Maryland's season of hype and hope, the twin elixirs fueling fans of a talented team, is a week old. Three games in November rarely define a season, barring a spate of injuries. Three games in November generally are a poor sample size for sweeping statements. Three games in November usually prompt reminders of the universal truth of teams looking far different months down the road than they do less than 10 percent of the way in their seasons. So any evaluation of the Terrapins in the wake of Friday's harrowing 65-58 defeat of Rider is undoubtedly premature. Well, except for... Continue reading

Loyola rolled to a 76-57 victory over UMBC. It had superior offensive rebounding when it mattered most to credit for the triumph. The Greyhounds scored 13 second-chance points in the first half (aided by 52.6 offensive rebounding percentage before the break) to snap a two-game slide to open the season. Whether it was Jarred Jones or Cam Gregory, Loyola largely had its way in the paint in the first half. It provided more than enough of a cushion to withstand a brief spurt from the Retrievers (0-3) in the second half before re-asserting control in the last 12 minutes. A... Continue reading

On the surface, there's one easy takeaway from George Washington's 73-68 defeat of Virginia on Monday. Namely, George Washington scored 73 points against Virginia. And that hasn't happened in regulation against the Cavaliers in nearly two years. So, yeah, the Colonials (2-0) were pretty good offensively. Now, some of that was arguably a function of a shorter shot clock, though George Washington didn't flirt with going a full 30 seconds on a possession nearly as much as Virginia's opponents tended to the last two seasons with 35 seconds to work with. The Colonials also scored 23 points at the foul... Continue reading

There are few things as underappreciated in college basketball as the art of scheduling, at least for good teams --- especially for those with only so much leverage to work with. That's one way of describing George Washington, which built a brilliant slate for a veteran team for this particular season. It got Penn State, Rutgers and Seton Hall to come to the raucous Smith Center in December, and also returns a game to DePaul. All have some power conference pedigree. None are particularly dominant (though the Colonials lost to Penn State and Seton Hall last season). But the jewel... Continue reading

The opening night of Maryland's much-hyped basketball season produced the sort of performance that can generally be expected in mid-November. The Terrapins weren't perfect. They clearly need some work defensively on the perimeter. Oh, and they can score. A lot. From just about anywhere. Maryland's 80-56 defeat of Mount St. Mary's was never in much doubt after the first 10 minutes. For as long as the Mountaineers (0-1) are --- and considering their size, they'll be a fascinating team to watch in the guard-centric Northeast Conference --- they weren't going to out-athlete the Terps anywhere on the floor. Jake Layman's... Continue reading

The college basketball season commences Friday, just a little less than four months until Selection Sunday. Need something to help plan all that time? Here's a rundown of everyone in the Washington and Baltimore areas, including a few schools of note located well into Virginia. Nov. 13 Coppin State at Eastern Kentucky, 7 Colgate at George Mason, 7 Lafayette at George Washington, 7 Mount St. Mary’s at Maryland, 7 Howard at Massachusetts, 7 James Madison at Richmond, 7 Morgan State at Virginia, 7 Prairie View at Virginia Commonwealth, 7 Tennessee State at Loyola, 7:30 Maryland-Eastern Shore at Kansas State, 8... Continue reading

TOWSON, Md. --- A few things worth mentioning from Towson's 55-41 loss to Drexel on Thursday ... 1. Towson isn't beating anyone if it doesn't get scoring from Four McGlynn and Timajh Parker-Rivera. This was already fairly obvious, and it was a wonder the Tigers (8-8, 1-2 CAA) outlasted Elon on Monday when McGlynn struggled. But McGlynn remained ensconced in a slump, scoring only four points and shooting 1 of 9 from the floor against the Dragons (3-11, 1-2). Parker-Rivera played 27 quiet minutes, managing three rebounds and two missed shots for his trouble. "You hope to get more than... Continue reading

National rankings aren't particularly meaningful in the present. They are things for fans to get excited about, and for a program that's wallowed in mediocrity (or worse) for a long while, it's something to tout. But ultimately, they don't matter on the floor, and they don't matter to the NCAA tournament selection committee. Years down the road, though, they provide a wonderful way of dividing things up to find "first time since ..." statistics. And those, while not especially meaningful either, can provide mild entertainment on a slow day. Hence this post. Maryland is ranked No. 12 nationally and plays... Continue reading

