Barbecue Bliss

First, a note: We didn't forget about the fact that there was a game today. We'll be back with a review sometime tomorrow, after we let the whole thing sink in. Any recap today would be filled with a lot of hyperbole, and we feel like we could better review the game when we're not still living in the moment. That, and we're tired. Sorry.

However, we're not too tired to talk about barbecue! Especially not great Carolina barbecue. After leaving the RBC Center, we drove over to nearby Chapel Hill along with friends of the station Aaron Kraut and Adam Fried to indulge in the Southern specialty. We were not, in any way, disappointed.

Especially with regional cuisine, which barbecue definitely is, I'm a firm believer that the best stuff comes from holes in the wall and dives. In that sense, Allen and Son (just the one son, apparently - either Mr. Allen had a daughter or two, or he didn't think he could support more than one kid) is an absolute dream. In order to get to this place, you leave I-40 and drive about a mile and a half through thick forest before you finally get to an opening, where the restaurant is located. Once you go in, it's essentially like walking into Grandma's dining room. If, you know, Grandma could seat 75 people in her dining room.

The food? It definitely lived up to our expectations.

Above is my extra-large barbecue platter, with hush puppies and cole slaw (it was an extra $1.40 for double the food - no-brainer). Absolutely delicious, and with some great peach cobbler to end, it's possibly the best meal I've had in my time traveling with WMUC. Hal and Jeremy both got their barbecue in sandwich form, and described it as tasty. Hal, as well as both Adam and Aaron, added pecan pie at the end their meal. I tried to steal a bit of someone's pie to try it, but it was eaten too quickly. He who hesitates, as they say, is lost.

All in all, this has to be one of the most satisfying meals I've ever enjoyed. I know that plenty of our readers out there end up in the North Carolina area for many of the same reasons we do. You could do a LOT worse than to check this place out.

Down Goes Baylor

We've got a final score here in game number one - Louisville has disposed of the Baylor Lady Bears, 56-39, becoming the first team to advance to this year's Elite 8. They'll get the winner of Maryland-Vanderbilt on Monday night (and should that winner be Maryland, prepare yourself for the endless Jeff Walz vs. Brenda Frese conversations). Baylor's loss wasn't without an outstanding effort by the Baylor pep band. During one set of Louisville free throws, the band broke out in a rendition of "Peanut Butter Jelly Time" to throw off the Cards' shooters. Simply put, it was one of the best distraction attempts ever witnessed. It didn't work to full effect, probably because the Baylor band was on the other end of the court, but the band receives an A for effort.

Maryland and Vanderbilt are out on the court now warming up, and Rob Dawson and Jamie Forzato are underway with the pregame show, and tip time is scheduled for 2:32. Listen in, folks!

Gameday is Upon Us

As you can see, we've arrived at the RBC Center for today's action. OK, in the interest of full disclosure, we were actually here yesterday too, but we arrived about ten minutes after they started handing out credentials, and a mere five minutes before Maryland finished practicing. As a result, our trip to the arena basically consisted of parking, walking in for about two minutes, and leaving. But that doesn't count, right?

Baylor and Louisville is happening as we speak, with both teams looking somewhat sluggish to start - Baylor moreso than Louisville. Maryland tips 27 minutes after this game ends. The coverage begins, however, in about an hour - Rob Dawson and Jamie Forzato will take you up until the tip, and then Jeremy, Hal and I will take over just before the game starts. It's a very familiar matchup - these two teams met in the Sweet 16 last year. Maryland came away with a win last, year, and looking at the teams this year, we like the Terps' chances in this one, too. Why? I'm not going to tell you that now! You'll have to listen in. The show gets underway 1:45 (not 2:00 as Hal said yesterday - he's been appropriately scolded for his error) on WMUCSports.com. Listen in!

Breakfast of Champions

We here at WMUC are a superstitious bunch. And, as we've covered before, we also love our fast food. With that in mind, we mention to you the joy that is Biscuitville.

Unlike the other WMUC fast-food vice, Sonic, we can certainly understand if you've never heard of Biscuitville. It's a North Carolina-based chain that has all of its locations, save for a couple in southern Virginia, in the Tar Heel state. It's unique in that they make all of their biscuits right in front of you - they even have a window to look through to see the designated biscuit-maker crafting their signature item in what's a perversely delicious peep-show kind of situation - and that they're open only from 6 A.M. until 2 P.M. Don't like breakfast? Too. Damn. Bad. (OK, they do have some lunch-type items on their menu as well, but what's the point?)

Anyway, the superstition extends back to Greensboro and the ACC tournament. There happened to be a Biscuitville directly across the street from our hotel, and being curious, we checked it out, and deemed it to be delicious. Maryland defeated Wake Forest later in the day. The next day, we went to Biscuitville again, and the Terps knocked off North Carolina. Day three, another trip to Biscuitville, another Maryland win.

Coincidence? Certainly. But don't try and tell us that.

Imagine my joy when the WMUC hotel ended up being less than a mile away from Raleigh's Biscuitville. Not intentional, I swear. (Hal fails to believe this)

As you know (and as we'll cover in, oh, 15 minutes), today is game day. And as you can see, Biscuitville was the order of the day this morning as well:


Does this mean Maryland will defeat Vanderbilt today, and bring the Terps' record on Biscuitville days to 4-0? We'll leave that to you to decide.

Day One: Wings, Basketball... Tornadoes?

Your trusty broadcasters have arrived in the promised land (better known as Raleigh, the capitol of North Carolina), and were greeted with sheets of rain pouring down from the heavens. The drive down was an uneventful one, filled with the customary WMUC pit-stop at Sonic Drive-In (get the cheese tots, they're absolutely worth it). On arrival, we decided to take in our surroundings and explore the Greater Raleigh area. After investigation, it was determined to not be worth it.

Being the sports fans we are, we decided to take in the NCAA Tournament games at a local establishment. We enjoyed the wings, but the basketball games left a lot to be desired (leaving John to say "This tournament sucks" about 79 times). Yours truly survived the hot sauce, while my fellow broadcasters opted to stay safe.

But right as the games were starting, the local CBS station decided to cut to a picture of a weather radar showing a MASSIVE block of red hovering directly over Raleigh. Tornado warnings are not so fun. We did see a tornado, but it was only on TV. This is not it.

As we finish watching the second helping of basketball games and prepare to turn in for the evening, I'd like to remind you that there is actually basketball to be played here in Raleigh, and it'll get started tomorrow from the RBC Center at 12:00 with Baylor-Louisville, before the Terps take the court against the Vanderbilt Commodores. WMUC Sports coverage will start at 2:00, with a 2:30 scheduled tip. Hope you'll listen, and we'll check in tomorrow with our thoughts on the game

--HD

On the road agaaaaaaaaaain......

A big hello to those of you reading along out there in cyberspace! This post officially kicks off Raleighpalooza, the 2009 sequel to the award-winning effort Scott Sudikoff and I put together last year, Spokanemania. (Note: Spokanemania did not, in fact, win any sort of awards.) I'm John Willmott, and I'll be leading things this weekend. We've arrived in Raleigh, North Carolina for the Raleigh regionals - Maryland tips off in less than 24 hours for their Sweet 16 matchup with the Vanderbilt Commodores. If you read along with last year's blog, you'll know what you're in for. If you didn't, take a look back at the posts tagged Spokanemania, and you'll get an idea of what we'll be doing. If you're too lazy to look (shame on you!), we'll basically be blogging about everything we experience this weekend, good, bad and otherwise. It's been a heck of a ride for us thus far, and we're flattered to have you all along for this portion.

Hal DeCoursey and Jeremy Moreland will also be checking in throughout the weekend, both here and during the broadcasts. Feel free to comment along the way, and we'll try and respond the best we can.

Thanks for reading, and we'll "talk" to you soon.

It's Raleighpalooza!!!!!!

Yep, it's that time of year again. Time to hit the road to the second weekend of the tournament! Raleighpalooza starts about 10:00 Friday morning, when John Willmott, Jeremy Moreland and yours truly hit the road in the trusty old Avalon and make the four-hour jump down to Raleigh and the RBC Center. Be sure to check in all weekend long for pictures, stories from the road, the crew's food reviews (Biscuitville!), and, of course, all the Terps basketball you could ever dream of. We'll have you ready for the 2:30 tip Saturday, but there's plenty to do before then! Stay tuned...

