Charley Toomey was in goal (1990) the last time Loyola played in a national championship game. Fast forward 22 years and the former goalie is pacing the Loyola sidelines and a strong candidate for national coach of the year.

Loyola is the top seed in the tournament. This is the Greyhounds first final 4 since 1998. The ECAC Champs bring the best record to New England at 16-1. Their only loss came in overtime to Hopkins.

Loyola will meet 4th seed Notre Dame, the Irish have won 13 of 15 games and have the nations best goalie in John Kemp. The Potomac, MD product leads the nation in goals against average (6.23) and save percentage (.636).Face-offs could decide this game, J.P. Dalton was dominant in Loyola’s quarterfinal win over Denver while Notre Dame is under 50% for the season.

The other semifinal matches Maryland against 3rd seed Duke. It’ll be the 3rd time this season that these 2 ACC rivals go at it (they split the first 2). And how about Maryland coach John Tillman, he’s been in College Park for 2 years and his Terps have made it to the Final 4 both seasons. He’s the first coach in NCAA history to take unseeded teams to back-to-back Final Four’s.

Maryland graduated a lot of talent a year ago but the Terps are back after an impressive 11-5 win over Johns Hopkins in the quarterfinals. Duke is red hot the Blue Devils have won 12 of their last 13 games. Maryland loves to slow the pace we’ll see who can control the tempo in this one.

Loyola has never won an NCAA lacrosse title and Maryland hasn’t hoisted the trophy since 1975 both are 2 wins away from history.

Saturday Schedule

2:30 Gillette Stadium (ESPN 2)
4-Notre Dame (13-5) vs. 1-Loyola (16-1)

5:00 Gillette Stadium (ESPN2)
Maryland 11-5 vs. 3-Duke 15-4

Winners play for Championship
Monday at 1:00

Number 5: NBA Playoff Surprises

On Tuesday the Los Angeles Lakers lost Game 5 in their series with the Oklahoma City Thunder, thus eliminating them from the NBA Playoffs. On Tuesday the Miami Heat beat the Indiana Pacers by thirty-two and lead the series three games to two.

Number 4: NFL Union Files Suit Against NFL Over 2010 Salary Cap

On Wednesday, the NFL Union filed suit against the NFL, accusing the league of “colluding” with NFL owners to set a salary cap in 2010, which they had no power to do so. This suit comes after appeals from the Washington Redskins and Dallas Cowboys were dismissed. The teams were appealing their punishments from going over the salary cap in 2010.

Number 3: I’ll Have Another Wins Preakness

I’ll Have Another won the Preakness on Saturday, again overtaking Bodemeister in the stretch to win the race by a neck. If he wins the Belmont Stakes on June 9, he would become only the 12th horse in history to win The Triple Crown.

Number 2: Maryland and Loyola in the Final Four

On Saturday the Maryland Terps and the Loyola Greyhounds will play in the Final Four of the NCAA Division I Men’s Lacrosse Championship. Maryland will play duke, while Loyola will play Notre Dame. Maryland has won the National Championship twice, while Loyola has never won the championship.

Number 1: The Return of Brian Roberts

Brian Roberts, Second Baseman for the Baltimore Orioles, begun playing baseball for the first time in more than a year. He is currently playing in the Minor Leagues as part of a rehabilitation assignment. Roberts last played in a game May 16, 2011, and since then has been sidelined because of a concussion.

Tillman, in his second season of coaching the Terps, said he really credits his coaching staff and older players with the team’s success.

“We have a really new team, with twenty-two guys lost off of last year’s roster. We really had to grow up fast and I think our older players have done a great job. Our assistant coaches have done a great job of bringing this team along and getting them to a Final Four weekend,” he said.

Tillman also had high praise for fellow Final Four team, the Loyola Greyhounds.

“I couldn’t be happier for Charley Toomey and his staff and what they’ve done this year. Their just a class act up there. It’s great for Baltimore, it’s great for our state, and we certainly hope Loyola has a lot of success on Saturday,” he said.

This weekend the team plays a familiar opponent in Duke. The have already met twice this year, and have played each other six times in the past fifteen months. Tillman said the teams are very familiar with one another.

“I don’t know if there are going to be a a lot of secrets. Their familiar with our style of play, our personnel, and some of of our schemes, and vice versa,” he said.

Florio also talked about the support the team has gotten back in Maryland, and how it drives the team to work harder.

“I know for some of those people it would mean a lot to them to try and bring back a title and I think that’s what really drives a lot of us. It allows us to stay a little later, and it drives us to come in earlier an watch a little more film and put in the hours that we do, because we know that it would make a lot of people happy,” he said.

Maryland’s Final Four match up against Duke takes place at  Gillette Stadium at 5 pm on Saturday, in Foxburough, Massachusetts.

-Sarah Davis

Toomey, in his seventh season as head coach for Loyola, was also a player for the team when Loyola was last in the Final Four in 1990. He said the team is planning on making the most of this opportunity.

“This opportunity may never come again for guys in the locker room and so what we’ve been doing is taking it one game at a time and making sure we are as prepared as we can be for Saturday. We’re not looking forward towards anything, this is all about the preparations for Saturday and being the best team we can be when we take the field,” he said.

Toomey also said as long as they can hold Notre Dame to their average of nine goals a game, he is confident in his team’s chances of scoring ten.

“That’s really been our mantra all year: if we can hold a team to eight we fell pretty good we can get to ten, this is going to be a defensive battle, but certainly Loyola’s a team when the ball hits the ground we want to run. We are going to try to stay true to character and play as fast as we can when those opportunities are out there,” he said.

