewind and hope that Rob Dawson doesn't kill me for being late:

1) Maryland's up to 9th in the new AP poll released today. The All Amazings are still # 1 (duh) and Oklahoma's still # 2. Auburn, Stanford, and Baylor all rose two spots to fill out the top 5. Cal and Duke each fell three spots to 6 and 7 respectively after losing to their most hated rivals this week (Duke to UNC on Monday; Cal to Stanford on Saturday.) Louisville and the Terps are up two spots each and UNC falls behind the Terps from 8th in to 10th because of Friday's loss to Florida State, who is now 11th. The only other ACC team in the poll is Virginia, who fell from 17 to 23 after their losses to the Terps and N.C. State this week.

Here's your link, courtesy of Go Vols Xtra:
http://www.govolsxtra.com/news/2009/feb/16/lady-vols-two-spots-13/

2) Speaking of Tennessee, they're 13th and host the 7th ranked Dukies on Big Monday tonight at 7:30 on ESPN2. I'll try catching some of that but in all honesty, my main attention will be on 1 vs 4 in the men's game as UConn and Pitt do battle. I might still make a post about it later this evening (after 24 and my late night gym run of course.)

"February Frenzy" Recap

Well today was a HUGE day in women's college basketball. ESPN had 8 games in two time windows as a part of its "February Frenzy." Over half of the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll was in action today and so were 7 out of the 12 ACC programs. Here are one man's thoughts on all the madness:

-And you wonder why I've been calling them the "UConn All Amazings."

Pittsburgh is no joke. Pittsburgh is nothing resembling a joke. They were ranked 23rd in the coaches poll coming in to today and were 18-4, 8-2 in Big East play. They had won 7 in a row, including an overtime triumph over Rutgers in their last game. They hadn't lost a game by more than 8 points all season. In fact, they had lost their four games COMBINED by 28 points. And on December 7, they humiliated the Maryland Terrapins 86-57.

95-42.

...

I mean...I don't even have words to describe this UConn team. I really don't. Occasionally they'll let up and only win by like 13 like they did the other night at St. John's...and then they'll do something like this.

95-42. NINETY FIVE TO FORTY TWO.

At some point, it's going to be time to start stacking them up against 97-98 Tennessee, 01-02 UConn, and all the other great women's basketball teams of all time. Barring one of the greatest upsets in the history of the sport, UConn should go unbeaten and win the national title. They've beaten then-# 2 North Carolina by 30 in Chapel Hill and then-# 4 (and now # 2) Oklahoma by 28 at home. No team has come within 11 of them all season. I could keep going but you get the picture. They're basically inhuman. I mean...they were up 19 in the first five and a half minutes today. Renee Montgomery had 20. Maya Moore and Tina Charles had 18 and Moore grabbed 12 boards.

Moore's just from another planet; she might truly be the LeBron James of women's basketball, right down to the ridiculous high school hype before she was even a senior, the instant impact upon hitting the next level (she was Big East Player of the Year as a freshman and she'll most likely run away with it again this year), and the all-around dominance and potential to be among the greats of all time.

-# 4 Auburn got a battle from a tough Mississippi State team that gave Maryland problems back in late December (when they were unbeaten at the time) but held on for a 63-58 victory. That gets the Tigers to 25-1, 10-1 in the SEC, and it's their first 25 win season since Bill Clinton became the 42nd president of the United States. They've been almost unquestionably the biggest Cinderella story in women's college basketball this season, at least among the elite teams. Starting the season at a modest 21st in the coaches poll and coming off of a first round NCAA tournament exit and 20-12 season, not too many people outside of the Tiger locker room thought that a season like this would be possible. Their one loss came a few weeks ago against Georgia in what was surely a hangover from the program-changing win over Tennessee four days prior. In a down SEC, it's very possible that they run the table in the rest of the regular season (@ # 23 Vanderbilt, Georgia, Arkansas) and then win the SEC tournament to secure a # 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. In fact, they could probably afford a loss or two more and still get a # 1 seed but they would be wise not to chance it as like I said, the SEC is not exactly as good in women's basketball as it is in football.

