GAMEDAY: Boston College @ # 5 Maryland

Senior Night.

While Marissa Coleman and Kristi Toliver will have one, almost assuredly two games left to play at the Comcast Center in the first and second rounds of the NCAA tournament in a few weeks, tonight is their last official home game at the University of Maryland-College Park.

It's going to be emotional.

We might be talking about two of the three best players to ever put on the Maryland uniform. I would argue that Crystal Langhorne is the greatest Terp of all time, but I would argue that Toliver and Coleman are # 2 and # 3, respectively, narrowly ahead of Laura Harper. No matter where they rank, it is indisputable that Toliver and Coleman are two of the greatest to ever wear the Maryland uniform.

In many ways, Kristi Toliver has been the face of Maryland basketball since arriving from Harrisonburg, Va. back in 2005. She was the one bringing the ball up the court every play, she was the most electric and arguably the most exciting player of the group, and it was her immortal shot over Alison Bales in the 2006 national championship game with 8.1 seconds to play that sent the game to overtime, where the Terps would win 78-75 to capture their first and only national championship.

What a shot.

I mean...just watch the replay. Toliver did it all by herself. Read the screens, dribbled in to the corner, stepped back to separate herself from Alison Bales, then tossed up the three right over top of her and swished it through. And Toliver didn't just hit that shot over top of any old center. Alison Bales is only 6'7 and she's only the ACC's all time leading shot blocker, with 434 blocks in her four year career (that's 3.4 per game.) For Toliver to hit that shot was just unbelievable in so many ways. That shot will live on not only in the canon of Maryland women's basketball history but also in the history of Maryland Terrapin athletics as a whole.

Toliver has defined her career with much more than just one shot. Some players make one play and that's all you ever remember them for. Not Kristi Toliver. She's scored 1,898 points outside of that three pointer, to put her at 1,901 and 4th all time in the history of Maryland women's basketball. She reached the 1,900 point mark with her all-timer of a performance against Duke on Sunday, pouring in 34 on 12/21 shooting. She's 28 away from passing Vicky Bullett for 3rd all time. She's hit 280 threes in her career, by far the most ever in Maryland history, the third most in ACC history, and the most ever among active players in all of women's college basketball. She also owns the top 3 single season 3 point makes in school history, with her 71 and counting this season ranking 3rd. She's also first all time in Maryland history in free throw percentage at 85.6% and 2nd all time in ACC history. And she's 5th all time in the ACC and first all time in Maryland history with 711 assists and 5.5 assists per game.

As good as she has been, her teammate for four years has been just as good, and perhaps arguably even better. Marissa Coleman is only one of eight people in ACC history (and one of only two people in Maryland history, along with Langhorne) to score 2,000 points and grab 1,000 rebounds in her career. She finally reached the 2,000 point mark with a free throw late against Duke on Sunday, becoming the 17th person in ACC history to reach that milestone. Obviously she's second all time in the history of Maryland women's basketball in terms of total points with her 2,000, passing Vicky Bullett with a career high 28 on February 12 against Virginia. She's also 2nd all time in Maryland history and 14th all time in ACC history in rebounds with 1,035. She's 4th all time in Maryland history with 162 three pointers made and she 2nd all time in Maryland history behind Toliver in free throw percentage at 81.2%.

I could keep going. You get the picture though. One final stat though, which will show you just how good Toliver and Coleman have been together: Sunday's win over Duke was Toliver and Coleman's 118th win as Maryland Terrapins. That's the most all time by one class in the history of the program. They are 118-18 for an .867 winning percentage. They're 62-3 (.954) at the Comcast Center, including 33 straight wins and counting.

It's safe to say Boston College has a tall order tonight. Unfortunately for them, it's a tall order that they really need to fill. The Eagles are 18-9, 6-6 in the ACC. They're 38th in both RPI and SOS. They only have four top 100 RPI wins and none better than RPI 32 Georgia Tech in Atlanta. That's right, the Eagles are 0-4 against the top four teams in the ACC and this is their last chance to beat one of them for a signature victory. Worse yet, the Eagles are really skidding. They've lost 5 of 6, the one win an escape against lowly Miami. Last Sunday, they blew a 37-35 halftime lead in ridiculous fashion, giving up 55 points in the second half to Monica Wright, Lyndra Littles, and the rest of the Virginia Cavaliers in a 90-70 thumping. They NEED this game. Period.

We know by now how good Carolyn Swords is and how important it will be to contain her. She's a Terp killer throughout her career, including 19 in the last meeting on February 9 in Chestnut Hill, an 85-81 Terp escape. Guess who went off in the key moments in that game? Two people did and you get two guesses as to who they were. Yes, of course, Toliver and Coleman were big that night and they'll have to be big again tonight. But they won't be the ones facing Swords; that task is up to Dee Liles and Lynetta Kizer. Kizer especially cannot be getting in to the foul trouble she did in the first half on Sunday against Duke. The Terps also have to watch out for Jaclyn Thoman, probably the Eagles second best player behind Swords, who had 13 and 10 assists in the last meeting, and of course Corey Rusin, who came out of nowhere to go for a team-high 21 in the loss.

The emotions will be extremely high. It will be just like last year's Senior Night, when Langhorne and Harper were honored. Granted, the Terps faced a real battle in that game, being pushed to OT by a young, upstart Florida State team. You see how the Noles are doing this year. Boston College could provide similiar resistance if the Terps are too caught up in the emotions and ceremonies (Toliver and Coleman will have their jerseys hung in the rafters tonight) but if the Terps are anywhere near as good as they were in the second half on Sunday, the Eagles have no chance.

I predict a close game for a while before the Terps go on a run somewhere in the second half to put it away and win rather comfortably. I'll be in attendance for all the ceremonies and may or may not be back after the game to wrap it all up. Unfortunately, the wrap up might have to wait until tomorrow night, because my attention must go to men's lacrosse after tonight's game as I will be calling the play-by-play of the Face Off Classic tomorrow afternoon in Baltimore between Maryland and Duke. Rest assured though, I will put a bow on tonight's festivities here on this blog at some point. Enjoy the game everyone.