Last Wednesday, Ray Lewis came and talked to the team and inspired them in many ways.

“Our message was ‘guys give something up’ and it was certainly the message Ray Lewis gave us last week, ‘Give something up. Do something different. Prepare, rehydrate, watch more film,” he said.

Toomey said they were able to get Ray Lewis to come and talk to them because of their many NFL connections on the team.

“Pat Moriarty’s son plays for us, Kevin Moriarty, and Pat is the General Manager for the Ravens, so he certainly was in Ray’s ear for probably a month or so saying, ‘Hey, these guys are on a little bit of a run and if you are in town would consider doing it?’ To our good fortune Ray Lewis was kind enough to come over and meet with out team,” he said.

Loyola plays Notre Dame in the Final Four on Saturday, in Boston.

-Sarah Davis

Commissioner Roger Goodell says he plans to make the bounty evidence known to the public. The appeals and grievance processes are still ongoing. Goodell says that the NFLPA told the players not to cooperate with the bounty investigation.

After 23 seasons in Utah, Jerry Sloan resigned as head coach of the team. He now wants to get back into coaching and has expressed interest in taking over in Orlando or Charlotte. Sloan took the Jazz to the finals twice in 1997 and 1998 and ranks 3rd all-time in regular season wins with 1,221. Wednesday on the court, the 76ers will try and stay alive in their series with the Celtics as the two teams play game 6 in Philly with Boston leading the series 2 games to 1.

On the ice it’s a pivotal game 5 between the Rangers and Devils in the Eastern Conference Finals which is knotted up at two games a piece with the swing game at Madison Square Garden Wednesday night.

Texas Athletic Director Deloss Dodds has admitted to courting Notre Dame to try to join their conference after departures had left the Big 12 with 10 teams. Florida State had also been rumored to try to join the Big 12.

In fact, all of the college conference realignment you see now is all about football, not basketball as many people in big college basketball areas would like to believe.

The Atlantic Coast Conference is the latest power conference to be hit with rumors of realignment. With all of the money being thrown around, it seems Florida State would benefit financially from bolting to a more lucrative situation.

It’s been reported that a non-football powerhouse like Northwestern makes about $25 million from football. Yes, Northwestern. That’s not because of the great things that the program is doing. It’s because of it’s affiliation with the Big 10 conference.

Florida State makes about $12.5 million from football. That’s because the ACC doesn’t have it’s own television network and doesn’t generate the revenue that the Big 10 does. Why would the Seminoles stay?

In the old days, the ACC was king. That’s before the current business model of college athletics. Now, it’s about television and momentum. The ACC is behind in both categories. The question is when and if Florida State decides to leave, how will that effect Clemson and Miami? If they leave, what becomes of the ACC?

Trinity, which won its eighth straight game to finish a school-best 21-1, posted the school’s second NCAA national
championship. The Bantams, who were playing in the first NCAA Final Four in program history, had reached the quarterfinals in six of their previous seven NCAA appearances.

Trailing 5-4 in the game at Montclair State University, Trinity scored four consecutive goals in 6:28. Hildebrand started the run with consecutive goals. Hadley Duncan added the third and midfielder Liz Bruno got the last one for an 8-5 lead with 9:40 to play.

Bethany Baer scored twice to close the gap to a goal with 2:28 to go, but the Connecticut school was able to hold on for the win.

Salisbury, second in 2009 and the national champion in 2010, was looking to become the 13th undefeated national champion and the first since 2007. The Sea Gulls (22-1) also got two goals from midfielder Lauren Feusahrens.

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)

In the case of the University of Maryland and guard Terrell Stoglin, that may not be so.

On Monday, the university announced that Stoglin and former player Mychal Parker had been suspended by the school for violating the Student-Athlete Code of Conduct.

Stoglin has declared for the NBA Draft and Parker announced last month that we was leaving the program.

After leading the ACC in scoring, Stoglin was named to the All-ACC second team. I asked coach Mark Turgeon back in March if his sophomore guard should have made first team. Turgeon felt that a second team selection was appropriate mainly because of his team’s 17-15 record.

While Stoglin was a proven scorer this past year, his team play left a lot to be desired. Often times his shoot-first mentality disrupted the Maryland offense. An offense that–with the lack of a true point guard–was out of sync.

In Alex Len, James Padgett, Ashton Pankey and incoming frosh Shaq Cleare and Charles Mitchell, Turgeon has plenty of big bodies to man the low post.

He would like a guard that will get them the ball.

Sam Cassell, Jr. and Seth Allen are two freshman coming into the program who will both get a chance to contribute immediately. Nick Faust ,an ACC All-Freshman team selection, got plenty of time at the point this past season, as well.

For Stoglin, his future is now uncertain. He’s nice kid and , hopefully, will get himself back on the right path.

For Mark Turgeon and the Maryland Terrapins, Terrell Stoglin’s 21.6 PPG will be missed.

They will not, however, miss the selfishness and may be a better team without him.

BH

In the pros Monday, there are 3 game 2s in the conference quarterfinals. The Heat look to go up 2-0 in their series with the Knicks, the Magic will try and stun the Pacers and put them in an 0-2 hole with game 2 in Indiana, and out west, the Oklahoma City Thunder can take a 2-games to none lead over the Dallas Mavericks.