5 Thoughts On Day 4 Of The NCAA Tournament

1) So, um, does Duke make a play for Suzy Merchant now? Might not be such a bad idea after what Merchant has done with the Michigan State program since Joanne P. McCallie up and left all of one month after signing a contract extension back in 2007. It also might not be such a bad idea after the complete and utter mess that McCallie has made with the Duke program she bolted for, culminating in last night's 63-49 loss to her old Spartan team-a loss in which the Blue Devils didn't score a field goal in the final 7 minutes and 32 seconds of regulation. Because of their complete and utter offensive ineptitude after tying the score at 47, the Dookies become just the second # 1 seed in the last decade of women's college basketball to get bounced in the second round. (2006 Ohio State enjoys the company) ...Wow. There are so many things to talk about with this game that I could probably do this "5 Thoughts" post entirely on it, but we'll cram them all in to this first thought. First of all, as Steve Levy sardonically noted in his Sportscenter highlights of the game and as Ryan Burr sardonically noted in his College Gameday highlights, this game was played in East Lansing. Here we go again. Blah blah blah, no it wasn't fair to Duke to have to play on the road as a 1 seed but it's their freakin' fault for not scoring a single basket in the final 7 and a half minutes. That's why they lost. Period. I'm getting sick of people, especially talking heads on ESPN who don't really know what they're talking about (that's why I'm not chewing out Mechelle Voepel for raising complaints about this system) wondering why a 1 seed has to play on the road in round 2. It's the way it has to be. Period. Don't like it? Watch the men's tournament. Oh, wait, their first and second rounds have an unfair pod system designed to keep attendance up by keeping certain teams close to home, too. But back to this game. What a win for Suzy Merchant and her Michigan State program. In just her second season as head coach of the Spartans, she's already got them in to the Sweet 16. That's pretty incredible. Not only that, her team is just the third 9 seed to ever reach the Sweet 16 since the tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1994. How about that parity, folks? Add a 9 to the two 6's and a 7 in our final 16. Michigan State gets Iowa State in one of the Berkeley region semifinals. Raise your hand if you had that one in your bracket. From the Blue Devil perspective, obviously this is a gigantic disappointment; just another in a long line of them in McCallie's tenure in Durham. The heat had already been turned up on her by some fans and people within the game but now it's about to get even hotter. That's not to say she's getting canned without a Final Four appearance or something next year, but she might want to get the program back to where Gael Goestenkors, her predecessor, had it sooner rather than later. And what a bittersweet end to the careers of Abby Waner, Chante Black, and Carrem Gay. They start their careers losing the national championship to overtime in Maryland, then they end them with losing the ACC championship in overtime to those same Terps before getting unceremously dumped out of the NCAA tournament on the road in the second round to their head coach's old team because they're unable to score a single field goal in the final 7 and a half minutes. As great as this victory was for Michigan State (and it's 5,000 plus fans, including the men's basketball team, who showed up and stormed the floor), it was equally as crushing of a defeat for Duke. It's rare that you get games that are so meaningful for both programs involved and it's even rarer that you get them in the second freakin' round. What a game.

2) As good as Duke/MSU was, it wasn't even the best game of the night! That honor belongs to South Dakota State and Baylor. The Jackrabbits scored the first 8 points of that one and got out to a 22-8 lead at the 9:08 mark of the first half. But unlike on Sunday night against TCU, they wouldn't be able to cruise to victory against this Texas foe in the Lone Star State. Baylor, under the direction of Kim Mulkey who was thankfully only in the hospital for a day, proceeded to rip off a 10-0 run in the span of about a minute and 10 seconds to tighten this one up. Then SDSU got back up 9 with 2:41 to go in the half but the Lady Bears closed it out with a 8-0 run to cut the deficit to one at the break. The second half was basically a tale of Baylor trying to get over the hump. The Jacks scored 12 of the first 20 points to kick off the half and go up 41-36. From there, Baylor kept closing in on the lead and South Dakota State kept denying them it. There were a few ties but the Lady Bears never grabbed the lead. And then the final minute happened. Kelli Griffin's layup with 41 seconds to gave Baylor a 57-55 advantage, its first of the contest. On the ensuing SDSU possession, Jennifer Warkenthein got fouled but missed the second free throw, leaving the Jackrabbits a point short. South Dakota State had no choice but to foul Whitney Zachariason, who also missed the second free throw. 58-56 Lady Bears. Warkenthien grabbed the rebound and then 13 seconds later found Jill Young wide open underneath for the game-tying layup with 7 seconds to go. But Griffin took the inbound and went coast-to-coast, laying it in with .5 seconds to go to prematurely end one of the greatest Cinderella stories in recent women's college basketball history. South Dakota State's Grant Hill pass got knocked away and the Lady Bears escaped in to the Sweet 16 with a 60-58 victory. SDSU ends the year 32-3 but out in the first weekend of the NCAA tournament. That's tough to swallow. What a year they had though and it's a year they'll never forget up in the land of Mount Rushmore. Coming in to the second round, I would have put this game at the top of my list of "most anticipated second round games" and boy, did it deliver. Huge victory for Baylor, who's back in the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2006. That year they were a 3 seed and got absolutely pulverized in the Albuquerque semis by some girl by the name of Crystal Langhorne. Hopefully for them, Angel McCoughtry won't do similar things on Saturday.

3) And speaking of McCoughtry... In further proof that high seeds having to play on the road in round 2 isn't the end of the human race as we know it, her and 3rd seeded Louisville went to Baton Rouge and handled 6 seed LSU 62-52. The Cardinal superstar had 28, including 2 on a fastbreak layup off of a steal that finally pushed the Louisville lead to double digits just before the final minute and was the death knell for the Tigers and their 12 game home tournament winning streak. If Maya Moore didn't exist, McCoughtry would get my vote for Player of the Year. She does absolutely everything for Jeff Walz and that Louisville program and with all due respect to Candyce Bingham and the rest of the Cardinal players, they wouldn't be anywhere near a 3 seed and a 31-4 mark without McCoughtry. Maryland fans should be scared to death of the Candice Wiggins potential she has for a possible Elite Eight matchup next Monday. But going back to tonight, there's not really much to say about Louisville's victory other than how impressive it was to go in to one of the toughest places to play in women's college basketball and absolutely wear out the home team in the final few minutes to get the victory. It's hard to find a more satisfying victory than that in this kind of round. Well, unless you're Michigan State and facing your old coach on your home floor.

4) UConn wasn't mentioned until the fourth thought? What is this madness? Honestly, what is there to say about them? They're really, really, really good. The fact that they won by 28 and it actually decreased their average margin of victory on the season says it all. No matter how impressive the Maryland win was, no matter emotional the Michigan State win was, no matter how dramatic the Baylor win was, and no matter how gritty the Louisville win was, everyone pales in comparison to the Huskies. They're simply in another league. Give a whole lot of credit to Florida for hanging in as long as they did-it was 26-20 deep in to the first half, even despite Sha Brooks being saddled on the bench with foul trouble. Then UConn went on a 13-0 run with 9 straight from Renee Montgomery (who played her last game in Gampel Pavilion and scored 25 points in it) to end the game, but props to the Gators for hanging in for longer than a lot of teams (like, say, Louisville in the Big East championship) do against this juggernaut And by the way, Montgomery led her team with 25 but Maya Moore and Tina Charles both added 22. I'm not sure a team of five LeBrons could beat this UConn squad when those three are scoring 20 apiece. That's only the second time it's happened this year (thank god for the rest of the women's college basketball world) and prior to this year, no UConn trio had done that since 1999. A lot of great UConn players have come through the program between 1999 and now. This just goes to show you how special this team is and how special those three are. Look out, Cal.

5) ...And then midnight struck. Sorry Ball State, it's over. Instead of being the women's answer to George Mason, you'll have to settle for being the team that pulled off the most historic upset in the history of the sport. Iowa State ended the Cardinals season 71-57 in a game that was tight until the final few minutes. So now the Cyclones go on to the Sweet 16 and should be favored to make the Elite 8 (again, lemme know if you had that one going in to the tournament) while the girls from Muncie head back home. Still, ISU could have subbed in UConn to play and beat them by 80 tonight and it wouldn't have made Sunday night any less special. From now on, whenever the name "Ball State" is mentioned in women's basketball circles, 71-55 will immediately become the topic of conversation. At least until the Cardinals make the Final Four or something.

BONUS THOUGHT: Pat Summitt is better than your team's head coach. Perhaps you heard that Summitt made her team practice on Tuesday, just 48 hours removed from the aforementioned "most historic upset in women's college basketball history." After an entire season full of criticism for her team culminating in Sunday night's disaster, this is a shock but not really a shock because of what we've come to know and expect from Summitt. When you heard her criticize most of her players for "not being in the gym enough" during the press conference after the game, you thought, "yeah, she'll probably have them back in the gym right after the loss." And look what happens. Nothing but the best is demanded from Summitt and her program does everything right. When something goes wrong, it's not accepted, it's not tolerated, and it's fixed as quickly and swiftly as possible. I would bet my life that Tennessee's not getting bounced in the first round again next year. I know I labeled the post about Sunday's game as "Tennessee's downfall" but the reality is that Tennessee will never have a downfall as long as Summitt is coaching. Love or hate her, you have no choice but to respect her. She might be the greatest coach in the history of American sports. Pretty sue that deserves a little bit of respect.