You can see tonight's game on CSN or listen to it on www.wmucsports.com. If you have the tele on, please at least throw on the radio stream to help us all out at the station. Take care everyone.

PREDICTION - Maryland 94, Boston College 78

Around the Nation - February 25: New NCAA Record For Points In An Overtime

Sigh.

But let's get to it. I know I said I'd be back tomorrow but this time I'm going to break a promise the right way and post before I said I would. Here we go:

--That sound you hear might be Wake Forest's bubble going pop. Facing a must win tonight, they weren't even competitive against # 11 Duke. The Blue Devils rolled 83-50. So in Wake's last two games, they've been outscored 162-105. One of those was at home and the other was on the road against the worst team in the conference. Now they can't get to .500 in ACC play and probably need to beat Florida State and get to at least the ACC tournament semifinals, maybe even the ACC tournament finals. If they don't beat the Noles on Sunday, it's auto bid or bust. Wake's lost three in a row and four of five. Two of those are against the worst team and fourth worst team in the conference. Their profile, to put it bluntly, is barren. They needed this game tonight and they didn't even come within 100 miles of getting it.

From the Duke side, this was a huge bounce back win for them and especially for Jasmine Thomas. She had 16 to lead her team, so congratulations and good for her to bounce back after Sunday's nightmare. Abby Waner had 11 too, so the Duke guards were night and day better. This was a needed game for them to get back on track because that North Carolina team comes to town on Sunday.

--

Tonight you've got six top 25 teams in action, as # 13 Xavier goes to Temple (upset alert)

Gotta give myself a pat on the back for that one. The Owls snapped a 15 game Musketeer winning streak with a 74-65 upset that gives their profile the signature win it was lacking. The computer numbers were strong before tonight and now they'll get an even bigger boost. If nothing else, this cancels out a ridiculous loss to RPI 218 UMass and the rest of their resume looks good to go. Just don't flame out early in the A-10 tourney and they'll probably dance.

--# 7 Baylor waxed Texas Tech 83-53. That basically pops whatever bubble the Red Raiders had left and reasserts the Bears as one of the elite teams in the Big 12. Not that they had ever fallen from that perch but tonight's blowout was a statement to the rest of the league, which has seen its teams struggle with teams like Tech, that the Bears are clearly dominant and elite.

--An example of those other Big 12 teams struggling with inferior competition? How about # 15 Kansas State going down in Lincoln? Cory Montgomery had 21 of Nebraska's 52 to lead the Huskers to a 52-47 upset. Nebraska's just .500 overall and 4-9 in Big 12 play, whereas K-State has lost 5 times all season. Granted, they're basically the Big 12 South's answer to Texas A&M. They came in to 2009 unbeaten but since a January 31 loss to Iowa State that dropped them to 18-2, they're just 3-4 and have alternated wins with losses. Can you say "peaked too early"?

--Speaking of those # 24 Clones, they did not fall victim to the upset bug like their Manhattan counterparts. They handled Colorado 76-63. The striking stat there: Iowa State's made free throw advantage of 24-5. Free throws are important, just ask Maryland's men's team. And now I'm sad again.

--Bowling Green/Buffalo was noteworthy for many reasons. It set an NCAA record for points in an overtime. The Falcons went 24/24 at the foul line, a new school record. And it was a reminder of why I don't trust mid majors.

Bowling Green is 24-2, 13-0 in the MAC, and has won out since an 0-2 start (so that's 24 in a row, duh :P) Buffalo is 5-21, 1-12 in the MAC. And yet this goes to overtime?

Reminds you of that Utah/Colorado State stunner in last year's Mountain West conference tournament when the 3-27 Rams beat the 27-3 and # 12 Utes 60-52. Things like that just don't happen to the top teams in major conferences. By the way, Utah went out in round 1 of the NCAA tournament last year. Although this time the overwhelming favorite survived, the point is that every year there are a handful of elite mid major teams that put up gaudy records that are something like 28-4 or 27-2 and every year like one or maybe two of them (almost always an established mid major power, like George Washington, Old Dominion, or Louisiana Tech) gets through the first weekend before getting bounced in the Sweet 16. Don't trust them. They're just not as good as the big boys (or girls, in this case) and the talent gap just isn't as large between them and the inferior teams in their leagues. Also they're prone to complete and utter inexplicable lapses, like the Ute one last year in Vegas and like BGSU nearly had tonight. They don't have the talent level to offset when they have an off night against a really bad team.

But time to get off my soapbox because this was the game of the night in many respects. Like I said before, the 39 points in the five minute overtime was an NCAA record. Don't see those broken every day. The Falcons put up 23 of those points and the Bulls 16. What's REALLY scary is that Buffalo basically went off in OT...and yet they still got outscored by one player on Bowling Green. The Falcons' Tracy Pontius went absolutely BALLISTIC, hitting five straight threes in the OT and finishing with 17 of her 27 in the extra session. That's one of the best OT performances you'll see in the history of college basketball, men's or women's. What a job by her.

Oh and by the way, Lindsey Goldsberry of Bowling Green is now the winningest player in MAC basketball history, men's or women's, as she's been around for the last four years during which the Falcons have amassed 109 victories. Congratulations to her.

Around the Nation - February 24: FSU Goes Down

My apologies for not getting to this yesterday, as something very, very big went down in the women's college basketball world last night. At least from Maryland's perspective.

Or should I say someone very very big?

That's right, Florida State lost last night, meaning that the Terps now control their own destiny in regards to at least a share of the ACC regular season title. Beat Boston College, beat Miami, win the program's first regular season conference championship in 20 years. It's that simple for the Terps. And since they own the tiebreaker via the 72-71 victory in Tallahassee on February 2, they would be the # 1 seed in the ACC tournament.

