It's GameDay - Terps Take on US National Team

Tonight is our first and only chance to work out the kinks before the season opens next Friday night against Princeton. Unfortunately, the US National Team is a hard team to work out the kinks against. Almost every player on the team is a star on the WNBA level and I doubt they will rollover and play easier like previous exhibiton opponents have.

Just an FYI, Crystal has a sprained foot according to TerrapinTimes, so it would be a shock to see her play tonight as we need her healthy for 39 games this year.

Here's what I want to see tonight:
- Better defense by everyone.
- Better decision-making by KT, no need to shoot every time down the floor.
- More Aggression and attacking the hoop.
- Better handling of the pressure.
- Post players with outside shots.


What do you think?

Terps Picked 4th in ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll

The first real poll of the season came out this morning and the Terps start the season ranked fourth with 637 points. Tennessee was one, followed by UConn and Rutgers.

Looking at the preseason poll, the Terps will play the #3 (Rutgers), #5 (LSU - NIT), #6 (Oklahoma), #7 (UNC), #9 (Duke - at least twice), #16 (Ohio State), #19 (Florida State), #21 (Pittsburgh), #25 (North Carolina State) as well as the following teams receiving votes: Middle Tennessee State, Notre Dame (NIT), Georgia Tech, UCLA, and Temple. That's 15 games (at least) against teams at least one coach thought was worthy of being in the Top 25.

More Articles

More articles previewing the season:

Annapolis Capital
Off Court
CSTV's List of Top PGs
CSTV previews the ACC

Maryland Media Day

Yesterday was media day on campus and in case you missed it, you can either watch Brenda's Press Conference or read her quotes or the players' quotes.

Some of the news outlets covered it:
Baltimore Sun
The Diamondback
Washington Post
Examiner
Examiner




In other news, USA Basketball finally announced its roster for Wednesday with the one surprise being Lisa Leslie's return to the court.

Monday Musings

- Chelsea Lee and April Sykes chose Rutgers, which is a real kick in the pants.
- Dee Liles recommitted to Maryland, let's hope she finally gets to wear a Terps uniform in 2008.
- Still no word on who will be coming with USA Basketball, but from putting together bits and pieces from releases, chances are we will be playing many of the players on the USA Select Roster listed here.
- TerrapinTimes is reporting that we crushed Georgetown 90-52 on Saturday. No stats are available.

Maryland picked to win ACC; Crystal Preseason POY

Maryland received 27 of 37 votes and is the preseason favorite in the ACC.

Crystal was tabbed Preseason Player of the Year, while Marissa was a Preseason All-ACC selection.

Let's hope we live up to these expectations.

Tuesday was ACC Media Day, yet no poll

Judging from articles on the web, it was ACC Media Day down in Greensboro and all the coaches were in attendance, except for Brenda, who missed the event with back spasms (not a good sign with still 5 months before the twins arrive). The preseason poll was not released and is expected to be released today. Below are the links to articles regarding the event.

Examiner

Greensboro News Record

Raleigh News and Observer

Examiner

Washington Times

Charlotte Observer

Burlington Times

USA Today

Not a good sign that the Post nor the Sun bothered to send anyone down there. Somehow Heather Dinich was able to go cover men's media day.

In other news, the WNBA Draft Lottery was held yesterday and LA won the first pick, followed by Chicago, Minnesota, Atlanta, Houston, Washington, New York, Seattle, Connecticut, Sacramento, Detroit, Indiana, Phoenix, New York. I know the basketcases would want Lang in the Capital City. Atlanta would be ironic as she again would start with a rebuilding team. Anywhere but NY as they tend to let draft picks sit on the bench.

Monday Musings

-Sorry for the delay been having computer issues.

- It was great to see the team back on the court at Maryland Madness, but would it have hurt to let the ladies play more than 5 minutes? Here's hoping Harper's long-range shooting wasn't a one-time thing and she mimics what Gist would do on the break last year - spot up from three and can it.

- Almost all the preseason polls are out and we are ranked as high as #2 with Langhorne being an All-American in every mag. SportsPage.com picked Maryland fifth as did the Black Athlete Sports Network.

- Jessica Garrison picks Crystal as one of the top six centers in the country.

- ACC Men's Media Day was yesterday, which means women's media day will be just around the corner. Will Lang be preseason POY? Will Maryland be picked to win it all?

- Looks like someone taped the women's dance at Media Day:

Potential 2018 Recruit: Nicky Greenberg

According ESPN Radio's Mike Golic, Coach B may already be interested in seven-year old Nicky Greenberg from Westport, CT after learning about her last night at the Jimmy V Dinner. According to her father, she can dribble with her left-hand and is already working on her cross-over dribble. Her father believes she will develop "mad hops" as she gets older. Early competition seems to be Rutgers.

Monday Musings

Less than 5 days until the first practice as Friday will be the first time many of see Drey Mingo, Marah Strickland and Kat Lyons in a Terp uniform. Unfortunately, Anjale and Kim are not healthy enough to suit up.

The roster page on umterps.com has been updated! Here are all the new head shots

According to this release two preseason mags ranked us 4th and one picked us fifth. Crystal and Marissa were also tabbed preseason All-Americans.

Crystal gets a back handed compliment in this article by Jeff Lippman. Last I checked, Crystal was more of a POY candidate than Abby Waner.

The Rebkell boards have a poll about most anticipated games. Somehow the person created it thinks that Maryland-UCLA is a huge game and completely avoided our games vs. LSU, Oklahoma, Rutgers and Ohio State.

TerrapinTimes reported that top prospect April Sykes was on campus over the weekend along with 08 target Dara Taylor from DE and 09 target Maggie Lucas from PA. Sykes is rumored to be down to us, Rutgers and Illinois. Also sounds like Cierra Brevard is heavily leaning towards FSU.