Remember, RALEIGHPALOOZA begins this weekend. I'm off until Tuesday or so, so look for John, Hal, and Jeremy to take you through the weekend.

REACTION: Maryland 71, Utah 56

From earlier in the night in my gameday post:

PREDICTION - Maryland 70, Utah 58.

I'm a genius.

Seriously, being off by one point on the Terp side and two on the Ute side...that's pretty good, you gotta admit. Though I must admit that I was a little bit wrong about how the game would go. I said that that it would be close until the second half when the Terps would pull away. Instead, Maryland pushed the lead to 16 by halftime with a 12-0 run in the final 4:40 of the half. The Terps were up 21 at the under 16 timeout in the second half but then the Utes chipped away and got the lead back down to 14 at the 9 minute mark. But the Terps quickly swelled it back to 20 a couple of minutes later and cruised to the finish, winning by a healthy 15.

I wrote in the gameday that I thought that Elaine Elliott would want to slow down the pace of the game and keep it low-scoring. Whoops. I'm STUNNED that Utah played at Maryland's pace, at least in the first half. Absolutely stunned. It actually worked for a while, as the Utes led 15-8 with almost 5 and a half minutes gone by. But then the Terps staged their comeback, beginning with an absolutely ridiculous sequence.

Dee Liles laid it up after a dish from Coleman to make it 15-10. Morgan Warburton missed a three for Utah on the other end, but then so did Toliver for the Terps. Fortunately for them, Coleman grabbed the offensive board, the ball found its way in to Liles, who missed a layup but got her own rebound and the putback. 15-12. This is where the Maryland fans started getting in to it. You could hear a roar begin; the crowd knew the run was coming. Janita Badon drove to the hole but laid it up far too hard and Liles collected the board. Crowd's getting louder. Toliver rushes it up the court and proceeds to make an absolutely breathtaking no-look bounce pass to a wide-open Strickland underneath for the easy deuce and the Comcast Center goes absolutely ballistic as I yelled out "OH WHAT A PASS!" to no one in particular. 15-14. Warburton tries to answer with a three and can't and now Maryland can grab the lead. Again it's Toliver pushing it up the court. She penetrates and goes for another no-look...but this time it's deflected and it's a turnover. An outlet pass to Josi McDermott and it looks to be an easy two for the Utes...but Marissa Coleman was making strides like a leopard waiting to stalk its prey. I'm not sure if everyone in the building knew what was coming next but I knew that with Coleman's speed and length, Josi McDermott would not be scoring two points at this particular time.

She didn't. Coleman absolutely swatted her meek layup attempt right in to the backboard. The crowd just loses it again. Comcast is among the loudest I've heard it for a women's basketball game so nobody notices that Kalee Whipple's there to retrive the bounce off the backboard and put up a quick three. Bang...and like that, Comcast goes silent. 18-14.

UNBELIEVABLE sequence. We're talking about almost two uninterrupted minutes of nonstop action and ridiculous plays. I learned a few things after this sequence:

1) There are few things more beautiful than Kristi Toliver in the open floor
2) Kristi Toliver's an absolutely unbelievable passer
3) Marissa Coleman might be the biggest hustler in women's college basketball
4) Brenda Frese has built an absolutely stunning and unbelievable culture of women's basketball here in College Park
5) The non-student fans for women's basketball are way, WAY better than the non-student fans for men's basketball. It's probably because all the non-student fans for women's hoops are diehards.
6) I'm really, REALLY going to miss watching Coleman and Toliver play
7) Kalee Whipple can really play as well
8) Utah had the momentum after Whipple's three. If they could ride it out for the next few minutes, they'd have a shot at the upset. If the Terps seized it, ballgame over.

Guess which happened.

Maryland proceeded to go on an 8-0 run after that sequence to grab a 22-18 lead. During the run, Coleman had 6 points and 2 rebounds. My god, what a player. After Warburton laid it in to make it 22-20, another Terrapin spurt occured, this one 6-0. This one was a little more diverse, with a layup and two free throws from Lynetta Kizer, a jumper from Marah Strickland, and an assist and a rebound for Anjale Barrett.

That diversity was the story of the first half. Toliver and Coleman, despite their ridiculous plays and how good they were, had exactly half of the Maryland points at halftime. Coleman had 12, Toliver had 10, together they had 22...but the team had 44 as Liles and Strickland had 8 apiece, Kizer had 4, and Barrett had 2. On the other sideline, it was a completely different story. The Utes had 28 points at recess. Whipple and Warburton combined for 21, or 3/4 of them.

There was your prevailing theme for the night. Whipple and Warburton were the only two players on Utah's roster who would get significant run for the Terps. They are both fantastic players (although Warburton didn't have her best shooting night; 7/21 from the field, 0/6 from three), but no other Ute proved that they could really hack it all night long, at least not in comparison to their opposition. Whipple ended the night with a game-high 24 points and Warburton had 17. That's 41 of the 56 Ute points and no other individual had more than 8.

You need more than two players to beat this Maryland Terrapin team, especially at the Comcast Center.

The other prevailing theme for the night was how Utah got worked like a speed bag on the interior once again. I will put this to you this way: the Utes as a team had 24 rebounds. Marissa Coleman by herself had a career-high 18 rebounds (to go along with 18 points...honestly, if she's not an All American, I'm boycotting this sport.) Dee Liles by herself had 17 rebounds. Um, that's really not good if you're a Utah fan. When two individual players are nearly matching your team's rebounding output, it probably means you're taking a pounding on the interior. Tonight was no exception (actually last night since this is being written the morning after but I haven't slept yet so we'll say "tonight"; also I'm lazy and "tonight" is easier to write than "last night" or "yesterday") as the Terps outrebounded the Utes 54-24. 54-24. The margin the visitors were outrebounded by was larger than their actual rebound total. That also isn't good. The Terps had more offensive rebounds, 25, than the Utes had total rebounds. Coleman outrebounded the Utes by herself in the first half. And all of this was against a team that was 12th in the country in rebounding margin coming in to the season and had only been outrebounded in five games this year.

Elaine Elliott, just how the heck did this happen?

"It's just pure and simple -- their strength over us was just their physicality. We couldn't change that. We couldn't grow bigger. We couldn't grow heavier," Elliott said. "That was the difference in the two teams. We would have preferred that it wasn't a home game. ... [But] the differences in that game were apparent and that was something we wouldn't have overcome no matter where we played."

Liles ended with 12 points to go along with her 17 boards, Kizer and Strickland each had 8, and Kim Rodgers chipped in 6 on a couple of threes. Oh yeah and Toliver finished with 17 points and 4 assists. Not bad for your final appearance in the Comcast Center. I'm sure Coleman's 18 and 18 counts as a pretty nice lasting impression for the 10,065 in attendance tonight as well.

So the story here was basically that Utah's only chance was to slow this game down in an attempt to mitigate the Terps' advantages in pure talent, athleticism, and size. They didn't do it. They got run out of the gym. They had a few talented players who were able to keep them in it for a while and brought them back to a respectable deficit at brief points in the second half, but all in all, it just wasn't nearly enough. Also, I think, they wilted a bit playing in front of an absolutely lively and raucuous crowd that you just would not have gotten at a neutral site. So put that in your pipe and smoke it.

Maryland now moves on to play Vanderbilt on Saturday in the Sweet 16 in Raleigh. Before that though, it's time to introduce something special that's about to come to this blog.

Remember Spokanemania from last year? Well, it's coming back. Except it's not going to be in Spokane this time, it'll be in Raleigh. Thusly, it'll be repackaged, rebranded, and renamed as...

Drum roll, please...

*edge of your seat*

RALEIGHPALOOZA!

That's right, John Willmott, Hal DeCoursey, and Jeremy Moreland are heading down to Raleigh and they're gonna tell you all about it. Starting this Friday (or, perhaps if you're good and they make solid time, Thursday night), you'll get an account of what it's like to stay in Raleigh for a weekend while your school's women's basketball team attempts to reach the Final Four. Will there be a trip (or trips) to the Official WMUC Sports Sonic? Will there be little digs at N.C. State's campus for being literally nothing but red brick? Will they meet any celebrities down in North Carolina like, um, NASCAR drivers or John Edwards maybe? What if Duke AND North Carolina happen to go down in the men's tournament this weekend; will there be an historic party on the Wolfpack campus? WHO KNOWS?!?! So stay tuned for that, it should be a ton of fun.

GAMEDAY: NCAA Tournament Round 2 - (9) Utah

After the bad omen I gave you in my last post (# 4), want a good omen for Maryland's chances tonight?