If the Noles go down to Wake Forest on Sunday afternoon, then the Terps can win out for sole possession of the regular season title.

Either way, Maryland got the result it needed to set themselves up to win the program's first ACC title in two decades. Not even the national title team and not even the team with Langhorne and Harper as seniors last year was able to win the ACC so this would be a monumental achievement for this team and this program.

The Terps owe a very big "thank you" to Lyndra Littles, who just went berserk in the second half last night. She had 17 of her game-high 24 in the final 20 minutes including the go-ahead basket and the two free throws (that came after an offensive rebound off her own miss) that sealed the victory. Monica Wright had 18 and Aisha Mohammed had 15 and 11. The Cavs overcame missing their first eight shots and an 11 point Seminole first half lead to ruin Senior Night in Tallahassee. Clearly UVA has steadied since their two game skid two weeks ago and last Thursday's near-embarrassment at home against Miami. If there was anything resembling a doubt about their NCAA tournament chances, that's been erased.

Other scores and notes from last night:

--I really wish women's basketball had spreads just so I could see what some of them would be for UConn games. Would the Huskies be favored by 30 points per game? 40?

There's really not much more to say about the Huskies. 74-47 over Villanova, who basically got exposed in the past week as not being able to hang with the best of the best in the Big East. UConn's now 28-0, 14-0 in the Big East, and they've clinched at least a share of the regular season Big East title. Yeah right, like they'll only get a "share." The scariest part of this win?

Maya Moore: 8 points.

That's right, the best player in the country didn't even score in double digits and UConn still beat a decent team by almost 30. That scares the Hell out of me and it should scare the Hell out of everyone in the sport. Moore did have 11 rebounds though; she was one of three Huskies in double figures for rebounding, which is just sick.

Another scary stat: UConn only shot 42.4% (25-59.) Jesus, they might not be beatable. Like, even if Maryland plays like they did in the second half on Sunday, that still might not be enough. Here's what Villanova head coach Harry Perretta had to say about them:

"You said they only won by 10 [against Notre Dame]. They won, though," Villanova coach Harry Perretta said. "I'd like to only win by 10 against Notre Dame."

--Speaking of Perretta, yesterday was the 11th anniversery of the controversial Nykesha Sales scoring record game involving these two teams and these two coaches (Perretta and UConn's Geno Auriemma.) Personally, I think it's a stupid controversy. Everyone who matters was cool with it. Both coaches, the Big East, the previous record holder, etc. That should be the end of it but I'll continue just to prove my point. Second of all, it's not like it affected the game. So it started 2-2 instead of 0-0. Big deal. "Integrity of the game" compromised? Give me a break. Third of all, it's just a record and it's not even like it's baseball's home run record. Fourth of all, Maya Moore's probably gonna break it anyways if she stays all four years. So what's the problem here? And finally, this was over a decade ago. People need to get over it already. The fact that Perretta had to field a question about it and felt the need to defend his decision over ten years after the fact is a joke in itself, though I guess that particular question that was asked to him wasn't the worst question at a press conference after a UConn game in the past week.

--Back to the scoreboard. There were three other top 25 games last night. # 18 Texas ended a two game losing streak by winning 66-56 in Columbia against Missouri, # 20 Pittsburgh got 25 from Shavonte Zellous (maybe one of the most underrated players in the country) to win 72-60 in Morgantown against West Virginia, and # 22 Notre Dame held serve at home against Syracuse 90-79.

Tonight you've got six top 25 teams in action, as # 13 Xavier goes to Temple (upset alert), freshly minted # 25 Bowling Green (at 23-2, 11-0 in the MAC, good for them) goes to lowly Buffalo, # 24 Iowa State hosts a Colorado team that's near the bottom of the Big 12, # 7 Baylor hosts a Texas Tech team that's probably on the wrong side of the NCAA tournament bubble, # 15 Kansas State goes to a Nebraska team that's near the bottom of the Big 12, and in the most relevant game of the night in relation to this blog, # 11 Duke tries to recover from the whipping that the Terps put on them on Sunday as they go to Wake Forest, who got absolutely wrecked at last-place Virginia Tech on Sunday and badly, BADLY needs this win to keep its NCAA tournament hopes alive. However, you will have to forgive me if I am more interested in a different basketball game involving Duke tonight. Back tomorrow.

New Coaches Poll: Terps Now # 5 In Both Polls

New coaches poll is out. UConn is obviously # 1. Stanford wins yesterday's grand prize and moves up to # 2. Oklahoma, yesterday's losers, only falls a spot to # 3. The coaches (or the assistants/interns filling out the ballots for them) definitely remember when Texas A&M was a top 5 team and that they're still a second weekend contender. Cal moves up two spots to # 4 and the Terps move up two spots to # 5. Auburn drops three spots to # 6, Baylor went down two spots to # 7, Louisville's up a spot to # 8, the Aggies go up two spots to # 9 after yesterday's win, and UNC stays strong at # 10.

Duke falls four spots from # 7 to # 11. Florida State's right behind them at # 12. Okay, I don't get this. Florida State deserves to be above Duke. Florida State's been much better than Duke in 2009. Florida State beat Duke. Florida State's two games ahead of Duke in ACC play. Florida State lost to Maryland on a Toliver buzzer beating three; Duke lost to Maryland by 18. Florida State beat UNC, Duke got killed by UNC. Yes, I most certainly realize that FSU's games against Duke and UNC were at home (as opposed to Duke having played MD twice and beating them once, as well as not being able to host UNC yet) and that they've had an easy ACC slate. But I just don't see that holding water in the FSU/Duke debate when FSU won the head to head (as opposed to the FSU/Maryland debate where the Terps won the H2H and on the road to boot) and is two games up on the Blue Devils (as opposed to one up on the Terps.)

Whatever. As much as we like to look at and analyze and criticize polls, they're ultimately pretty meaningless. If FSU wants to prove they're more deserving of a higher ranking than Duke (and/or Maryland), they can do it on the court. This isn't college football here.