-To that end, # 11 Florida got destroyed at LSU today. The Gators have been an even bigger surprise than Auburn, as they opened their season with a loss to Florida Gulf Coast and didn't even get ranked until mid-December. Now they're sitting at 22-4 (8-3) but that's been tempered a bit by two straight losses, including today's 66-47 trouncing by the Lady Tigers. Not surprisingly, LSU's faced a ton of problems dealing with the loss of virtually the entire core of their four straight Final Four teams, but at 13-9 (6-4), this is a big win for them and they're still in decent shape to make the NCAA tournament. And if they DO get to the Big Dance, no one's going to be taking them likely considering the brand name that they carry.

-Now to the ACC. # 7 North Carolina recovered quickly from Friday's loss in Tallahassee to crush Georgia Tech 73-50. The Tar Heels really needed that to keep any hope of staying in the top 10 in next week's polls, not to mention to keep any lingering ACC title hopes alive. Now they've got two trips to Chestnut Hill and Raleigh coming up before home oases against Miami and South Dakota (not South Dakota State, who's actually really good this year) sandwich that little trip to Durham on March 1. North Carolina's probably not winning the ACC regular season title so they just need to try and pile up as many wins as possible before making a run in Greensboro where they are always so good. As for the Yellow Jackets, they fall to 18-7 (5-5) and continue to sit squarely on the NCAA tournament bubble. That makes them very, VERY hungry for a win on Thursday when the Terps travel down to Atlanta. After that one though, their regular season close is very favorable with trips to Clemson and Virginia Tech before hosting a reeling Virginia.

-I use the term "reeling Virginia" because the Cavaliers lost yet again today and this time it was to an ACC minnow. North Carolina State came back in the second half to stun them 60-54. I tend to overuse the term "emotional win" but this is an instance where it truly is accurate, considering everything that the Wolfpack have been through and considering that today's game was a "Hoops for Hope" event, raising money to fight the disease that took Kay Yow's life. Congratulations to the Wolfpack for winning and congratulations to everyone who made that event a success in Raleigh today. N.C. State is still just 11-14 overall and 3-7 in ACC play so they'll need a miracle run in Greensboro to make the tournament, but they've won two in a row, their first two wins since the tragedy. Good for them. The Cavaliers fall to 19-7, 5-5 in ACC play and they're probably still comfortably in the NCAA tournament...but they'd be wise to stop this losing funk now. Monica Wright and Lyndra Littles were both off again today, only scoring a combined 27 points and shooting a combined 9/34 from the field. Aisha Mohammed did her double double thing with 13 and 14 but it was proved on Thursday and proved again today that that's not going to be enough if the two star scorers aren't scoring. Virginia goes home for a pair with Miami and Boston College; winning both would be a good idea because the regular season ends with a road swing through Tallahassee and Atlanta.

-As usual, the Big 12's a mess. Oklahoma's clearly positioned at the top, unbeaten in league play and with two losses to UNC (by a point) and UConn (by 28 points.) Baylor is probably second. After that, it gets sloppy. # 14 Texas and # 18 Kansas State won today to break through the muddle and position themselves in a tie for third at 7-3. The Longhorns in particular were impressive, coming back from down 11 at # 20 Iowa State to win 55-52. The Clones now fall back to 4 losses in conference play, tying them with Texas A&M, who has been a massive disappointment in 2009, starting the new year at # 3 in the country and unbeaten but having gone just 7-5 since January 5. Of course, they might be no match for Oklahoma State in the disappointment category, as the Cowgirls are basically Rutgers Lite. OK State were # 15 in the preseason coaches poll but is now just 14-9 overall and are a paltry 3-7 in Big 12 play, having dropped 4 in a row including today's 78-71 defeat in Manhattan. After how strong the league was last year with 8 teams in the NCAA tournament and four teams securing a seed of 5 or better, this looks to be a down and arguably messier year than last.

# 13 Ohio State, # 19 Xavier, and # 24 Vanderbilt also all won today. But this epically long post has to end somewhere so I'm choosing here. The Buckeyes are the most notable of those, as their win gave them a share of the Big Ten lead with Michigan State in their quest for a 5th straight Big Ten title.

REACTION: Maryland 67, Rutgers 47

We'll start with the Terps. I said this morning that they needed to not be locked down by the Rutgers defense; well, they decided to be the ones doing the locking down. I knew Rutgers' offense was bad and the statistics showed it...but 18/73? 24.7%? That's high school girls basketball bad. That's Eric Hayes from three point range bad (I kid, I kid, the male Terps are back to 5-5 in ACC play so I won't bust their balls...for now) That's just ATROCIOUS. 5/26 from three point range (19.2%) is the kind of stuff that coaches like John Beilein have nightmares about. At least the Scarlet Knights were 85.7% from the line...but that came on 6/7 shooting. That's not going to get it done.