The Orioles head to the Bronx to face the Yankees as they still hold a share of first place in the division. Jason Hammel and his 1.73 era, third best in the AL, will start for Baltimore. Hiroki Kuroda goes for New York. Gametime Monday is 7:05 p.m. Baltimore Baseball Tonight starts at 6 p.m. right here on The FAN.

In the rest of the AL East Monday: the Blue Jays host the Rangers. Kyle Drabek faces Yu Darvish. The Red Sox host the Athletics. Clay Bucholz matches up against Tommy Milone. The Rays get a visit from the Mariners. Jeremy Hellickson and Felix Hernandez are the starters there.

On the ice Monday, the Capitals will try to even their series with the Rangers as they play game 2 at Madison Square Garden trailing 1-nothing in the best of seven. In the Western Conference, the LA Kings, who already took out the top seeded Canucks, will try to go up 2-nothing on the second seeded St. Louis Blues as the two teams play game two in the Gateway City.

…And here is the video you want to see: Mrs. Irrelevant

Matich, a former NFL long snapper, thinks highly of Konz.

“He’s got great push off the ball.  He’s got a wide base. He’s hard to turn.  Hard to push around.  And, he also has enough agility to be able to, from the center position, pull and lead plays to the outside.”

Listen to the entire interview here:

But will Konz’ natural ability translate to the NFL and, more importantly, the Ravens?

“Wisconsin runs a pro-style running attack and Konz has proven himself outstanding in that kind of system,” Matich added.

Besides the fact that the Ravens like to build around core positions and center Matt Birk is nearing the end of his career, Matich has another very good reason why Ozzie Newsome & Company should grab Konz with the 29^th overall pick.

“He naturally brings into the league the exact skill set needed to block for Ray Rice.”

OK.  Great.  Sold.  Sounds like an all-pro.  First minor detail is to make sure he’s available Thursday night.

Smotrycz announced on his Twitter account Monday that he’s heading to the University of Maryland.

The 6’9″, 235-pound forward said he was leaving Michigan’s program earlier this month.

Smotrycz averaged 7.7 points and 4.9 rebounds as a sophomore last season, starting the first 18 games and coming off the bench for the final 16 games. He scored 15 points — making 6 of 7 shots, including a pair of 3-pointers — in an NCAA tournament loss to Ohio.

Smotrycz, from Reading, Mass., averaged 6.3 points as a freshman and started in 24 of 35 games.

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)

Some fans point to Calipari’s arrogance. Others call him a cheater, pointing out the fact that his then University of Memphis team had to vacate their 38 wins and trip to the championship game, stemming from major infractions, including fraudulent  SAT scores by Derrick Rose.

Calipari is a winning, and in the world of sports, that’s often enough to make people hate you. He always seems to have a gray cloud over his head, but the man gets it done. Memphis knew what they were signing up for and so did the University of Kentucky. What both schools got in return were trips to the National Championship game.

Kentucky, on the other hand, has been there twice under Calipari and they’ve done it in a very unconventional way. Most would believe having to turn over rosters so quickly would make it too difficult to build a powerhouse, but Coach Cal has found a way to do it. He’s brought in NBA lottery pick after lottery pick and those guys have stayed one, and in some cases two years and have been out the door. That hasn’t hindered Calipari from getting all that he can get out of these youngsters. He’s done a great job at it as well.

Monday night’s match-up has Calipari’s team going against the Kansas Jayhawks. Bill Self’s team beat Calipari’s Memphis team in the 2008 National Championship game. While all of the talk is about Calipari, Self is traveling under the radar, piling up a very impressive resume of his own. If he wins, not only will that mark his second championship in five years, it will be his second over Calipari. Don’t think both coaches aren’t well aware of that.

Rob Long

I’ve been a Maryland basketball fan since the mid-70′s. For years I watched team after team fall short of Final Four glory.

Lefty Driesell had some powerhouse squads during his tenure as Terps coach. They did manage to make the Elite Eight twice. But Providence in 1973 and Louisville in 1975 stopped them short of their goal.

Lefty’s best team–the 1974 group–didn’t even make the NCAA Tournament.

After the tragic death of star Len Bias and the brief Bob Wade era, Maryland hoops hit rock bottom.

In 1989, however, Williams was brought back home to make things right and restore the program to it’s prior status.

He did that and more.

Oh, Garyland had their share of heartbreak too. The Joe Smith-led teams of ’94 and ’95 reached the Sweet 16. As did the 1998 club. But their run stopped there.

Gary’s most talented team, in my opinion, the 1999 Steve Francis-led crew, also made the round of 16. But that season ended in disappointment as they were embarrassed by St. John’s.

As a fan, I didn’t think they would ever break through and make it to the Final Four.

In 2001, that all changed as the Terps–a #4 seed–won the West Regional and made it to the National Semi-Finals for the first time in school history. But more despair followed as Maryland blew a 22-point lead and were stunned by Duke.

The Terps were on a mission for the 2001-02 season and rolled to a 15-1 record in the ACC and were tabbed as the top seed in the East. They earned a return trip to the Final Four with a thrilling win over UConn in the East Regional Finals.

After beating Kansas, all that stood between Maryland and a National Title was underdog Indiana. After some tense moments, the Terps and Juan Dixon imposed their will and finally captured the elusive championship.

Next to the Orioles winning the 1983 World Series, Maryland winning it all is my most satisfying sports memory.

A lot changed for the Terps since that great season. Williams has retired and was replaced by Mark Turgeon. They play their home games at the Comcast Center and not Cole Field House.

Since 2002, they have only made the NCAA Tournament five times and have not reached the Sweet 16 since 2003.