But going back to Maryland, it's a nice little boost for them to know that they're a top 5 team in both major polls. It's nice to see the pollsters giving this Terps team the credit they truly deserve. There might not be a hotter, better team in college hoops right now outside of Storrs, CT.

Around the Nation - February 23: Oklahoma Goes Down; UNC Pulls Away

Don't feel like writing too much tonight but it's important to note that # 2 went down. A&M ended up coming back and getting OU by a point on a Takia Starks layup with 6 seconds to go. That broke the Sooners' 20 game win streak and it was the highest ranked team that A&M's ever beaten. And the Big 12 gets messier. Furthermore, while I don't think the Terps will lap the Sooners in tomorrow's coaches poll, it's now possible. If nothing else, it's good for the Terps that a team ahead of them went down.

UNC pretty much controlled things the whole night and ended up coasting to a 74-57 win over N.C. State. It's their 17th win in the last 19 meetings with the Wolfpack; talk about ownage. Tonight was ownage as well, as the Tar Heels never trailed.

Back tomorrow with the release of the coaches poll.

I Met Debbie Yow And Didn't Even Realize It + Monday Scoreboard

So we've (myself, Hal DeCoursey, Brian Kapur, and John Willmott) just finished up the broadcast. We're beginning to put the equipment away when the woman in front of us turns to us and says, "that must have been a fun broadcast, huh?"

You know how I started my mega-post about the Duke game with that anecdote? Well it turns out that that woman in front of us was none other than Dr. Deborah A. Yow. Wow.

I will admit this: I recognized her face from somewhere. I just couldn't place it. Never would I have ever thought that she was Maryland's athletic director. First of all, I'm REALLY bad with recognizing people. I just am. I'm terrible with names and I'm terrible with faces. But second of all...I mean, I can't say I was expecting to see Debbie Yow on press row. I'm told she sits there sometimes and yesterday's game was an excellent game to be right near the court for.

I personally think it's pretty awesome that she is basically sitting courtside for one of the biggest games of the year for one of her department's biggest and best programs. It shows that she's in touch and really does care about the people under her watch. People are critical, myself included, about the downturns that the two most visible programs (football and men's basketball) have taken since 2003 or so, but they're still very solid programs and people need to remember that an athletic department consists of more than just two teams. Maryland has top notch, nationally renowned programs in more than a handful of sports and they're consistently competitive in many others. That results in the best of the best at sports such as men's and women's lacrosse, field hockey, men's soccer, cheerleading, etc., no matter where they're located across the country or even across the globe, looking at Maryland and coming to Maryland because they want to become a part of one of the best of the best programs in their particular sport. That increases the visibility and diversity of not just our athletic department, but also our school as a whole, and that's something we all can agree is a very good thing. Deborah Yow deserves a ton of credit for the top-notch athletics department we have here at Maryland.

More specifically, she most definitely deserves a ton of credit for bringing in Brenda Frese, who has basically brought the Maryland women's basketball program back to prominence, and for supporting the program every step of the way. I personally am very thankful for that, as I consider it just a joy to watch and cover this team and this program.

Anyway, sappy soapboxy tangent over. I can't help it; I just can't overstate enough how special this past weekend was and how lucky it made me feel not just to go here and root for our teams, but to cover them as well. Enough about that though. There are a couple of big women's college basketball games going on tonight. # 2 Oklahoma is up 33-28 on # 12 Texas A&M at the half in College Station. Courtney Paris has 9 and 8 at the half; I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that she ends up getting the double double. The Sooners are shooting 60% from the field in the first half (12-20) and A&M's just 11/30 for 36.7% but they're right there only down 5. That's something they should feel good about. If they've learned anything from Maryland basketball this weekend, they know that they can overcome a poor shooting first half to get a huge victory over an elite team.

The only other top 25 game is an ACC game involving # 9 North Carolina in Raleigh against N.C. State. The Tar Heels lead 55-44 with 6:55 to go. The Heels need that one to keep themselves in the conversation for a high seed in both the NCAA and ACC tournaments. They currently sit with Duke a game back of the Terps for second place in the ACC. Maryland, of course, is a game back of Florida State for the conference lead.

Note that the rankings used are the AP poll rankings. Usually I go with the ESPN/USA Today Coaches poll but Monday's are the exception since that is the only day where the AP is more recent than the coaches poll.

Monday Links: New AP Poll & Bracketology = Good News For Terps

The new AP poll is out and the Terps have jumped up four spots in to the top 5. UConn's still # 1 because that's what they do. The men's team won't follow suit this week, however. Oklahoma remains at # 2 on the heels of that win over Baylor. That ranking will be put to the test tonight when they face # 12 Texas A&M in Aggieland. It's a shame; if the Aggies hadn't collapsed in 2009, that could be a top 5 battle. Anyway, Stanford is your new # 3 as they move up one spot and their Bay Area rivals are the new # 4, up two spots. Then you've got the Terps hopping over Auburn (6, down from 3), Baylor (7, down from 5), Louisville (didn't move from 8), and Duke (10, down from 7.) People, at least sportswriters, obviously took notice of what Maryland did yesterday and grading based on style points and how good a team actually looks instead of just "keep them stagnant or move them up if they win, drop them if they lose." Maryland looks better than Louisville at the moment so they should be above them and should leap above them, even if the Cardinals didn't lose themselves this week and did nothing worthy of falling.

That's nice and all but polls don't matter. Seeds do. And in Charlie Creme's latest Bracketology, the Terps are a 1 seed in the Raleigh regional. Creme has this little blurb about the Terps:

Other than UConn, no team in the country is playing better offensively. The Terps are also the only team in the ACC to have beaten every conference foe they have faced.

Good stuff. He's absolutely right. In fact, the only team the Terps haven't beaten in the ACC is Miami and that's because the Terps have yet to play Miami, which they'll do on March 1. Before that though is Senior Night against Boston College on Friday.