Look at tonight's opponent. Now, remember the last time the Terps faced them.

Feeling better yet?

Yep, it was the Elite Eight in the 2006 NCAA tournament down in Albuquerque. A stomach virus had just struck the Maryland locker room and they had just been dragged to overtime by a gritty, underdog Utah team that had battled back from double digit margins in their first two tournament games, barely escaped a Cinderella Boston College team in the Sweet 16, and then erased a 9 point deficit to the Terps with 10 and a half to go to nearly win it in regulation before Shona Thorburn couldn't hit both free throws to give the Utes the lead with 7.8 seconds to play.

But what's the saying again? Oh yeah, "overtime is our time."

The Terps dominated OT, with Laura Harper scoring the first four points and then closing out the extra period on an 8-0 run to win 75-65 and advance to their first Final Four since 1989. Kristi Toliver, despite being struck with the flu the night before, scored a game-high 28 to lead the Terps. It's this program's version of the "Flu Game" as the Toliver/Michael Jordan parallels continue. It was a much less memorable (in terms of individual performance) night for Marissa Coleman, as she had just 4 points on 1/10 shooting, but she did grab 11 rebounds (Editor's Note: Isn't it amazing how Coleman always, ALWAYS seems to find a way to contribute in other ways when she's not scoring? Even as a freshman she did this. Absolutely incredible.) All in all, it was a gutty team effort from a special group of players that would go on to win the program's first and only National Championship a week later in Boston.

Now the year is 2009. Utah is the opponent not in the final 8 but in the final 32. And this time it's not in Albuquerque, it's in College Park, on Maryland's home floor.

The Utes, however, may be just as formidable as they were in 06.

They were 27-7 that year and a # 5 seed in the NCAA tournament. This year, they're 23-9 and a 9 seed. So on paper, they look a little bit worse. However, they are once again Mountain West conference champions, they are once again coached by Elaine Elliott, and they are coming off perhaps their best game of the season in which they posted one of the best defensive efforts in women's college basketball this season.

Everyone, myself included, predicted the Villanova/Utah first round game to end in the 40's or 50's. I had the Wildcats winning that game due to their superstar, Laura Kurz, and the mindset that Harry Perretta would outcoach Elliott. Whoops. Kurz had just 11 and went 0-for-7 from three point range. The Wildcats as a team shot 11-for-58, or 19 percent, on the game and were just 4-for-29 from three point range (14 percent.) The 30 points they scored was the third-lowest in the history of the tournament and the lowest by a non-16 seed in the history of the tournament. Utah literally doubled them up and had almost as many points at halftime, 26, as their opponents would score in the entire game.

That's a pretty good defensive effort.

With all due respect to Kurz, a Naismith Trophy finalist, and the Wildcats, the Terps present a much bigger challenge defensively for the Utes. The Terps have not one but two superstars in Coleman and Toliver and an excellent supporting cast in Lynetta Kizer, Dee Liles, Marah Strickland, and everyone else. They average 79.8 points per game, or 50 more than Villanova put up on Sunday. Slowing them down will be difficult. Beating them will be even tougher.

But definitely not impossible.

After the job that the 6'0 Kalee Whipple did on Kurz, it would not be a shock to see Elliott match her up on Coleman and see if she can frustrate her in the same manner. With the way Coleman can be careless with the basketball (103 turnovers on the season, or 3.12 a game), she'll have to be extra careful or Whipple and her 69 steals (or 2.16 per game) could take advantage. Oh and Whipple can get it done on the offensive end as well, averaging 16.8 points per game with a game-high 15 against Villanova on Sunday, dishing out 99 assists on the season, and grabbing 6.2 rebounds per contest.

She's pretty good, but Morgan Warburton is just as good, and might be even better.

Warburton, the preseason Mountain West Player of the Year, two time all-conference player, and 1,000 point scorer (20th in Utah's history), has only led her team in points (18.6 per game), assists (112 on the year), and is third in rebounds (6.3 per game) this season. She had 14 against the Wildcats, so her and Whipple nearly outscored their opponents all by themselves. These two are clearly the leaders of the Utah band. Both can light it up from three, shooting above 37% from the year, and as we all know, the three point shot can be the great equalizer in college hoops, especially women's. But in this game, the Utes probably won't be looking to outbomb the Terps from three; they'll be looking to hang with them, as Maryland is the top three point shooting team in the country, thanks mostly to Toliver, Coleman, and Strickland.

Warburton's a 5'11 guard, so she could be the perfect match for Toliver, but the thinking here is that Brenda Frese might stick the bigger (6'0) Marah Strickland on her and allow Toliver to focus more on dominating on the offensive end like she did on Sunday and like she did four years ago as a freshman in the Elite Eight against the Utes. Regardless of who's checking who on each side of the ball, the winner of the Toliver-Warbuton "game within the game" should go a long way in to determining tonight's outcome. Same, perhaps, with Coleman-Whipple.

There are two other big keys to tonight. The first one is literally a "big" key. Utah's two other standout players are Katie King and Halie Sawyer. King is the Utes' third double-figures scorer, averaging 11.1 per game, while Sawyer averages 7.3 a night. However, their impact is mostly felt on the boards. Each grabs more than 7 rebounds per game, with King averaging 7.1 rebounds and Sawyer 7.8. The disadvantage for them is their height, or lackthereof, as both are 6'1. That's a problem going up against the 6'4 Lynetta Kizer and the 6'1 Dee Liles (who averages 8.5 rebounds.) Combine those two with Coleman's toughness and rebounding prowess and I have to give the physical and interior edge to the Terps, which is something Elliott knows cannot be the case tonight, as she said after the loss in the regional finals four years ago that size made the difference. Granted, the Terps had Crystal Langhorne and Laura Harper back then and as good as Kizer and Liles are, they haven't ascended to the heights those two did. Bottom line: whoever controls the paint and dominates on the glass will have a huge shot at winning tonight.

The last key for tonight is tempo. This one is basic but obvious. The Terps score almost 80 points a game. Utah only allows 55 points per game. If it's a slogging, slow contest, that should keep the Utes in it and give them a chance to pull off the upset. They probably don't have the athleticism or the firepower to win a shootout. Elliott knows this and she's a good enough coach to get her team to not cave to the Terps. That's not to say that Frese will just let her team play a half court game, but it's easier to slow down tempo than it is to speed it up and the Terps are probably more comfortable in a half court game than the Utes are in a track meet. I look for Maryland to play slow if that's what Utah wants to do, wear them down inside, let Coleman and Toliver do their thing, and push the pace whenever they get the chance (off missed shots or when Utah falls asleep after a made basket.) I think this game should be close for a while before Maryland pulls away in the second half.

I'm going to be in attendance tonight for the last game at the Comcast Center for Coleman and Toliver. It should be a great one.

PREDICTION - Maryland 70, Utah 58

5 Thoughts On Day 3 Of The NCAA Tournament

1) Wait...isn't the men's tourney supposed to have the Cinderellas and the parity? We're halfway through the second round and already a 7 and two 6's are in the Sweet 16. An 11 nearly beat a 3 on the 3's home floor and a 12 nearly made the Sweet 16 for the first time ever. Meanwhile on the men's side, all 1-3 seeds are in the Sweet 16 for the first time since the tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985 and the only team left that's worse than a 5 seed is 12 seed Arizona. And this isn't the first year in recent memory where something like this has happened. In 2007, the women's tourney had 13 seed Marist, 10 seed Florida State, and 7 seeds Mississippi (sorry for the reminder, Terps fans) and Bowling Green in its Sweet 16 while the men only had two teams worse than a 5 seed in their Sweet 16 (6 seed Vanderbilt and 7 seed UNLV.) In short, this is very, very good news for the women's tournament. Why did the men's tournament get so popular in the 1980's? Because that's when people realized that small schools could beat big powerhouse programs and "Cinderellas" were born. People love the underdog and when the underdog can win, they're going to be drawn to that. Cleveland State in 1986, Valpariaso in 1997, George Mason in 2006, Davidson last year...they're the charm, the lifeblood, and the meaning of "March Madness." Until recently, the women's tournament didn't have the Cleveland States, Valpos, and George Masons. In a lot of ways, they still don't. Again, no 12 has made the Sweet 16 ever, which is unthinkable in the men's game, and no 14 or 15 seed has ever won a game (and no 16 has won without a gigantic asterisk.) But more and more upsets are happening and more and more Cinderella stories are being created. Think Marist has any chance at getting to the second weekend a decade ago? How about Liberty? How about the increase in 12 over 5 upsets and 13 over 4's in recent years? And how about what we're witnessing this year with a Sweet 16 potentially full of 6's and 7's along with the 1's and 2's. Parity is increasing in women's college basketball and that means more underdogs, more Cinderellas, and more attention paid to the tournament, which means more growth of the game; something we all are rooting for. Don't believe me on this point? Just look at all the attention Ball State has gotten in the past 24 hours. Now just imagine if they knock off Iowa State tomorrow and keep this run going.