How does a team grab nearly two-thirds of its offensive rebounding possibilities, shoot 57.4 percent from the floor and still lose? Towson knows the answer to that basketball riddle. There's really only one way it could happen. The Tigers' 25 turnovers contributed to a second-half meltdown in Monday's 85-84 loss to Fairleigh Dickinson at SECU Arena, a befuddling display of dreadful ballhandling for a team that has struggled with turnovers all season. "I don't recall doing that badly my first year," said coach Pat Skerry, referring to the 1-31 team he piloted in 2011-12. "We have some work to do.... Continue reading

Greg Kampe knows a bit about assessing power conference programs. Nevermind that he's spent the last 31 years as the head coach at Oakland, a Detroit in suburban Detroit. Kampe is the architect of one of the great scheduling philosophies in Division I. The Grizzlies routinely play as many high-level teams as possible, constructing a brutally difficult road schedule that simultaneously pays plenty of bills and routinely places Oakland in the top 50 (and often higher) in nonconference schedule strength. The Grizzlies, who have faced 27 ranked teams over the last 10 seasons, already met Iowa State, Arizona, Michigan State... Continue reading

This annual treat needs no explanation, starting with tonight's extensive (and international) schedule ... Nov. 8 Maryland vs. Connecticut in Brooklyn, N.Y., 6:30 American at George Mason, 7 Radford at George Washington, 7 Washington College at Howard, 7 Navy at Towson, 7:30 UMBC at Arizona State, 8 Loyola at Binghamton, 8 Georgetown vs. Oregon in Seoul, South Korea, 8 Mount St. Mary’s at West Virginia, 8 Coppin State at California, midnight Nov. 9 Morgan State at Ohio State, noon Nov. 10 Loyola at Cornell, 4 Gwynedd Mercy at Howard, 5 Coppin State at Oregon State, 8 Nov. 11 Navy vs.... Continue reading

The biggest winners from the release of the 2016 and 2017 Big Ten football schedules on Thursday are probably hotel owners in the conference's college towns who have plenty of advance notice to jack up their rates during weekends with home games. The next biggest winners? Maryland fans who, for whatever reason, are salivating over the chance to play Penn State in a meaningful spot on the schedule. The season finale in 2017 in College Park should do. (For those wondering if the 2017 Penn State game will be moved to Baltimore like the 2015 contest, don't count on it.... Continue reading

For all intents and purposes there are two parts to George Washington's freshly revealed 2013-14 nonconference schedule. There's the non-exempt tournament portion of it: School 12-13 W-L 12-13 RPI at Kansas State (Dec. 31) 27-8 (NCAA) 20 vs. Maryland (Dec. 8) 25-13 (NIT) 71 Rutgers (Dec. 4) 15-16 110 Georgia (Jan. 3) 15-17 140 Boston University (Dec. 11) 17-13 (CIT) 148 at Manhattan (Nov. 16) 14-18 183 Maine (Nov. 12) 11-19 265 Delaware State (Nov. 19) 15-18 269 UMBC (Dec. 21) 8-23 298 Radford (Nov. 8) 13-19 316 at Hofstra (Dec. 28) 7-25 325 As for the second part, tack... Continue reading

Maryland wide receiver Stefon Diggs was named to the Maxwell Award watch list on Monday. The Maxwell is given to the nation's top player. It is the second watch list nod for Diggs, who had 54 receptions for 848 yards and six touchdowns as a freshman last season. Diggs is one of 76 players on the watch list. Other ACC players on the Maxwell list include Clemson quarterback Tajh Boyd, Miami running back Duke Johnson, Miami quarterback Stephen Morris, North Carolina quarterback Bryn Renner, Syracuse running back Jerome Smith, Virginia Tech quarterback Logan Thomas and Clemson wideout Sammy Watkins. Previously:... Continue reading

Time to get this 25-post series started at long last. Up first? Four recent arrivals on the major college football scene and a school 53 years removed from its last bowl appearance ... 125. GEORGIA STATE First, the plusses for the Panthers. They're nestled in an area close to plenty of talent. They're playing in the Georgia Dome, so they can sell a pro facility regardless of how well they draw. They hired a coach (Trent Miles) that helped Indiana State achieve respectability after hitting rock-bottom a few years back. So this isn't a hopeless case long-term, especially with Georgia... Continue reading

Just this hour, the Boston Celtics introduced Brad Stevens as their new coach. Wednesday's announcement the Butler coach was leaving for the NBA set off the latent moaning about how college coaches are abysmal failures at the professional level for myriad reasons. Figuring out whether Stevens will be a bust in Boston is something for others to determine. Considering the massive rebuilding project he'll oversee, he could easily absorb more losses in his first NBA season than he did in six years at Butler (49). But he does have one obvious thing in common with the last eight coaches to... Continue reading