Creme also answers some tournament related questions and while none are directly involving the Terps, one indirectly involves them and it's been something I've been talking about for weeks:

Is Florida State the ACC's best team, or have the scheduling advantages made the difference?
Not all the scheduling debate will revolve around the Big 12. The ACC will get into the act, too. Without a doubt, the Seminoles have played a difficult schedule, but it has come with its advantages. They lead the ACC and have gone 2-1 against North Carolina, Duke and Maryland.

Impressive? Yes, but all those games were in Tallahassee, and Florida State meets the big three just once each in the regular season. Meanwhile, the Terrapins have met Duke twice, as have the Tar Heels. So have the Seminoles really been put through the same test, and if they finish atop the conference, does it mean the same without a full round-robin?

Like the Big 12, the schedules are not created equal, and how much that matters will be part of the selection-weekend debate. Of course, each team is evaluated individually, and it will be the overall profiles that determine where Florida State and every other team is placed. But conference record is one of the puzzle pieces.

It's nice to see that someone else acknowledges that Florida State has basically played a joke schedule. No Maryland, Duke, OR UNC on the road? Wow. Look, that's not to say that Florida State's a joke. Obviously they're not and if Kristi Toliver's three rattles out on February 2, we're not even having this conversation. But it didn't and we are because the Terps went to Tallahassee and won and objectively, questions have to be raised. Does anybody really believe that FSU could come in to the Comcast Center and win right now? Heck, could they even come within single digits? Exactly. Maryland's the better basketball team at the moment and it's not even close. Just a few hours after FSU needed to outscore bottom-feeding Miami by 15 in the second half to win by a point, Maryland crushes a top 10 Duke team by 18. Furthermore, like Creme says, the schedules aren't even close to being even. Besides the fact that Maryland's had to deal with Duke twice and BC twice while FSU's gotten to deal with Clemson twice and Miami twice, the Terps have gone to Tallahassee, Durham, Atlanta, Charlottesville, and Chestnut Hill. That's 5 out of 7 road games against teams .500 or better in ACC play. FSU's ACC road slate has all but two of its games against sub-.500 teams in ACC play. FSU simply hasn't been tested on the road as much or by teams nearly as good as Maryland's had to deal with. Just look at it right there. FSU's two toughest road games in ACC play have been Boston College and Virginia. The Cavs were Maryland's third toughest road game and BC was their fourth or fifth toughest. It's not even a comparison. Oh and the Noles needed OT to beat Duke on their home floor. Maryland...Maryland didn't need OT to beat Duke on their home floor.

Florida State's an excellent basketball team. They've earned the # 11 ranking they hold in the AP poll and quite honestly, I don't think there's a case to be made for Duke being above them at # 10 right now. The Noles are a top 10 team in college basketball in my book at this juncture and it's unfortunate that that's not reflected in today's AP poll. However, they are not the best team in the ACC. That's far and away the Terps right now. I think it would really be a shame if the Terps miss out on the ACC regular season title to a team who they beat and did not lose to, a team that looks far inferior at the moment and a team who no doubt plays a much, MUCH easier schedule that they've been able to navigate slightly better than the Terps' brutal slate. But we'll see. Virginia at home and then a trip to Wake (who is DESPERATE and in tedious waters; they fell out of Creme's Bracketology today and are now among the last 4 out) isn't exactly the easiest close in the world. To their credit, the Noles have had numerous ACC teams chasing them down for all of 2009 and so far, they've held them all at bay. If they're able to continue to hold them all off and capture that regular season championship, there will have to be something to be said for that and proper credit will have to be given. But for now, I'm going to continue to maintain my position.

So those are your Monday links. Enjoy.

REACTION: Maryland 77, Duke 59

This one will take you a while. You've been warned. Even if you skim the whole thing, THAT will be time consuming. The final couple of paragraphs are final stats and final thoughts, so skip down to those (there's a large block of space before them) if you don't want to bother with tons of analysis/replay/recap/gushing about Toliver/Coleman and the second half. I added in dividing lines to basically quarantine my play-by-play of the second half. If you feel like re-living the second half, read between the lines (literally.) If not then don't. Here we go:




So we've (myself, Hal DeCoursey, Brian Kapur, and John Willmott) just finished up the broadcast. We're beginning to put the equipment away when the woman in front of us turns to us and says, "that must have been a fun broadcast, huh?"

Yeah. It was pretty fun.

I haven't done that much broadcasting in my one-and-a-half years at WMUC Sports. I've done maybe...I don't know...20 broadcasts in my career? That's not very many compared to guys like John and Hal and it's probably not even that many compared to some of my fellow sophomores, but I feel like it's at least a decent amount to where I can safely say that today's game was easily the best game; the most fun game I've ever broadcasted and have some ethos behind it. Granted, today's game (and the performances by Kristi Toliver and Marissa Coleman) deserve much more praise than that. I will attempt to give them some here.

I know that she went for 35 in the Elite Eight last year against Stanford, but that game will always be remembered for Candice Wiggins' 41 and just the overall nature of what a ridiculous shootout and how good Stanford was on that night. Also, Toliver only had three 3's in that game. She had 7 tonight. Seven.

This was Kristi Toliver's Magnum Opus. Period.

First of all, Toliver single handedly kept her team in the game in the first half. She had 17 of the team's 31 points and she was 7/12 from the floor. The rest of her teammates were a combined 2/20. Even Illinois and Penn State's men's teams think that's terrible. Kristi had the team's only three 3's in the first half as well.