There's really not much else to say here. Essence Carson was 7/29 from the floor by herself, 4/12 from three. I hate bringing up the men's game for the third time in this post, but that just reminds me of Davidson played Purdue earlier this year and Curry was just atrocious and the rest of the team followed as they got blown off the court. Sort of the same thing happened here. Rutgers' one star scorer was ice cold and the rest of the team just had no chance. Maryland never trailed, got out to a big lead, sorta surrendered it during one of the very few Rutgers hot streaks, then got it back and this time didn't let it up.

On offense, it was the same story as it's been all week: Coleman and Toliver. Marissa had 22 on an off night from the field (5/12) but she was cash money at the line (12/14.) Kristi shook off the demons from last year and dropped 18 on 6/12 shooting. No one else scored in double figures but the Terps didn't need an offensive explosion today.

I talked about Vaughn in the preview and she was basically a non-factor with only 6 points on 3/10 shooting. She grabbed 10 boards but only 5 came on the offensive end. However, if you're going to find a pimple on the beauty queen, I guess you have to look at offensive rebounds since Rutgers as a team grabbed 18 of them, as opposed to Maryland's 9. That's just not going to matter if the Scarlet Knights aren't going to put the ball in the hoop, though. The overall rebounding battle was won by the Terps, 37-36.

This was a statement win for the Terps. They've firmly established their position in the top 10 and furthermore, they proved that they can win with defense and not just offense. And finally, not many teams have destroyed Rutgers this year; most of the teams who have are among the best of the very best in the country. Perhaps the Terps have established themselves among that group. Hey, they beat the Scarlet Knigths by more points (well, by one more point) than the All Amazings did. But the Terps among the best of the very best...that's something that not many people could have seen coming after the shock opening night loss to TCU and the absolute meltdown in Pittsburgh in December.

GAMEDAY: Rutgers @ # 11/9 Maryland

This was supposed to be a top 10 battle. Too bad only one team's in the top 10.

Yes, the losses of Essence Carson and Matee Ajavon hurt. But this was still a Rutgers team that was ranked 2nd in the preseason ESPN/USA Today poll and 3rd in the preseason AP poll. Their incoming freshman class was highly touted; the returns of Epiphany Prince, Kia Vaughn, and Heather Zurich, among others, were thought to be more than enough to be a national title contender; and coach C. Vivian Stringer was thought to be among the best in the game, able to keep the program at the top of the heap in college basketball no matter what.

Instead, they currently sit at 14-9 overall, 5-6 in Big East play. They're not ranked, nor are they even close to being ranked. They're a 10 seed in Charlie Creme's latest Bracketology on ESPN.com and could be involved in a fight just to make the NCAA tournament down the stretch.

Their biggest problem is easy to identify: offense. In all nine Scarlet Knight losses, they've failed to score 60 points. It's not Prince's fault; she's averaging 20 and a half points per game. She's just not getting any help. Vaughn, for example, is averaging only 8.3 points per game, down from 10.0 last year and that was when she was relied upon less offensively (she's the team's third leading scorer this year as opposed to fourth last year.) After Vaughn, not a single player averages even 6 points per game. That's right, Rutgers' fourth leading scorer, Khadijah Rushdan, averages 5.7 points per game. The team as a whole only averages 61.7 points per game.

For comparison, Maryland averages 78.7 points per game. Their fourth leading scorer is Dee Liles, who averages 11.5 points per game. The Terps have five players averaging more points than Vaughn does.

Now, that's not an entirely fair comparison since the Terps and Scarlet Knights play at vastly different paces but still. It illustrates how proficient one team is at offense and how lackluster the other is. Furthermore, the Scarlet Knights are only shooting 42.2% from the floor this season, 31.9% from three point range, and an absolutely pitiful 59.1% from the free throw line. They simply have a ton of trouble putting the round orange thing in to the netted cylinder.

Their other big problem has been closing games and winning the close ones.