But they hired the right guy to replace Gary Williams in Turgeon.

A return to glory for Maryland is not unrealistic and , quite frankly, is expected.

That’s in the future.

It’s time to celebrate their past.

When 10 years ago they were the kings of the court.

Bh

The goal next year is to be the best.

Another strong season for Maryland and coach Brenda Frese ended Tuesday night with an 80-49 loss to Notre Dame in the round of eight. The Terrapins hung with the top-seeded Irish for the opening eight minutes, but in the end the Irish were too talented and had far more experience.

The defeat did little to mar an exceptional season for a team with only one senior starter and a half-dozen freshmen and
sophomores, including Atlantic Coast Conference player of the year Allysa Thomas.

“I told the team in the locker that I appreciate the journey and the ride that we got to spend this season,” Frese said late
Tuesday. “I couldn’t have asked for a better team in terms of how committed everyone was this season.”

Maryland’s three seniors won’t soon forget their final college game — no matter how hard they try. Fortunately, Kim Rodgers,
Lynetta Kizer and Anjale Barrett will have plenty of other memories to cherish when they look back on their time in College Park.

And, perhaps in the near future, the trio will watch their former teammates make another run at the title.

“We had a phenomenal season,” Rodgers said. “We had a lot of good wins this year, a lot of comeback wins. We have been to two
Elite Eights, two ACC championships, and we are champions in our own right. It’s not fun sitting here and say we didn’t get to the Final Four, but we accomplished a lot. We are leaving a lot of good things for the underclassmen to move forward with next year.”

Maryland (31-5) finished the regular season ranked fifth in the nation. The Terrapins won the Atlantic Coast Conference title,
earned a second seed in the NCAA tournament and justified that position by winning three games — including rousing comeback
victories over Louisville and defending champion Texas A&M.

Next year could be special for Maryland. Barrett was the only senior starter in a lineup that included three sophomores. Thomas, a 6’2″ sophomore, emerged as a force on both ends of the court, sophomore Laurin Mincy played exceptionally well in her first full season back from knee surgery, and 6’3″ junior Tianna Hawkins helped make Maryland one of the best rebounding teams in the nation.

The experience that was lacking this season shouldn’t be a factor in 2012-2013.

After watching the Terrapins rally from 18 points down to beat his Texas A&M team, Aggies coach Gary Blair said of Maryland:
“They’re going to be in the Final Four either this year, or next year or the following year. They’re going to be back. Cause when you look out there, you get intimidated just watching them warm up before the ballgame.”

The Terrapins have been to the NCAA tournament eight times in Frese’s 10 years at the school, five times as a No. 2 seed. This
journey was highlighted by that 81-74 win over Texas A&M, but the furious comeback played a part in the Terrapins’ inability to rally against the Irish.

“I felt like our energy and effort was spent in the game before,” Frese conceded.

Yet the Terrapins never quit.

“We didn’t stop fighting to the end,” Barrett said. “Our motto is fight to finish. It didn’t matter if we were down 30, 40,
or 50 we were going to go down fighting. And that’s what we did.”

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Now, I think the coaches ought to be rewarded for their parts in going out to find the right players to fit their programs and motivating those young men to achieve one common goal. The problem comes when those young men who are being motivated have to go outside the lines to afford shoes and other “gear”. Many of these young men have a difficult time affording to go out on a date. Yes, a date. That’s what college kids do.

According to ESPN.com, [John] “Calipari already has earned an extra $50,000 for capturing the Southeastern Conference regular-season title, $100,000 each for making the regional semifinals and finals and $150,000 for beating Baylor and taking the [Kentucky] Wildcats back to the Final Four. Winning the basketball-mad school’s eighth NCAA tournament title would net another $350,000.” I personally don’t believe there was any chance Anthony Davis was going to return for his sophomore year, but if he was considering coming back, this report would be the deal breaker for me. I’m gone.

With so much money being tossed around, and the fact that this is the information age and kids have access to the salaries, how can you expect this athletes to have loyalty towards a program? Coaches, like Calipari, will go out and replace the current roster and earn more bonus money. This,  my friend, is why college athletes leave.

Rob Long

A Terrapins team that came from behind to win each of its first three NCAA tournament games wound up having a bad start and a worse finish Tuesday night, with Notre Dame rolling to an 80-49 victory in the Raleigh Regional final and claiming a spot in the Final Four.

Two days earlier, second-seeded Maryland (31-5) stormed back from 18 points down to beat Texas A&M in the regional semifinals, and that rally ultimately left the Terrapins empty when they needed to dig out of an even deeper hole against the top-seeded Fighting Irish.

Notre Dame raced out to a 19-point lead in the first half and wasted no time after halftime pushing it into the 20s and beyond.

Maryland simply couldn’t recover, and was denied its fourth Final Four trip and first since its national title in 2006.

“Obviously, tonight was Notre Dame’s night,” Maryland coach Brenda Frese said. “I thought they were really spectacular. Really did a tremendous job on all ends of the floor. Beat us at our rebounding game, just destroyed us on the glass. … Our energy and effort, I felt, was spent in the game before.”

The Terrapins had no answer for Skylar Diggins, who had a triple-double with 22 points, 11 assists, 10 rebounds — and, for good measure, five steals. She also kept Notre Dame’s four-guard lineup humming and gave the Terps fits all night.

“She went off on us tonight,” Maryland star Alyssa Thomas said, “and we really didn’t have an answer.”