As a warning, this is going to get repetitive in the next few weeks as the dozens of college football awards committees trot out their watch lists. Stefon Diggs will be on plenty of them. Take the Hornung Award, which is given to college football's most versatile player. Diggs, who thrived as both a receiver and a kickoff returner in his freshman year at Maryland, is one of 44 nominees for an honor won a year ago by West Virginia's Tavon Austin. Other notable nominees include Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel and Clemson wideout Sammy Watkins. The full list is... Continue reading

Oneof the most popular concepts ever executed on this blog was the Best Eats in the ACC guide from three years ago. The idea: Piece together a list of restaurants (cheap is a plus, but local is paramount) for each outpost in the conference and bring it together in one place. Well, the ACC formally adds Notre Dame, Pittsburgh and Syracuse today. And as a result, that guide needs a revision. I've hemmed and hawed about updating the last two years, but this time I really mean it. So between the comments from the old guide, my own visits in... Continue reading

One of the amusing side effects --- maybe the only amusing side effect --- of conference realignment over the last three years is the thought of former college stars being associated with leagues they had nothing to do with. Carmelo Anthony, ACC legend. Andrew Bogut, Pac-12 great. Gordon Hayward, Big East star. Acie Law, creator of stellar SEC memories. Derrick Rose, American hero. (Coming next year, of course, are Juan Dixon and Greivis Vasquez, Big Ten legends. But that can wait another 12 months). Those are all mildly entertaining, but don't think for a moment conferences won't embrace the the... Continue reading

So, what college conference was the biggest winner on the NBA's draft night? Technically, it would be the ACC and the Pac-12 at seven picks apiece. But realistically, it was a relatively balanced night for conference bragging rights. Six Big East players (well, five that actually played for a Big East team this past season) were selected, as were five from both the Big Ten and the SEC. The Big 12 and Mountain West checked in with four players apiece. The Atlantic 10 and Conference USA were shut out, while the Patriot League had two players selected after going the... Continue reading

Maryland's Sept. 14 football game at Connecticut will start at 7:30 p.m. and be broadcast online by ESPN3. It will be the Terrapins' first night game since November 2011, when they lost to Notre Dame at FedEx Field. It's a curious start time, though Desmond Conner of the Hartford Courant reports Connecticut pushed for a late start time to account for fans observing Yom Kippur. Maryland and Connecticut have split their two meetings, with the Terps winning 34-0 in 1942 and Connecticut collecting a 24-21 victory in College Park last year. --- Patrick Stevens Continue reading

Remember the college football coaching tenure list from earlier this year? Well, here's the college basketball version. Yes, it took quite a while to piece it together. But there's no shortage of data to glean, as well as one huge theme: Not many coaches stick around long in a job anymore. A few nuggets before the big list: * The median hire date belongs to Iona's Tim Cluess: April 8, 2010. In other words, half of all Division I coaches have been on the job for no more than roughly 38 months. * A quarter of all Division I head... Continue reading

All of Maryland's athletic programs produced Academic Progress Rate marks above the NCAA's cut score of 925 during the 2011-12 school year and will not be subject to any penalties. The Terrapins' football score was 937, its highest since a 943 in 2006-07. Maryland slipped as low as 922 in 2009-10, costing it three scholarships for the 2011 football season. Men's basketball (948) and women's basketball (950) also surpassed the cut score. The lowest score of any program in College Park was men's tennis, which had a 925. That program was cut by the school last year. The men's cross... Continue reading

The annual Major League Baseball draft wrapped up over the weekend, and in keeping with an annual custom, here's the breakdown of players selected from colleges in Maryland, D.C. and Virginia. Virginia Tech had six players picked, the most of any school in the area. Both Liberty and Maryland had four players selected. Overall, 25 college players from Maryland, D.C. and Virginia were drafted, down from 35 in both 2010 and 2011 and 30 last year. Of course, the 2010 draft had 50 rounds, while the event now only goes 40 rounds. LIBERTY (4) 340. OF Ryan Cordell, Texas 693.... Continue reading

Nose guard Danny Ring and former starting quarterback Trey Miller are no longer on Navy's football roster. Ring was set to enter preseason camp in August as the starter at nose guard. He had 17 tackles (two for loss) and one sack while appearing in 13 games as a sophomore last year, including three starts. Ring earned a starting nod for the Midshipmen's final two games. Sophomore Bernard Serra, who earned the program's Admiral Mack award as the most improved player during spring practice, is now listed as the starter at nose guard. He made six tackles as a reserve... Continue reading