2) Is "Turning It On In March 101" a course offered at Rutgers? I've got a few friends up there so I'll have to verify, but it sure seems like C. Vivian Stringer has forced her players to enroll in such a class and they're currently acing it. We all remember the day after Valentine's Day when Maryland smashed Rutgers, right? On that day, the Scarlet Knights looked absolutely horrid. They were helpless on offense and couldn't stop the Terps on defense. They lost by 20, couldn't even hit the half century mark, and dropped to 14-10 overall and were in danger of missing the NCAA tournament just a year removed from the Elite Eight and two years removed from a National Runner-Up. Now? They might have taken the mantle from Maryland as the hottest non-UConn team in college hoops. Since that 67-47 crushing at the hands of the Terps on February 15, RU has won 7 of 9 with the two losses being by 10 to UConn and by 5 in overtime to Louisville in the Big East tournament. Their latest victory was not just a victory, but an absolute BEAT DOWN of 2nd seeded Auburn 80-52. The Scarlet Knights got out 9-0, led 13-2 at the under 16 timeout, and then 22-4 with 11:48 to go in the first half, 40-20 at the 3:26 mark, and then after the Tigers cut it to 10 in the second half, they outscored Auburn by 18 the rest of the way. This wasn't a rewind of round 1 when they nearly blew a huge lead against VCU late; they EXPANDED on their lead and their largest lead was the final margin of victory. What a performance. Epiphany Prince had 27 points, Kia Vaughn had 15 points and 11 rebounds, Heather Zurich had 12 points, and Khadijah Rushdan had 9 points, 10 rebounds, and 6 assists. Four players scored in double figures, not including Rushdan's 9 points or else it would've been the entire starting 5. Absolutely unbelievable for a team that couldn't scrape together 50 as a unit in their trip to College Park six weeks ago. They've gone from squarely on the NCAA tournament bubble to perhaps one of the favorites to get to St. Louis if they keep playing like this. And hey, they fought UConn gamely on March 2 on Senior Night...maybe if a few breaks go the other way in a potential national title game rematch?...As for Auburn, I had an inkling that they were a bit overrated all year due to not being tested by elite competiton in the SEC, but never did I think it would end quite like this for them. The offensive power shortage in the SEC title game against Vanderbilt was nothing compared to this. They were just out and out humiliated tonight. Their NCAA tournament inexperienced showed and they literally wilted in the Rutgers Athletic Center. But it's not like they can complain about having to play on the road when they just lost by 28.

3) Is North Carolina the anti-Rutgers or is it the other way around? "Never did I think it would end quite like this for Auburn"...I could say the exact same thing about the Tar Heels. When I saw that Purdue had beat them tonight, that wasn't too much of a shock. The Heels were in poor form and the Boilers were looking great coming in to tonight. But 85-70? 55 points allowed in the second half? Good lord, what happened to them?! Not to make light of post traumatic stress disorder, but are they suffering from some form of it after UConn decimated them on January 19? Remember, they were unbeaten and # 2 in the country coming in to that game. Since it, they were just 11-6, including failing to perform above .500 in March. Heck, their only wins in March were over the ACC's last place team in Clemson (in a game they struggled with for a half), South Dakota (won by 6), and Central Florida (won by 5.) This team has been an absolute MESS for at least the past three games and honestly, they've been a mess for much longer than that and I've traced it back before to the UConn game and I will again. They honestly have not been the same team since UConn pantsed them. That was an utter humiliation on a national stage with the entire women's college basketball world watching. They were the unquestioned # 2 coming in and they haven't even really sniffed the top 5 again since. I doubt it's a coincidence. Furthermore, what the heck happened to Cetera DeGraffenreid? 2/8, 1 assist, 8 turnovers on March 1 against Duke. 2/6 in the Clemson blowout. 4/13, 3 assists, 3 turnovers in the ACC semis against Maryland. She had a team high 19 points against South Dakota, making you think that maybe she'd figured it out going in to the tournament, but she was just 3/10 in round 1 and an even-worse 2/10 tonight. She absolutely killed her team in the stretch run, there's no other way to put it. But she's not the only culprit. Rashanda McCants, the girl who's supposed to be this team's "superstar", was 3/15 from the floor tonight. 3/15. She had half as many turnovers (3) as points (6.) It might not be a stretch to say that she closed out her career with her worst performance in its history and that's really a shame. It's a huge disappointment; something this entire Chapel Hill bunch has been ever since that fateful January 19 evening.

4) What goes up...must come down. Want a bad omen for Maryland's chances tomorrow? "Not particularly," I'm sure you're saying, but you're going to get one anyway. The ACC went unbeaten in round 1. 6-0 with 5 of the wins being by double digits and one of them coming on an opponent's home court (Georgia Tech.) So far in round 2 though, it's been 0 for 3 as Florida State and Virginia joined the aformentioned Heels in this year's NCAA tournament graveyard tonight, with the Noles losing 63-58 to upstart Arizona State and the Cavaliers getting shellacked 99-73 in L.A. against a Cal team that was reeling coming in to the tournament but seems to have found itself, with the help of Fresno State in round 1 and now the Wahoos. Beginning with Florida State, their result is the much less surprising of the two. After all, the Noles were challenged for a while by North Carolina A&T round 1 while the Sun Devils were building up confidence in a defensive lockdown of home-standing Georgia. Furthermore, FSU hadn't proved it could play at a high level in a big game outside Tallahassee whereas the Sun Devils closed the year hot with a 15 game winning streak that buoyoed them up from potentially the WNIT in to a favorable seed and high potential for a second round upset. They cashed in that potential tonight thanks to Danielle Orsillo's three with 32 seconds to go. So while FSU's loss made a lot of sense, UVA's made none. 99 points to a Cal team that hadn't scored more than 85 at all during the season and had only scored 70 in about a third of them? The Bears average in the 60's most night;s they were almost there by halftime tonight with 53 in the first 20 minutes. Worse yet, Virginia's vaunted trimuverate of Monica Wright, Lyndra Littles, and Aisha Mohammed wasn't even close to being the best threesome on the floor, as it almost always needs to be for the Cavaliers to be competitive. Ashley Walker, Alexis Gray-Lawson, and Devanei Hampton had 76 of the 99 Golden Bear points and it was Walker and Hampton who were just completely dominant on the interior, which made the difference. Cal was up double digits almost the entire way; expanding its lead late in the first half to around 20 before UVA fought back to get it to 11, but then Monica Wright picked up her fourth foul and that was that. Incredibly poor showing by the Cavs tonight, especially when they didn't have the ball. And as for the ACC, well, at least their women's teams lasted about a round longer than the men's teams did before almost all of them flamed out simultaneously. Again, not a good omen for the Terps tomorrow (or for Duke, if you're a glass-half-full kind of person.)

5) "Whiparound" coverage? Or is that exclusive to CBS for the men's tournament? Okay, with nothing else especially noteworthy happening tonight (yeah OSU got challenged a little bit by Miss. St, yeah Vandy won in Albuquerque again and set up a potential Sweet 16 matchup with the Terps again, yeah Stanford walloped San Diego State on the Aztecs home floor. Yawn), it's time for pick a bone with ESPN's sad, pathetic coverage of the late games tonight. Now, this isn't going to be too much of a hate filled, raging rant. There's not a ton of fury here. I mean, there is, but it's restrained because I feel absolutely helpless and depressed instead. I'm just going to bring up how Gonzaga/Pittsburgh was nip-and-tuck the entire second half while Virginia/Cal was a double digit Golden Bear lead the entire second half. Guess which game we saw all of on the ESPN2 in College Park? Guess which game we saw absolutely none of; no live look ins, no updates, no nothing? Sigh. Come on ESPN, you've GOTTA do better than that. At least take us to the compelling game when there are only a couple of minutes to go. I was honestly stunned when UVA/Cal went to the under 4 timeout...and then came back from the under 4 timeout. That would've been the perfect time to switch the viewers over to the dramatic conclusion in Seattle, where the Zags missed a potential game tying three pointer in the final 10 seconds to fall short of becoming the first 12 seed to make the Sweet 16 in the history of the tournament. But apparently Cal's reserves playing out the clock against Virginia's reserves in a Galen Center with maybe a couple hundred people inside of it and whose atmosphere was being openly mocked by the broadcast team for being so quiet and dead was more important and entertaining. Yeah, right. ESPN, if you're gonna brag about "whip around coverage" and "showing the best games" and "most compelling action" for the markets outside of those for the competing teams, please freakin' live up to it. I'm not living in Charlottesville or Berkeley (heck, I'm not even living in Virginia or California); there's NO REASON I should have been with the UVA/Cal game from start to finish when it became uncompetitive and there were other, more competitive, entertaining, and exciting games going on. Just absolutely disappointing, inexcusable, and pathetic on ESPN's end. But I can't ride them too much; they ARE broadcasting all 64 games and they ARE offering all 64 games on ESPN360.com, which is where I went to catch the waning moments of the Zags failed upset bid. Too bad not everyone is lucky enough to get ESPN360.com like I am.