I mean...Maryland gets blown out of the building in the first half if Kristi Toliver is anything other than completely stellar. Marissa Coleman was locked down by a swarming Duke defense hell-bent on preventing her from doing anything near what she did last year in College Park. Dee Liles couldn't buy a jumper or any other kind of bucket. Lynetta Kizer sat out for literally half the first half because of fouls. Marah Strickland struggled in place of Sa'de Wiley-Gatewood (who has left the team for unspecified personal reasons; more on that in the coming days because that's just not the story right now) in the starting lineup. Anjale Barrett and Yemi Oyefuwa looked absolutely lost in coming off the bench much quicker and for much longer than they are used to. The first half was all Kristi Toliver. She set the tone early with those two threes that were Maryland's first two field goals and kept it going throughout the half. Her third three caused one of seven lead changes in the first half. This game had no business being back-and-forth. Maryland as a team shot 28%. Duke was on fire for the first 10 minutes of the first half, shooting well over 50% for most of that time. The Terps were killing themselves with turnovers, racking up 7 of them in the first 12 minutes alone. The fact that they rang up 31 points in a half on 28% shooting and 9 turnovers and were only down 2 is just unbelievable in itself. Credit the defense, which caused Duke's field goal percentage to slip from 66% in the early going to 37.5% at half, but on the offensive side, it was pretty much entirely Toliver.

Then the 2nd half happened. You might not find a better non-UConn half of basketball this year. To do it justice, I will basically walk you through it with specific memories, anecdotes, and comments of mine added in when I feel it necessary:
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It was Marissa Coleman who came out and hit the first shot of the second half after a Jasmine Thomas turnover. That sequence; a steal by Liles before Coleman's J to tie it would set the tone for the half. Little did ANYONE know just what kind of half Marissa Coleman would put on, however; matching her fellow senior, who was only putting up one of the greatest games in the history of Maryland women's basketball, bucket for bucket, point for point, and play for play.

Remember, as good as Toliver was in the first half, that's how bad Coleman was. She was 1/6 in the first half. Duke was KILLING her. She couldn't get anything going no matter how hard she tried. She had three times as many turnovers as field goals. That never happens. Ever. Heck, Duke's defense as a whole rung up 7 steals in the first half to keep themselves on pace to reach their 13.8 steals per game average (which would be a school record if it held up.) Too bad they couldn't keep it going in the second half. They couldn't do anything right in the second half.

Next possession, Toliver gets a steal and jumper. Maryland leads. Two possessions, two turnovers for the Dukies. Uh oh. Thomas tries to atone for her turnover on possession # 3. No dice on the midrange J. Bridgette Mitchell's there for the offensive board. She gets it to Carrem Gay for a jumper; nothing. Duke seemingly couldn't miss those mid range jumpers in the first half. They couldn't make them in the second. Coleman gets the board, goes the other way, misses the J, but gets her own board. She gets it to Marah Strickland. Strickland dishes to Toliver for three. Bang. Comcast explodes. I comment that Joanne P. McCallie might need a timeout. Abby Waner is dying to answer right back (like she did Toliver's second three with a three of her own early on in the first half.) Instead Toliver picks her pocket. Dish to a wide open Coleman on the left wing. I can see the shot now; it's replaying in my mind. There was 0% chance that three didn't get bottom of the net. Of course it did. Comcast explodes even louder than last time. I've never seen someone signal timeout quicker than McCallie did after that three went in. 41-33 Terps. 10-0 run in 1 minute and 55 seconds. Unbelievable.

Joy Cheek hits a jumper to temporarily silence Comcast before Coleman answers back with a layup and a jumper. Keturah Jackson's three gets Duke within 7 but then Coleman and Toliver start going ballistic again. Two Toliver threes sandwich a Coleman jumper. At this point, people are wondering if Marissa Coleman will ever miss again. She's 5/6 in the half. Toliver's got three threes in the half. By the way, only 7 minutes and 16 seconds have expired in the half. It's 53-38 Terps. But you know Duke's making a run. They're Duke. They're too good to just be blown out. Jackson another three. Then Gay a three and a jumper. It's 53-46. 8-0 Blue Devil run in 1 minute and 59 seconds. Game on.

Or...or not.

Honestly, after that Duke run, you would have not been able to convince me that this would be anything other than a war to the finish. Only a great team answers a run like Maryland's with a run of their own. Only a great team can withstand two superstars flipping out on their home floor with 16,344 of their fans (5th largest crowd in ACC history) going absolutely bananas and close a 15 point gap to 7. And besides, it's Maryland/Duke. It's in the bylaws that this has to be a down-to-the-wire finish.

Toliver and Coleman, they didn't care about the bylaws. Toliver hits her fourth three of the half to get the lead back to double digits. Are you kidding? If I recall correctly (and I'm pretty sure that I do, although Toliver had seven freakin' threes on the game so it's possible I'm mixing two of them up), this was the one where I actually couldn't see her release the ball. All I saw was that someone was blanketing her before she fades away, the ball goes up, and it swishes through. Hal DeCoursey and I simutanuously lost our minds. Anyway, Thomas misses a J. Nobody had any idea just how poorly she was performing at this point. Coleman gets the board and finishes on the other end with a layup. Then Gay with another turnover. Coleman proves she's human by missing a jumper but Dee Liles flies in to grab the board. Maryland's just completely outworking, outhustling, and out-fighting Duke at this point, despite the run the Blue Devils just had. That Toliver three single-handedly swung the momentum right back. Toliver then actually misses a three and I joke that she just proved she's human. Duke's gotta capitalize on that. They don't. Abby Waner, no. Bridgette Mitchell, no. Abby Waner from three, no. One possession, three shots, no points. Ballgame, Part I.

Marah Strickland's fouled. She makes both free throws, stopping a 27-0 Toliver/Coleman run (as in, Marissa Coleman and Kristi Toliver scored Maryland's first 27 points of the second half. Read that sentence again.) Karima Christmas misses a three on the other end. Toliver gets the board and bounces an absolutely beautiful pass to Strickland who hits the wide open layup. I use the term "wide open layup" for a reason. Think foreshadowing. Jasmine Thomas misses yet another three, but then Bridgette Mitchell swipes Toliver and gets it to Thomas for a bunny. Literally no Terp defender was inside the three point arc. Brian Kapur joked that we had a better shot of stopping Thomas from making that layup than the Maryland players did and we were on Press Row.