Natalie Achonwa added 18 points while Kayla McBride had 16 and Natalie Novosel finished with 14 to help Notre Dame (34-3) claim its second straight Final Four berth and fourth overall. The Irish built a 46-27 rebounding advantage against low-post-oriented Maryland. A huge run late in the first half essentially ended this one at halftime.

“Our No. 1 point coming into this game was rebounding and boxing out,” the 5-foot-9 Diggins said. “I thought I’d get my
little self in there and see what I could do.”

All four No. 1 seeds are headed to Denver — the first time that’s happened since 1989 — so once the Irish arrive in the
Rockies, maybe they’ll find a close game there for a change. Only one of Notre Dame’s four tournament wins was closer than 31 points.

A loss in last year’s national championship game provided a season’s worth of focus and motivation for the Irish, who moved two victories away from the title that eluded them when Texas A&M rallied past them.

But before they can think about another title game, a familiar foe awaits: Connecticut, which beat Notre Dame 63-54 earlier this month in the Big East title game, though the Irish did win both regular-season meetings.

“This game is great momentum for us going into it, and our incentive is getting back to the championship,” Diggins said.
“That’s been our goal, which we’ve wanted to do all year. … There’s nothing, really, that you could tell us about UConn that we didn’t already know.”

Thomas scored 17 points and Tianna Hawkins and Alicia DeVaughn added 10 apiece for Maryland.

The location and scenario made for a disturbing parallel for the Terps’ seniors who were freshmen in 2009 when they won the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament title and breezed to the Raleigh Regional semifinal, only to come up short against a determined Big East opponent. Back then, it was Louisville.

This time, the Irish broke things open midway through the first half, holding the Terps without a field goal for roughly 5 1/2 minutes during a 26-7 run that pushed their lead well into double figures.

Diggins scored seven points during the run while Achonwa had eight, including a pretty layup off a pick-and-roll that put Notre Dame up 38-19 with 2:15 before the break.

That burst was marked by the strong guard play usually expected from Notre Dame — along with some impressive work underneath, where the Irish made all the hustle plays and got to nearly every loose ball and rebound. The rebounding margin was at its widest in the half when the Irish were up 22-9.

“We read a lot about Maryland’s rebounding and the size factor and I thought we did just a fantastic job in the half-court,
man-to-man, did a great job on the boards, scored any way we wanted to — we scored inside and out,” Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw said. “I couldn’t be prouder of this team, to handle the expectations all year long of being a No. 1 seed and the target on our backs, and to come through and make it back to the Final Four.”

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)

Weijia Jiang has reaction from pumped-up fans.

The one question buzzing all around campus: will the Terps make it to the Final Four? The answer here is yes.

The Terps not only took the lead against defending national champs Texas A&M, they claimed a victory, clinching a spot in the NCAA Elite 8.

“It’s been crazy on campus. Everyone’s going crazy for the team,” said Matt Conrad.

On the College Park campus, the buzz is undeniable. Students are pumped up for Tuesday’s game against top-seeded Notre Dame.

“I think we’re going to win. I think we’re going to go all the way and we win the championship. I have a good feeling. It’s my senior year. Let’s go out with a bang,” said student Shannon Cooper.

Inside the student union, touching the golden turtle head is said to bring good luck. Many know it will take more than that to beat the Irish.

“We’re playing a tough Notre Dame team. They’re the number one seed and I think we could pull it out,” Conrad said.

Sophomore Alyssa Banks is shopping for the perfect gear to sport for the big game.

“It’s crazy that they could make to the Final Four,” she said.

Even off-campus, businesses are cashing in. Sports bars are expecting massive crowds to watch.

Party and celebrate, that’s what students are planning to do. Even though the game is away, there are many watch parties planned.

The last time the Lady Terps won the national title was in 2006.

For the second time in four years, the Terrapins won an Atlantic Coast Conference tournament championship, claimed a high seed in the NCAA tournament and rolled to the Raleigh Regional finals.

No. 2 seed Maryland (31-4) meets top-seeded Notre Dame (33-3) on Tuesday night with a spot in the Final Four on the line.

And while the Fighting Irish have played with a noticeable edge throughout this postseason — determined to return to the national championship game after losing at that stage a year ago — the Terrapins say they have something to prove, too.

“I think we just bring it right back at them,” Maryland guard Lauren Mincy said. “We’re going to have to come out with a lot of energy, and we have to play like there’s a chip on our shoulders also.”

This is a familiar scenario for a Maryland team that won its last ACC tournament in 2009, when Kizer was a freshman.

Those Terps advanced to the round of eight but were knocked off by Louisville the last time a regional was held in Raleigh.

“I honestly didn’t believe I knew what was at stake, being so young” that year, Kizer said. The current players “are a group of smart girls, so they know what’s at stake, and they know how hard we’re going to have to play for each other.”

Without question, Notre Dame has played with a purpose this postseason.

The Irish have won all three games by double figures and are coming off a 44-point semifinal beat down of St. Bonaventure that matched the 22-year-old record for most lopsided victory in the regional round of the tournament.

They’ve been fueled by their title-game loss to Texas A&M last year — and could’ve had a rematch with the Aggies, had Maryland not rallied from 18 points down to beat them in the other semifinal.

The Irish players insist they weren’t disappointed by that.

“When the brackets came out, there was always the chance we could face each other,” Notre Dame guard Brittany Mallory said.

“We’ve used that game as motivation this year, and we’ve really used it to keep us going. We want to get back to that game. I don’t think there’s really any disappointment. All these teams are here for a reason, and we’re all going to play hard.”