5 Thoughts On Day 2 Of The NCAA Tournament (Non-Tennessee, Non-Maryland related)

As the title notes, none of these will be Maryland related or Tennessee related. Those bases have already been covered.

1) Baylor almost embarrassed itself more than Tennessee did. That's not to say that the Bears would have stolen all the back page headlines had they lost, but the embarrassment would have likely been greater, because, I mean...no 15 seed has ever beaten a 2 seed in the NCAA tournament. Ever. Hell, it's only happened four times in the men's game, which has much more parity. Most don't even come close, just look at yesterday (and Texas A&M today) and just look at the 2/15 games from the men's tournament, but the Texas-San Antonio Roadrunners came as close as anyone else ever has on the women's side, literally. No 15 has ever come closer than 5 points, which is exactly the number by which UTSA fell short tonight, 87-82 in overtime. Furthermore, no 15 had ever forced OT before tonight, so at least the Roadrunners made some positive history there. Baylor, the 2 seed who avoided the ultimate humiliation, was lackluster for pretty much the entire evening. UTSA opened the second half with a shock 15-3 run to go up 46-39 with over 16 minutes to go. They'd lead until the 9:24 mark, when the Bears reclaimed the lead and it was a battle through the rest of regulation. UTSA's Jordan Stark hit a pair of free throws before a Baylor buzzer beater got rim to force the extra 5 minutes and the entering in to uncharted waters. Credit the Bears for finally, finally stepping up their game as the added frame wore on, but the fact that they were even there in the first place tells me that they weren't ready to play tonight. You can speculate whether or not they're the same team without Danielle Wilson and you can speculate whether or not Kim Mulkey's hospitalization for kidney stones just hours before the game affected the outcome and performance. But one thing is for sure: this is just yet another example of parity increasing in women's college basketball and it's great to see. Unfortunately, the Roadrunners couldn't pull off the monumental upset. Oh well, they gave it an amazing run, better than any of their 63 other 15th-seeded peers were able to come up with.

2) Forget UConn. Iowa State. South Dakota State. 3 point shooting contest for the national title. Make it happen. How about the single game tournament record for three point field goals being tied not once but twice on the same evening by two teams playing in the same time slot? What were the odds on that one, one billion to one? Well whatever the odds were, the Cyclones and Jackrabbits beat them. Both hit 16 threes en route to blowout victories over East Tennessee State and TCU, respectively. And yet, this is like the third most noteworthy thing of tonight's tournament action. Unbelievable. But seriously, if both these teams keep playing like this, they'll be threats to go deep, deep in to March. The Clones were led by Alison Lacey's six triples and the Rabbits were carried by Jill Young's five treys. What amazing performances by both individuals and both teams. Maybe this is why Tennessee, who would have faced ISU in round 2, lost tonight and why Baylor, who faces SDSU, almost lost? Not really, but still, crazy, crazy stuff. Was there even women's basketball played outside of Lubbock and Bowling Green today? Boy, did people who went to those two subregionals get their money's worth today.

3) South Dakota State 90, TCU 55. That might be one of the most embarrassing moments of my life. Uh, wanna just all pretend I DIDN'T have the Horned Frogs in my Sweet 16, upsetting the Jackrabbits and Baylor to get there? Geez la wheez. Boy was I wrong and was I wrong in spectacular fashion. The popular internet meme "epic fail" was created for predictions such as that one. My goodness. But seriously, how about SDSU shutting up any and all doubters and how about the Jackrabbits sticking it to the committee for giving them a seed that wasn't befitting to their 31-2 mark and # 15 national ranking? And not only all that, this was their first ever NCAA tournament game. Talk about making a first impression. Even if they play half as good as they did tonight and Baylor plays twice as well as it did tonight, the Bears could be in for an absolute WORLD of trouble on Tuesday night. Immediately this game shoots to the top of my "most intriguing second round games" list. And hopefully I won't be as wrong about that list as I was about my "most intriguing first round games" list, which TCU/SDSU topped. And as for the Horned Frogs...wow, looks like they were just a team who fluked in to two victories over solid competition that wasn't quite as elite as it thought it was (Cal) or that it eventually became (Maryland.) 10 losses in a mid major league certainly isn't spectacular and it was their entire body of work that I should have judged them on, not two outlier performances. Oops.

4) Game of the Day: Michigan State 60, Fighting Alysha Clarks 59. Middle Tennessee got 34 of its 59 points from its superstar 5'10 guard who is the nation's leading scorer, but it wasn't enough. She didn't score a single point in the final 11 minutes plus change and fouled out with 90 seconds to go. Perhaps that was why the Blue Raiders didn't even get a shot on their final possession. That resulted in a 15 point first half lead being completely blown as the Spartans stormed back on their home floor to set up a second round matchup with their old coach, Joanne P. McCallie, and her new team, the Duke Blue Devils. I wrote in my pick for this game that MSU was in poor form and for most of the first half they were. But they started to turn it around near the end of the first 20 minutes and continued the surge early in the second half, leading to a final fourth of the game that was a back-and-forth battle. When it came down to crunch time, though, there was no Alysha Clark and that meant a Middle Tennessee loss. Too bad for the Blue Raiders but she'll be back next year. Look for them as the hot mid major team going in to next season. By the way, great, GREAT crowd at the Breslin Center for this one. I know someone who goes to MSU and isn't the biggest of women's college basketball fans but went and vouched for how fun it was and how great the atmosphere was. This, along with stuff like the LSU men's football and basketball coaches buying up tickets for students to get in to today's game against Wisconsin-Green Bay for free, is a reason why it's a good thing to have first and second round games on campus sites with home teams playing at those campus sites in order to maximize attendance and create the best, most positive atmospheres that can make the game and the tournament grow.

5) Home court advantage apparently doesn't mean THAT much to everybody. Remember how San Diego State, Rutgers, and Ohio State took advantage of playing on their home floors yesterday? Apparently they forwarded that "how to do" memo to LSU, Maryland, UConn (not that the Huskies or Terps needed it), and Michigan State (but the Spartans didn't receive it until the second half) but forgot to include Iowa and Notre Dame in the CC. The Hawkeyes were never really competitive against Georgia Tech in Iowa City, falling 76-62 and the Irish couldn't withstand a red-hot Minnesota start, failing to complete a comeback and succumbing by the count of 79-71. So yes, it IS possible for teams to lose on their home floors in round 1, even to perceived-to-be inferior competition. In the Irish's case especially, I don't know if anyone thought Minnesota was going to be competitive with Notre Dame, even on a neutral floor. An extremely disappoining loss for Muffet McGraw's girls. But then again, with the way the Gophers got out shooting 11 for 13 to start the game, it was going to be a long road back. This is just the story of the Irish season though; from a # 4 ranking on January 13 to a first round exit on their home floor as a 7 seed. What a disappointment. But good for the Gophers. They can add this road scalp to their Ohio State one earlier this year. They'll get Texas A&M in round 2 and if they can shoot like they did today, they'll have a puncher's chance.

REACTION: Ball State 71, Tennessee 55

Again, this is a Maryland women's basketball blog. But this absolutely has to be talked about:




Yours truly, while revealing my NCAA tournament picks for the Berkeley region:

(5) Tennessee over (12) Ball State - Like I'm picking against Pat Summitt in
the first round. Get serious. The Cardinal are potentially dangerous...but
they're not upsetting a Pat Summitt led team in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Sorry, girls.

Mechelle Voepel, previewing Iowa State's tourney chances in a post on her blog:

Which brings us to Iowa State, which is a No. 4 seed. And if the Cyclones
win their first-round game against East Tennessee State, they will face No. 5
seed Tennessee _ if the Vols beat Ball State. If Tennessee loses to Ball State, the world will probably come to an end.

Start stockpiling the canned goods.

I watched this game. I watched it pretty much from start to finish. Why? It was Tennessee in its most vulnerable hour and I wanted to see how they would react. Would they lose? Probably not, but maybe. Maybe.

Tennessee maybe losing in the first round of the NCAA tournament was just one of many unprecedented, unbelievable things about tonight's game.