Tossing out losses to three top 5 teams: the California Golden Bears (66-52), the Stanford Cardinal (81-47), and the UConn All Amazings (75-56) and a weird 14 point loss to Syracuse, the other five losses are by a combined 22 points, or an average of 4.4 points. One was by four at home to Tennessee after blowing a 20 point halftime lead. One was by five at home to Louisville when Player of the Year candidate Angel McCoughtry dropped 30 on them. One was by two at DePaul. One was by three at South Florida after a late 17-0 run brought them back from 19 down to a tie. The last one was by 8 at home to Pitt in OT after blowing an 8 point second half lead. By the way, all of those teams except Syracuse and South Florida are ranked. So basically, Rutgers has lost a ton of tight games and/or to a ton of great teams.

Maryland's certainly not going to take them lightly. The Terps haven't forgotten last year's meeting, which was a nationally televised Big Monday affair in which they stormed out to a 33-23 halftime lead but got locked down in the second half to lose 68-60 in Piscataway. They know how good the Scarlet Knights can be and I'm sure that Brenda Frese has stressed many of the same things I've stressed here about how the Scarlet Knights have gotten unlucky a lot this year and how they still have the talent to go punch for punch with ranked teams. Only top 5 teams have really destroyed the Scarlet Knights and right now, it's unclear if Maryland is one or not. Maybe we'll find out more later today.

Anyway, there are two big keys for this one: 1) Not letting the Rutgers D suffocate them and 2) Not letting Kia Vaughn dominate Dee Liles and Lynetta Kizer inside. The first one is obvious; I already talked about last year's meeting and how the Terps offense dried up in the second half in blowing that 10 point halftime lead. Besides that though, whenever the Terps lose, it's usually because they went ice cold offensively and/or started turning the ball over like crazy. This almost always starts with Kristi Toliver; if her shot isn't falling and/or she's turning it over, the rest of the offense grinds to a halt. Toliver shot just 4/15 in last year's game and 3/12 from three point range while turning it over 5 times, so Rutgers knows they can shut her down.

The second key is just as vital, however. Basically, Kia Vaughn cannot pull an Aisha Mohammed, who went for 18 and 17 on Thursday. As good as Mohammed is, Vaughn might be better and regardless of who's better, Vaughn will likely be a much bigger factor than Mohammed was because of the half court nature that tomorrow's game is likely to take on. Rutgers isn't going to run with Maryland; if they're smart (and Stringer still is), they'll slow the game to a crawl and milk most of the shot clock on each of their possessions. If Vaughn is killing the Maryland bigs every trip, she'll single-handedly keep the Scarlet Knights in the game. In last year's game, Vaughn only had 3 points but she grabbed 8 boards...and that was when she was dealing with Laura Harper and Crystal Langhorne. If she's a monster on the boards, that's going to be a huge problem for the Terps. If she's scoring as well, that's even worse because it's very possible that Prince, who carved up the Terps for 22 in last year's meeting, is getting her points too. Granted, Maryland did a number on Monica Wright and Lyndra Littles when they got to see THEM for a second time this year, so maybe they'll lock down Prince in chance # 2 facing her as well. But Vaughn absolutely cannot do the kind of damage that Mohammed did on Thursday or else Maryland's going to really feel it this time.

It's hard to predict this game. One thing I know for sure is that I don't see Rutgers winning. A team as embattled as they are isn't coming in to the Comcast Center and ending Maryland's 31 game home court winning streak, especially not in front of the kind of crowd that should show up for a national TV audience in a hyped up revenge game. However, it's difficult to project a final score because of how this game could be close solely because of the pace. I could see the Terps crushing the Scarlet Knights like Cal/Stanford/UConn did and I could also see a battle going down to the wire that Rutgers loses like they've lost almost every other tight battle this year. Because I have no balls, I'll predict something in the middle so I don't look too foolish either way and say that the Terps win by 12. Rutgers shows up for a while and maybe they even lead at half because they really need this game as a feather in their cap for NCAA tournament consideration...but the Terps surge in to the lead about midway through the second half, build on it, and cruise to a comfortable 12 point win as the Scarlet Knights try to mount a brief comeback then go cold down the stretch.

If I'm not too busy tomorrow, I'll liveblog it but don't count on that. Hey, when you party on Saturday, that means you have work to do on Sunday. College sucks sometimes. If nothing else, I'll recap this one after it's done at some point tomorrow afternoon/evening.

PREDICTION - Maryland: 63, Rutgers: 51