Notre Dame made it to the Final Four each of the previous three times it reached the round of eight. Maryland is 3-4 in the regional finals, and its only Final Four under coach Brenda Frese came during its run to the 2006 national championship.

The team that claims a trip to Denver might be the one that more effectively imposes its style.

Both teams certainly know how to score — the Irish rank second nationally by averaging 79 points, with Maryland (78) two spots behind them — but they do it in different ways.

The Irish’s strength is a four-guard starting lineup that rolls up lots of assists and steals. Behind Big East player of the year
Skylar Diggins, Notre Dame ranks fifth in points allowed (51.6), fourth in field-goal percentage (47.6 percent), fourth in assists (18) and second in steals (13).

The Terrapins — who have four starters who are 6 feet or taller — prefer to pound the ball to their elite interior players and have them bang the boards for second chances.

Maryland ranks second nationally with a rebounding margin of plus-14, with Tianna Hawkins leading the nation by making nearly 63 percent of her shots and ACC player of the year Alyssa Thomas doing all the little things to keep the Terps rolling.

“We love to use our length and get on the glass, so we know that gives a lot of teams a lot of trouble,” Thomas said. “We’re
able to use that on defense and create havoc out there. We know we have a height advantage on them, especially inside, so I know our inside game’s going to be a huge (focus) for us” Tuesday.

Making up for that rebounding deficiency is nothing new in this tournament for Notre Dame.

The only Division I team with a better rebounding margin than Maryland is Liberty (plus-15.6), and the Irish routed the Flames by 31 points in the first round. Then they claimed an 11-point win in the second round against California, which ranks third nationally at plus-12.6.

Devereaux Peters, the Irish’s only starter taller than 5-foot-11, leads her team with an average of 9.4 rebounds.

“We have to go back to the fundamentals, really focusing on boxing out and pushing people back,” Peters said. “It’s been a
problem we’ve had all year. I think we’ve improved on it during the tournament. We’ve seen a lot of great teams that rebounded really well, so hopefully we can do the same thing.”

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)

Laurin Mincy had 21 points and a career-best 12 rebounds to help Maryland rally past defending national champion Texas A&M 81-74 on Sunday in the semifinals of the NCAA tournament’s Raleigh Regional.

Alyssa Thomas added 21 points and nine rebounds for the second-seeded Terps (31-4), who fought their way back and held the Aggies (24-11) to just one basket over the final 7 1/2 minutes.

“This team knows and has the confidence it can come back against anyone,” Maryland coach Brenda Frese said.

The Terrapins rallied from 20 down early in the second half to beat Georgia Tech in January, then overcame a 10-point deficit in the first half to beat the Yellow Jackets on the road a month later. They also came back from 12 down in the first half to top Duke in February and trailed Louisville by nine in the first half of their last NCAA game.

The Terrapins have won 10 straight and 13 of 14 since a home loss to Virginia Tech on Jan. 26. They’re back in a regional final for the first time since 2009 when they were in Raleigh as a No. 1 seed. They’ll face top-seeded Notre Dame with a chance to reach the Final Four for the first time since winning the national championship in 2006.

“I do feel this group has all the intangibles to be able to win it all,” Frese said. “It’s a team that genuinely cares about each
other, has each other’s back and is really selfless. They don’t care who receives the attention. It’s very similar to the team that we had in 2006.”

Senior Lynetta Kizer, who had 15 points and the go-ahead basket with 3:29 left, was a freshman on the ’09 team that lost to Louisville in the regional final. She wasn’t ready for this year’s team to play its final game.

“They kept telling us to board and they kept telling us to defend,” Kizer said. “Anything I personally needed to do to help
this team take a step forward, that’s what I tried to do because like I said — I don’t want our season with the talent we have in that locker room to end here.”

Maryland finished with a 42-30 rebounding advantage, which led to an 18-5 edge in second-chance points. The Terrapins went ahead to stay on Kizer’s score inside off a feed from Brene Moseley that made it 75-74, which started an 8-0 run to close the game.

Thomas fed Mincy on the break after a turnover for a transition layup. Thomas followed that with a jumper in the lane with 50 seconds left after an offensive rebound from Mincy to make it 79-74, which all but sealed the win as the Aggies missed a series of desperate 3-pointers in the final seconds.

Maryland also played the final 7 minutes without starter Tianna Hawkins, who suffered an apparent bruised hip when she went down in the paint. Frese said afterward that Hawkins was probably OK to return, but she didn’t want to break up the groove the Terrapins seemed to have in their comeback.

Freshman Alexia Standish scored 19 points to lead third-seeded Texas A&M, which could only lament letting two double-digit leads get away as foul trouble added up.

“They really picked up their defense,” Standish said. “At the beginning, we got a lot of open looks. Their defense, we just got by them a lot easier. But they picked it up in the second half.”

Texas A&M got off to a fast start, jumping to a 12-2 lead and pushing that margin to 18 twice in the first half. But Maryland closed the half on a 21-6 run — including a pair of baskets from Thomas in the final 2 1/2 minutes — to trail just 44-41 at halftime.

Thomas scored again to start the second half and pull the Terps within one, but Texas A&M came right back with eight straight points to regain control.

The Aggies led 72-65 on Kelsey Bone’s layup with 7:49 left, but they managed just one field goal — a drive from Standish with 3:48 left — the rest of the game.

“You’ve got to have that killer instinct,” Aggies coach Gary Blair said. “We had a team on the ropes and didn’t put them
away.”