Thomas misses the layup. Christmas gets the offensive board (since, again, no Maryland player was anywhere near the vicinity) but turns it over. Under 8 timeout. Ballgame, Part II.

At this point, everyone in the building is stunned. When Thomas missed the layup, I haven't heard a gasp like that from the Comcast Center since Bobby Frasor missed the wide open layup that sparked Maryland's comeback to beat UNC in 2007. I still cannot believe Thomas missed that layup. I completely understand it though; her team was on the ropes, she had nothing resembling confidence because of just how badly she had been shooting, and she just blew it. For Jasmine Thomas' sake, I sincerely hope she does not ever have a worse basketball game than she did today. She was 1/15 from the field and 0/7 from three point range. In the second half of doom, she was (gulp) 0/11 from the field and 0/5 from three. You hope she can recover from this on Wednesday against Wake Forest. That missed layup was not only a microcosm of the day she had, it was a microcosm of the day (and specifically, the second half) that her team had. Christmas' turnover was icing on that particular cake.

From there, it was basically a formality. No way was Duke coming back. Yeah, there were 7 minutes and 56 seconds to go and it was a 16 point deficit (we've learned this weekend that those can be erased) but the Blue Devils were absolutely cooked. They were on the mat and they weren't getting up. Kristi Toliver and Marissa Coleman had raised their games to absolutely unprecedented levels and there wasn't a single thing they could do about it. Best scoring defense in the ACC and they had allowed two people to score 27 points in a row against them to start a half. Unbelievable. And now they're missing three shots on one possession and missing wide open layups? Forget it. Ballgame. Willmott said it to us and it was what everyone was thinking. It was true.

So this game went from being a competition to a bunch of record chases; thusly I'm done with the PBP. Toliver fell a bucket short of a new career high, two buckets short of an all-time Maryland high, and a three short of an ACC single game record...but Coleman became just the 8th player in ACC history to score 2,000 points and grab 1,000 rebounds when she buried a free throw with 2:24 to go to get to that magical 2 grand mark. She joins Crystal Langhorne as the only Terps to score that many points in a career. Solid company.

You want a summary of it all? Here you go. Toliver and Coleman were subbed out with 1:42 to go. They had scored 58 points. Duke as a team had 57.

I will repeat that. Toliver and Coleman were subbed out with 1:42 to go. They had scored 58 points. Duke as a team had 57.
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Thank goodness for Chelsea Hopkins' layup with 1:14 to go or else the Blue Devils would have been the butt of many, many jokes for a long, long time. Heck, they still might be. Their entire team (12 players who played today) outscored two of Maryland's players by all of one point and it took those two players being benched at the very end for them to do so. In the second half, Coleman and Toliver outscored the Blue Devils 35-26.

Just think about that for a second. That's almost inconceivable. To steal Willmott's point from the postgame presser: Duke isn't a joke. They're not Northwest North Dakota State or some D-3 school. Outscoring a D-3 team for a half and nearly outscoring them for an entire game with only two of your players would be impressive enough but Duke...they're a top 10 basketball team. And they were just humiliated in that second half, virtually entirely by two players. That's truly unbelievable. I was at a loss for words for most of the second half. I'm at a loss of words while writing this blog now.

I mean...Toliver rained down four threes in the half and seven in the game. At least three or four of them were contested and/or falling away. That's what she did all day; Duke was guarding her so closely since they know better than anyone what she's capable of...and she still went for 34 anyway. It wasn't just outside though; she scored on drives (a couple right after Duke made baskets), she hit mid range jumpers, she got to the free throw line and converted there. What an unbelievable performance. As I said before, I think it's the best in her career and my broadcast partners agreed. It's among the best in Maryland Terrapins women's basketball history. It's right there with Greivis Vasquez's performance on Saturday. And yet, Marissa Coleman was just as good and arguably even better in the second half, shooting 7/9 from the field and 3/4 from the line (compared to Toliver's 5/9 and 3/4) although Coleman's only three was the one that capped the 10-0 run. Anyway, combine the two and you get 12/18, which is 66.7%, and that's just otherworldly. They combined for 35 of the 46 Maryland points. Maryland as a team was 15/24 from the field in the second half, good for 62.5%. You shoot like that; you can beat anyone in the country. Yes, even UConn (who only won by 10 today; more on that later.




















Your final stats: Toliver 34 points on 12/21 shooting, 7/13 from three point range, 5 rebounds, 2 assists, 3 steals. Coleman 24 points on 8/15 shooting and 7/9 at the foul line, 10 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals. Dee Liles missed a double double by a bucket; 8 points, 11 rebounds. Lynetta Kizer, despite playing only 24 minutes, had 4 blocks and 3 steals. When you do that kind of work on defense, it makes it okay if you don't score and only grab three rebounds. Even Anjale Barrett had 5 assists and 5 rebounds. As for Duke, the numbers are obviously much less pretty. I already went over Jasmine Thomas. Her fellow starting guard did no better. Abby Waner had just 5 points on 2/11 shooting, 1/4 from three...and she turned it over seven times. Seven. With only one assist, that's an assist/turnover ratio that she'll want to forget. Heck, it's never good when you have more turnovers than points, nevermind assists. I made the point in the pregame show that Kristi Toliver vs. Abby Waner was the key matchup today (yes, I know it's yesterday by the time you're reading this) and whoever won it would likely play a big role in determining the winning team. I should legally change my name to Nostradamus. No but seriously, if there's one silver lining for Duke, it's that Chante Black scored double figures (13) to remain the only ACC player to do so in every game. That's amazing. Considering that Toliver, Coleman, Rashanda McCants, Monica Wright, Lyndra Littles, Jacinta Moore, Aisha Mohammed, Carolyn Swords, etc. all play in this league, that's something really special. Good for her. Careem Gay also had 13. Both her and Black shot 5/7 from the floor. They had decent games. Unfortunately, the rest of the team couldn't follow and couldn't even come close to following.