To start, the state Tennessee was in coming in to this tournament was absolutely unprecedented and unbelievable. The fact that the Vols were 22-10 and a 5 seed coming in was shocking enough by itself. Everyone should know by now just how rocky of a season it's been in Knoxville and how stunning and ridiculous and just flat-out unbelievable it's been the whole way. They've been humiliated on their home court by Virginia and Duke. They got crushed at Auburn. They lost at Memorial Gym in Kentucky for the first time in a couple of decades, prompting Pat Summitt to say that her team had the least amount of energy she'd seen in her over two decades of coaching. She threw them out of their locker room, for goodness sake. All of this is pretty much unique. It's certainly unique since I've been following the game.

I wasn't a women's basketball fan in 1997, when the Vols had a similar year with 10 losses coming in to the tournament. That year they ended up with a 3 seed and won the whole thing, finally figuring it out, snapping their fingers, and becoming Tennessee at just the right time to capture yet another national title. I didn't necessarily think the same thing would happen this year but I certainly believed that they'd make the Sweet 16. After all, that's what Pat Summitt does at Tennessee, right? Um, right?

So that's why I was so intrigued by tonight's game. Tennessee, in its most dire and vulnerable hour, taking the floor against a "potentially dangeorus" Ball State team (that was the one thing I got right in my analysis of the game; the Cardinals certainly proved that tonight.) How would they play? Would they turn it on and blow them out, sending a message to everyone else that Tennessee was back to normal and ready to go out and make a run for St. Louis? Would they struggle? Would they, *gasp*, lose, for the first time ever in the first round and for the first time ever before the Sweet 16 in the NCAA tournament?

Things started out okay. Kelley Cain laid it up to score the game's first points. Porchia Green missed a three. Maybe this is the way things will go all night?

Uh, not quite.

When Kiley Jarrett got the Cardinals on the board at the 18:35 mark with a three to cut it to 4-3, a certain energy was felt. The Ball State fans, and there were many (although, not nearly as many as the Tennessee fans, obviously), roared wildly. The Cardinals looked excited and alive. You immediately got the feeling that they wouldn't be going away that easily just yet.

Then Tennessee scored the next four points to make it 8-3. Blowout city time? Not quite. Because that's when Porchia Green decided to get heated up. She hit a J to make it 8-5. Tennessee hits a couple of free throws to make it 10-5. Porchia Green for three. 10-8. Cain lays it up to restore the four point edge. Green answers with a layup of her own. 12-10.

That little sequence, from the 16:35 mark until 13:43, confirmed what we thought: Ball State wasn't just going to hand this over and, more specifically, Porchia Green had come to play tonight. Tennessee didn't have an answer for her.

They wouldn't for the rest of the night. Green ended up with 23 points and 8 rebounds.

Anyway, Cain laid it in about 15 seconds later to keep the Vols ahead by 4 but then Green's teammates started getting in to it. Kiley Jarrett hit a jumper. Patricia King made a layup. Tie game! Danielle Gratton buries a jumper. Holy cow..Ball State leads!

Even at 16-14 with 10:47 to go in the first half, it was still stunning to see Tennessee behind in a first round NCAA tournament game. We're talking about a program that has won all of its first round games by an average of 23 points since the tournament expanded to 64 teams. We're talking about a program that was the last to hit the century mark in an NCAA tournament game before UConn did today. We're talking about Tennessee. Tennessee. In a first round NCAA tournament game. They shouldn't be losing. Ever.

When Jarrett knocked down a jumper at the 6:25 mark, it put Ball State ahead 21-18. 21-18! How does Tennessee respond to being down by a whole three points? With a quick 6-0 run that forces Kelly Packard, Ball State's first year coach, to call timeout. And a smart timeout it was by her. If she let her team keep playing, who knows what might have happened. Just one small part of the masterful job she did against Summitt. It's not a stretch to say that Kelly Packard out-coached Pat Summitt tonight.

It's not a stretch to say that Kelly Packard out-coached Pat Summitt tonight.

Unbelievable.

The Cardinals responded with a 8-4 run to close out the half. When Gratton knocked down a J to give them a 29-28 lead with 39 seconds to go, the feeling was, "oh my god, Tennessee might be down going in to halftime." When Alex Fuller missed a jumper following Angie Bjorklund's miss and the rebound was corralled by the Cardinals, they knew they'd have the lead going in to half. Green's buzzer-beating three missed but still, the Cardinals were ahead 29-28 at the break.

Tennessee, down by 1, at the half. In the first round of the NCAA tournament to a 12 seed making its first ever NCAA tournament appearance.

Is this really happening?

This was probably when I really started believing that the Lady Vols just might lose this game. I mean, I was stunned. I still figured they'd come out and handle things in the second half...but I had expected them to handle things already. They hadn't.

So the second half comes on and, as expected, the Vols start off strong. Specifically, Bjorklund starts off strong as she puts together a personal 5-0 run to give her team a 33-29 lead. It was here where I assumed Tennessee would win. I thought the run would keep going and they'd cruise on in to victory. That's part of why I left my room and went to chill in a friend's room for a few minutes. I was talking to him about the game and as I left, I said, in jest, "I'm gonna go back and watch Tennessee lose now."

I didn't really mean it entirely (or at all, I was being completely tongue-in-cheek and about 85% sarcastic), though I still weighed the possibility because of how I knew it was only a five point game and that the Lady Vols were battled evenly throughout the entire first half. But, like I said, I still figured they'd end up eventually winning.

When I re-entered my room and Ball State was actually ahead, I was like "holy $&!%, they actually might lose!"

I think it was something like 45-41 as I re-entered the room. I believe the score was in the 40's but all I know for sure is that Ball State was winning. As I waited for the (thought to be) inevitable Tennessee comeback and the Vols continued to look human--playing poorly, missing threes, turning the ball over, allowing the opponent to score at will--I thought one thought that stayed with me for the rest of the game and that has stayed with me for most of the evening:

"Oh my god, Tennessee just isn't that good. They're just like every other women's basketball team. They're just not very good at all."

Now, at first glance, that quote comes off the wrong way. I do NOT mean to say that every other women's basketball teams is bad. There are good ones and bad ones and ones that fall in the middle, just like any other sport. I mean to say that Tennessee is not very good at all and by being not very good, they aren't like they normally are, which is perched with the other elites of the game. They're not UConn or Duke or Maryland or Oklahoma. They're just...normal. Like everyone else. Not "very good" at all.

On the other hand, I DID mean to say that Tennessee was terrible. Because, yes, they were terrible on this night. Absolutely terrible. They only made two three pointers while clanging 16 of them. They turned it over 16 times. They allowed the Cardinals to shoot 57.1 percent from the floor in the second half and hit 7 threes on the game, many of them on uncontested (or barely contested) looks. They looked PATHETIC. Simply put, they had a bad night, just like almost everyone else in women's college basketball is suspectable to. Usually, Tennessee teams are impervious to games like this. Even when they play poorly, they usually win. It takes a special combo of poor play from them and exceptional play from the opponent to pull off the upset. Even then, it's still almost always a very close game.

In short, it's never a 16 point blowout for the opponent, like tonight turned out to be.

Of all the stunning things about tonight, perhaps most stunning is that not only did Tennessee not storm back at the end, they actually fell further and further behind. Ball State not only kept its lead but expanded on it in the waning minutes. Can you believe that? I mean honestly, take a step back and think for a second. Can you believe that Ball State turned an 8 point advantage at the under 4 TV timeout in to a 16 point final margin? In the game's final segment, the Cardinals doubled their lead. DOUBLED IT. Against Tennessee. TENNESSEE. In the NCAA tournament.

Sometimes you watch sports and you know when you get an unforgettable feeling. Watching as Ball State kept adding on to that lead at the end was an unforgettable feeling. An unforgettable feeling of absolute shock. Same with when the final whistle blew and it was official. Same with when Pat Summitt was being interviewed by ESPN in the wake of the upset. Same with pretty much the rest of the next 20 minutes, while ESPN's studio hosts analyzed the loss (even though a potential 2-15 upset, what would have been another first in women's college basketball, was going on.) An unforgettable feeling of absolute shock.

That unforgettable feeling of absolute shock might be why Mechelle Voepel is right about this being the biggest, most historic upset in the history of women's college basketball. In terms of pure talent differential and pure differential in quality between teams, it's far from the biggest. First of all, 5-12's, while not nearly as common as on the men's side, happen semi-frequently in the women's game and there was already one yesterday with Gonzaga over Xavier. This upset isn't nearly as big as, say, Marist over Ohio State or Liberty over Penn State, in terms of sheer difference in talent and team ability. Again, Ball State ended the season red-hot with the 11 straight victories to close the season and the MAC tournament title over ranked and regular season champion Bowling Green, and the Tennessee problems were well-documented even earlier in this post.