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

The only problem with the “Cinderella” stories is when they play one another. That often makes for a boring match-up. For instance, how much were you anticipating the great South Florida/Ohio match-up? BORING… That is if you’re not a college basketball nut. That match-up takes away from the sports bar crowd who only watches this time of the year.

Hey, the Lehigh/Xavier game was the one that all who filled out an office bracket for was waiting for. Everyone saw that coming. Parity at it’s finest.

The worse is when a team like the Florida Gators takes on the 15th seed Norfolk State team and blows them out. You’re sitting there thinking, “Yeah, Missouri would have been a MUCH better game than this.”

While the David slaying Goliath story is great, it doesn’t always make for a good match-up down the stretch. So here’s to Kentucky, Kansas, North Carolina and Syracuse. Not that we don’t love the small schools, it’s just that your really don’t know what to expect.

Rob Long

In an absolutely crucial situation Monday night, her teammates returned the favor.

Laurin Mincy scored 24 points, Tianna Hawkins had 15 points and 14 rebounds, and the Terrapins squeezed past Louisville 72-68 to advance to the round of 16 in the women’s NCAA tournament.

Maryland (30-4) will face the winner of Monday night’s late game between defending champion Texas A&M and Arkansas.

The Terrapins charge into Sunday’s Raleigh Regional semifinal riding a nine-game winning streak. The Atlantic Coast Conference champions are 19-7 in the NCAA tournament under Brenda Frese, whose latest win came at the expense of former assistant Jeff Walz, now the head coach at Louisville.

Thomas, the ACC Player of the Year, was plagued by foul trouble and finished with six points on 3-for-10 shooting in 26
unspectacular minutes.

“Obviously, Alyssa had an off night, with the foul trouble and just not being able to get into a rhythm,” Frese said.

In late January, Maryland was forced to play without an injured Thomas and lost at home against a sub-.500 Virginia Tech team. Against Louisville, the Terps flourished without much from their star.

“You can see what this team has become,” Frese said.

Mincy finished one point short of matching her career high, and Hawkins scored six points in a 13-4 run over the final 6 minutes as the Terrapins held Louisville to one field goal.

Down 64-59, Maryland got a baseline jumper from Hawkins and five free throws from three different players to go up 66-64. Hawkins then collected the rebound of a missed foul shot and made a layup for a 68-64 lead.

“Obviously, Tianna was sensational tonight, the way she cleaned up on the boards,” Frese said.

Louisville closed to 71-68 and had one last chance to tie in the closing seconds, but Mincy tipped a 3-point try by Becky Burke that fell short.

“I wouldn’t have missed it that bad if she hadn’t got a hand on it,” said Burke, who was limited to five points on 1-for-6
shooting in her final college game.

It was a redemptive victory for the Terps, who were eliminated by Walz and the Cardinals in 2009 and upset last season in the second round by Georgetown.

“This time last year I was up here, and Coach B had to fill in my words because I was so distraught,” senior Kim Rodgers said. “It feels much better to be moving on.”

Shoni Schimmel scored 22 points and Shawnta Dyer had 17 for Louisville (23-10).

“We were right there,” Walz said, “and unfortunately did not close things out the last 5 minutes of the ballgame, which we’ve been very good at doing.”

Frese and Walz stood side by side when the Terrapins won the national championship in 2006, but that didn’t prevent the decidedly pro-Maryland crowd from soundly jeering Walz during pregame introductions.

Both teams played in an aggressive fashion befitting their feisty coaches.

No loose ball went uncontested, even if it meant colliding with a pile of bodies on the floor. Frese was nearly as active, running back and forth in front of the Maryland bench, yelling at the referees and applauding every one of her team’s baskets.

Not to be outdone, Walz rolled up his shirt sleeves and never sat down, often cupping his hands around his mouth while yelling to the opposite end of the court.

Maryland built a 51-45 lead with 13:52 left before the Cardinals roared back. Schimmel drilled a 3-pointer before field goals by Bria Smith and Dyer put Louisville in front.

The Terps forged back in front 58-56, but Schimmel made a 3-pointer and a driving layup before a three-point play by Burke made it 64-59 with 6 minutes to go.

There would be one more lead change in a game that had 11 of them, along with seven ties.

“They came up with some loose-ball plays at the end of the game that were big, things that we knew we had to come up with if we were going to have a chance to be in this game,” Walz said. “They made those plays.”

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

The motivational checklist for the second-seeded Terrapins on Monday night also includes revenge and redemption.

Seventh-seed Louisville is coached by Jeff Walz, who served as an assistant under Brenda Frese at Maryland for five years before joining the Cardinals in 2007. In the first meeting between mentor and protégé, Louisville defeated the Terrapins in the 2009 tournament to advance to the Final Four.

Now Frese and Maryland’s upperclassmen have an opportunity to even the score.

“Obviously our seniors remember it,” Frese said Sunday. “I’ve said this all season long: We have a lot of pride. So when you have something that’s happened to you in the past, whether it be that Louisville game in their freshman year, or our ending last year, we’re a prideful team. You would expect from players that are competitive and want to win.”

The “ending last year” was a humbling 79-57 second-round loss to Georgetown on Maryland’s home floor.

“Last year we didn’t protect our house,” Maryland star forward Alyssa Thomas said. “We got blown off the court in front of our own fans. So I know this year, there’s a different focus. We just want to go out there and show people we’re a different team this year.”

Maryland (29-4) enters the game as Atlantic Coast Conference champs and riding an eight-game winning streak, including a 59-44 first-round win over Navy.