A few final notes:

--Today's atmosphere was unbelievable. Second loudest I've ever heard Comcast, surpassing last year's Duke game. It's really not fair that this game followed up Saturday's because if it hadn't, I'd have such more of an appreciation for how loud Comcast got. I can at least appreciate that it is a lot louder when you're closer to the court. And when you're right on the court? Forget it. Let's just say that Ty Lawson might never get those "DUI" chants from Saturday out of his head. Anyway, it wasn't just the noise today. The energy level was ridiculous, too. For example, everyone had green glowsticks and was waving them as it was dark and the lineup intro video was playing. That's a scene I'll think of every time I hear the remix of "Listen To Your Heart" (the song that was playing, as it always is) which, by the way, I've been doing literally all evening and morning.
--Duke's press conference lasted exactly 2 minutes and 3 seconds on my digital voice recorder. And some of that is dead air. The Maryland media relations lady I spoke to said that there was actual talking only for about 90 seconds, and most of that was McCallie's opening statement. I think only two, maybe three questions were asked. She said it was the quickest press conference she'd ever seen. Brenda Frese's opening statement by itself was longer than it.
--Speaking of, Maryland's presser lasted over 11 minutes. Willmott was the one to bring up the 58-57 stat and it absolutely brought the house down. Marissa and Kristi were just losing it. God, I love press conferences.
--I made my same "Duke/Maryland has quite a encore to put on after yesterday" joke to the security guy who let me in. After the game, I spoke to him again and asked him how long he'd been working at Comcast/Cole. He said 17 years. Then I asked him if this was the best 48 hours in Comcast/Cole history. He didn't even hesistate when saying yes.
--Brenda's postgame speech was just awesome. I don't think it topped her one last year after the 10 year drought was broken but it was really good. Unfortunately a few thousand people missed it due to beating traffic and such. Them's the breaks.
--Coleman almost lost it (tears this time, not laughter) when the 2,000/1,000 was announced after the game. I asked her what it meant to her in the presser and after answering, she immediately starts crediting her teammates and everyone she's played with over her four years as being the reasons why she was able to accomplish it. Talk about humility.
--Speaking of humility, I wasn't sure if I was going to get some from Toliver when I brought up her "it's too early in the season to break the Dukies hearts" quote after the January 12 loss and quipped that she did a pretty decent job of breaking their hearts today, but she was quick to modestly note that she was simply satisfied with how she played today but that this was part of a bigger goal and that they might see Duke again in the ACC or NCAA tournament.
--Maryland's offically peaking at the right time. 7 in a row with this one easily being the most impressive. Statement win. Not one team played better basketball this weekend. If they keep playing like this, they can get to St. Louis and maybe even bring home another national title. That seemed inconceivable even three weeks ago when Lyndra Littles and Monica Wright were torching them down the stretch in Charlottesville.
-I know I said I'd do a separate post for the rest of the weekend in women's college hoops but I'm burnt out and need sleep. Today's results: UConn only won by 10 over Notre Dame. Auburn needed a late comeback to avoid getting swept by Georgia and dropping both games this week. Florida broke their skid. Ohio State's in sole possession of first in the Big Ten. Tennessee was tied late with Mississippi State but then ripped off a 15-1 run that won them the game but didn't get them their locker room privileges back. Kansas stunned Iowa State in the wacky Big 12. And in the two ACC games, BC got killed in the second half again to lose by 20 at Virginia...and Florida State beat Miami. By a point. They were down 33-19 at half on their home floor to the Canes but Alysha Harvin's free throws with 8.7 to go kept the Seminoles alone in first in the ACC with two games to play. Bummer for the Terps.
-Yesterday had literally nothing noteworthy except Texas A&M beating Texas in 11 over 13, Louisville further exposing Villanova by winning 70-56 in Philly, and Oklahoma getting by Baylor 66-58 in 2 over 5. Good lord, that Big 12 South is loaded. It's also ruled by the Sooners. For now. They go to College Station tomorrow for Big Monday in what will be a top 10 matchup, at least in the AP poll. That will be fun.
-Speaking of polls, do the math. # 3 Auburn lost to Vandy on Thursday and barely escaped today. # 5 Baylor lost yesterday. Maryland's more than likely cracking the top 5 of next week's coaches poll. They could get as high as # 4 if A&M beats Oklahoma and the pollsters leapfrog the Terps over each of the teams above them that lost this week. In the AP, they'll get above Duke as well but the top 5 might not be possible unless Louisville gets dropped below the Terps for not obliterating a top 10 team this week. We'll see about that one tomorrow; the coaches poll is Tuesday.
-I wrote this much? For a regular season game? My God, if Maryland goes all the way, I might top War and Peace.
-Today reminded me why I want to do something in sports journalism for a living.
-This weekend reminded me why I've lived and died with sports since I was like 6.

Don't think I can end the longest blog post I've ever made (and will hopefully ever make) with anything better than that. If you love sports, then you can at least appreciate what this weekend meant to everyone who's ever rooted for the Maryland Terrapins. For those of us who are currently attending school here and literally living and breathing this school every day, it's just that much more special.

So to re-iterate from the beginning, yeah, I guess you could say today's broadcast was fun.

Brenda Frese: Better At Summing Things Up Than Coaching?

"It was a great weekend to be a Terp," Maryland coach Brenda Frese said. "A perfect weekend for us all."

Indeed.

Anyway, I'll have more on today's game and the rest of the weekend's happenings in college basketball later tonight...and I actually mean it this time. Promise. I just wanted to take this post to apologize for no Duke/Maryland previews of any sort, not even a Gameday post. That's pretty inexcusable on my end, especially for arguably the biggest game of the year. Won't let it happen again.

There are actually a lot of post ideas I have in queue so hopefully I can get those up this week. However, I can foresee a busy week ahead of me so we'll have to wait and see how many of them I can actually get done. If nothing else, you're getting a recap of both tonight's game and the weekend in women's college basketball before I go to bed tonight.

Until then...