Nonetheless, this upset is the biggest, most historic, most stunning in the history of the game. Tennessee is Tennessee. Tennessee doesn't lose in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Tennessee doesn't lose to low seeds (this was their first loss to a seed lower than 4.) Tennessee doesn't lose to tournament newcomers. Tennessee doesn't lose to mid-majors. Tennessee doesn't lose by 16 points PERIOD. Tennessee doesn't look human. Tennessee doesn't look like every other program in women's college basketball. I mean, these are things that just don't happen.

But they all did tonight. And that's why this upset is the biggest, most historic, and most stunning in the history of women's college basketball and that's why it got a long post on a Maryland Terrapins blog talking solely about it.

Ball State 71, Tennessee 55: a score that will live on forever in women's college basketball and in sports history.

REACTION: Maryland 82, Dartmouth 53

Well, that's much better.

After last year's scare against Coppin State, the Maryland Terrapins made sure to make no mistakes today and cruised throughout in their 1-16 first round NCAA tournament game at the Comcast Center.

Maryland never trailed in this one, scoring the first eight points before the Big Green got on the board. The Terps had 24 by the time Dartmouth hit double digits and had 35 by the time their opponents got to 20. They built a healthy lead and kept it throughout; a very important thing for them to do in this game. In both of their College Park NCAA tournament games last year, they had tons of trouble putting their opponent away. Even more recently, there was that double digit second half collapse against Duke in the ACC title game before winning in overtime. It was a huge positive for this team to put their foot on the opposition's throat and keep it down the entire way.

As I said in the previous post, it was all about Toliver today. She ended with 27 points, 23 of them coming in the first half when the Terps put the game away. She played until the 11:28 mark, which was good, because getting those extra reps for the bench players will be big for later in the tournament when they'll be needed for more meaningful minutes. And despite ESPN studio man Trey Wingo's accusations that the Terps were basically loafing in the second half, they outscored the Big Green 40-30 in the final 20 minutes. Good job by the Maryland reserves. All nine players played at least eight minutes with all players except Yemi Oyefuwa playing a quarter of the game. Again, those reps are important.

There's not a whole lot else to say here. The Terps had a simple task to do and they did it. Now they're on to round 2 and a surprising Utah team who just got done pulverizing Villanova 60-30. That'll be Tuesday night at 7 PM. The Terps didn't let their opponents slow the game down today and that will be even more key in a couple of days.

Kristi Toliver And Dartmouth Are Tied At Halftime

Both have 23 points. Unfortunately, Kristi Toliver is not Maryland's only scorer. Her teammates have 19 and the Terps lead 42-23 at the break.

Toliver's just lighting it up. 9/11 from the floor and one of those misses was a running 30 footer at the halftime buzzer that nearly went in anyways. That 30 footer was her only 3 point miss of the half, as she's 3/4 from behind the arc. She's scoring inside and out at will and the Big Green simply have no answer. ESPN showed a stat that Toliver increases her scoring average in the NCAA tournament and that's certainly ringing true today, as she's already eclipsed her 18.1 average on the season.

Dee Liles is Maryland's second leading scorer with 7 points. Marissa Coleman only has 4 points but she's grabbed 8 rebounds to make up for it.

The Ivy League champs actually aren't playing too poorly, aside from their 0/9 start. Take that away and they're 7/19 from the floor, which isn't too bad. Too bad it's not nearly good enough when Toliver's going off and the Terps are running at will. Maryland's already beating Villanova by double digits as the Cats only had 30 points in their 60-30 loss to Utah in the appetizer for this game. Unless the Terps just plain refuse to show up for the second half, they'll get the Utes on Tuesday night.

GAMEDAY: NCAA Tournament Round 1 - (16) Dartmouth

It's finally here.

After two full weeks of waiting, it's time for the Maryland Terrapins to get back in action because the NCAA tournament is here.

In case you had forgotten, the last time we saw the Terps, they were only winning one of the most amazing ACC tournament championship games in the history of the conference. The 92-89 overtime triumph over Duke was the perfect cherry on top of an absolutely spectacular and amazing regular season that culminated in a classic "double" (to use the European football term): the ACC regular season and tournament championships, each for the first time in two decades.

But now it's time to put the eyes on the biggest of all prizes. It's time to win six more games and give that 2006 national championship banner some company.

Everyone is saying that UConn is unstoppable. Unbeatable. Untouchable. But that's what they said about the 18-0 Patriots. That's what they said about 1991 UNLV. That's what they said about 1992 Mike Tyson. Is it a longshot that the Terps, or anyone, for that matter, defeats UConn? Yes. Is it impossible? No. And, for what it's worth, are the Terps the most equipped team in the 64-team field to take down the Huskies? Probably. You could argue for Oklahoma, but most people, pundits and fans alike, have recognized that the Terps are the second best team in women's college basketball right now and that they have the best combo of players to take down the juggernauts from Storrs.

Before all of that though, there's a little team from Hanover, New Hampshire to deal with today.

I'm not going to go so far as to say that Dartmouth is a team to be feared. They're not, at least not on paper for this Maryland team with Toliver, Coleman, and everyone else. But there are indeed reasons for the Terps to be wary of what they walk in to tomorrow. First of all, there's last year's near disaster against 16 seed Coppin State in round 1 fresh in the minds of the Terps. They were only up 45-41 with just over 17 minutes to go and were battled for about 30 minutes before pulling away to win 80-66. Almost everyone on the roster was here for that slopfest and even if, say, Lynetta Kizer and Dee Liles don't know about this personally, they can be sure that the rest of the locker room will be bringing it up and painting them a pretty nice picture of what it was like so that they can prevent it from happening again.

Second of all, the Big Green aren't too bad for a 16 seed. They're 18-10 overall, blowing through the Ivy League with an impressive 13-1 mark. They took Michigan State to overtime back in late November at a tournament in Vermont and they went to Fayetteville, Ark. and took the Arkansas Lady Razorbacks to the wire before succumbing in the final minute, 66-57. That trip to Bud Walton Arena should prep them well for playing in a gigantic college arena that's more like a WNBA home court, such as the Comcast Center.

But more than all of that, they have tournament experience. A lot of it. This will be their seventh NCAA tournament appearance, with three in the last decade. Their last one was just a couple of years ago in 2006. While the Terps were a 2 seed and winning a national title, the Big Green were a 14 seed and scaring the holy beejesus out of Rutgers. Seriously, they fought back from down 16 early on and had multiple chances to tie the game in the final minute. Remember what I wrote yesterday about how the parity is increasing in women's college basketball? There's yet another example of it. This also means that if the Terps get up big early, they better not go on cruise control too soon. Oh and by the way, that Dartmouth/Rutgers game was in Trenton, NJ. Not quite on the Scarlet Knight campus but close enough so that the Big Green players who were around for that game know that they can compete with a women's college basketball giant on their home turf in March. Or should I say "player"? Koren Schram is the team's only senior.

Dartmouth's leading scorer and rebounder is Brittney Smith, a 6'1 sophomore forward averaging 14.1 points and 8.2 rebounds per game. They only have one other scorer in double figures as Schram averages 12.1 points and leads the team with 66 assists. The Big Green don't score much, averaging only 56.8 points per game as a team, and they don't have much depth, with only seven players averaging more than 15 minutes per game. They've got some height, with a few 6'2 players on the roster and Smith being 6'1 herself so at least a Marissa Coleman won't tower over her. Obviously their game plan will be to slow the game down as much as possible. If Maryland prevents them from doing that, they shouldn't have trouble wearing down the Big Green. The Terps have depth issues of their own with only nine girls suiting up for today's game, but their players are much more conditioned for an up-and-down pace than the Big Green's are. If Maryland plays their usual tempo, there's no chance Dartmouth's able to stay in it for long.

Honestly though, this game shouldn't be a problem. Especially after last year, I expect the Terps to come out fired up and unlike last year, they'll keep pushing after opening strong. The screws will be tightened on defense, they'll play fast and free flowing, and this will be a rout. And hopefully that's the case for the Comcast Center crowd as well. Not only will they want to see their Terps come out with the fire and energy they so sorely lacked in last year's first round game in College Park, they'll just want to see some fire and energy (and exciting basketball) after what's sure to be a Villanova/Utah opening act that ends something like 44-42.

I'm still at home so I won't be attending this one. I am in Maryland though, so I'll get the game on ESPN at 2:30 (you can also listen to it live on http://www.wmucsports.com/, the EXCLUSIVE radio post-season home of the Terps) but I'm gonna be honest; I won't be liveblogging since I'll likely be flipping between it and whatever men's tournament game is on, and the latter will likely get more of my attention if and when the Terps blow it open, which should happen very quickly. Dartmouth only scores 57 points a game. Maryland should be most of the way to that by halftime. Recap to come later tonight once I'm back in College Park.

PREDICTION - Maryland 87, Dartmouth 44