Louisville (23-8) beat Michigan State 67-55 Saturday to improve to 10-3 under Walz in the NCAA tournament.

Frese and Walz worked side by side in 2006 to deliver a national championship to Maryland. Since Walz left, there has been little interaction between the two.

“I haven’t talked to her in probably four years. We’ve both got our own thing going on,” Walz said. “There’s really no contact there at all.”

That doesn’t mean they don’t care.

“We’re really happy for his success,” Frese said. “Anytime you have assistant coaches who go on and are successful, it speaks volumes.”

Because they spent five years together, Frese and Walz have a pretty good idea of the X’s and O’s in each other’s playbook.

“I think from both of our ends we know each other’s philosophies,” Frese said. “In fact, we even have some of the same play calls. That makes it fun.”

On Monday night, Frese and Walz are going to be all business. For Walz, the objective is to beat Maryland, and it has nothing to do with Frese being on the other end of the court.

“We’re not really concerned about that. It’s just another basketball game,” Walz said. “This is a game to get to the Sweet
16. Our goal is to be able to move on.”

Frese seemingly feels the same way. The sting of losing that game in 2009 won’t ever completely vanish, but thinking about it won’t help Maryland in the rematch.

“These are two different teams and scenarios,” she said. “We’re not focused on the past. We’re here in the present.”

For the Cardinals to win, they must overcome a deep, talented Maryland team that has lost only once since Jan. 26.

“It’s a game that we’re going to have to play as we have all year to even have a chance,” Walz insisted.

President Obama picked Louisville to pull off an upset, a prediction that drew a smile from both coaches.

“I was actually thrilled,” Frese said. “During the season, when I’ve had different people tell me the picks are against us,
we’ve won those games. So I was actually pretty excited when I heard it. We’ve had to prove ourselves all season long. This isn’t any different.”

Walz laughingly viewed the President’s pick as a political ploy.

“He’s trying to win Kentucky, because I think he picked Kentucky men too to go and he may have picked (Louisville) men,” he said with a grin. “He wants our state for sure. It’s coming up on a re-election year. If I was him, I wouldn’t have picked anybody. I’d say everybody’s a favorite.”

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)

“I asked her how she slept,” Frese said. “She said, `Not good.’ I knew she was too amped up.”

As Frese feared, Thomas struggled in the first half against 15th-seeded Navy in the opening round of the NCAA women’s
tournament. So Frese instructed Thomas at halftime to settle down, and the small forward did exactly as told in helping Maryland pull away to a 59-44 victory.

Thomas, the Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Year, finished with 17 points and 10 rebounds. The 6-foot-2 sophomore
scored 12 in the second half on 5-for-7 shooting to help the second-seeded Terrapins expand on a 31-23 halftime lead.

“Coach B challenged me at halftime and told me that I needed to calm down and make plays,” Thomas said. “So I just slowed myself down and focused.”

Thomas fueled a 14-4 run at the outset of the second half to up the margin to 15. Minutes later, she scored six points in an 8-0 spree that made it 57-36 with 6:30 to go.

It was a stark contrast from a first half in which Thomas went 2 for 7 with a turnover in 19 minutes.

“Early, when she’s missing easy plays, that’s not her,” Frese said. “It’s just that she’s so ready to play and so excited. The
coaching staff thought I was a little too hard on her, and I thought I was just right. We needed her to play slower.”

Laurin Mincy scored 14 for Maryland (29-4), which will next play Monday night against No. 7 seed Louisville.

Although the men’s tournament featured a pair of 15 seeds knocking off No. 2s, there would be no major upset here. When the
women’s tournament began, No. 15 seeds were 0-68, and Navy was unable to break the trend.

The Midshipmen had never defeated a ranked team or an ACC foe, and that pattern continued, too.

Thomas had a lot to do with it. Navy coach Stefanie Pemper said trying to stop Thomas is like containing “rainwater.”

“We had a hard time guarding No. 25,” Pemper said.

It was Maryland’s 20th trip to the NCAA tournament and Navy’s second. The difference between the teams, however, transcended
postseason experience.

Navy, the Patriot League champion, simply didn’t have enough height or talent to compete with the Terrapins, who finished with a 46-33 rebounding advantage. Maryland’s size was a factor on both ends of the floor.

“I think that played a big part in why a few of us were hesitant to shoot shots that were definitely open,” Navy guard
Erin Edwards said. “We’re just not used to such size on the perimeter.”

Jade Geif led Navy (18-14) with 14 points. The Midshipmen shot 30.5 percent and took only two free throws.

“We probably ran 27 plays tonight,” Pemper said. “For anyone sitting near the scorer’s table, you probably thought we had a play for every state in the union.”

Nothing, however, could help the Midshipmen put the ball in the basket. Audrey Bauer went 2 for 15 from the floor and missed eight of nine attempts from beyond the 3-point arc.

Despite finishing with a 27-14 rebounding advantage in the first half, Maryland needed a late 14-6 run to take a 31-23 lead at the break.

Navy did a good job of hanging with the Terrapins at the start, perhaps because the Terrapins hadn’t played a game since winning the ACC tournament on March 4.

Maryland missed five of its first seven shots and fell behind 8-4 on 3-pointers by Alix Membreno and Bauer.

The Midshipmen were painstakingly deliberate on the offensive end, rarely taking a shot without players on the bench counting
down the final seconds on the 30-second clock. Not many of those tries went in, but Navy had only two turnovers in the opening 16 minutes.

Maryland got plenty of layups but couldn’t connect, going 5 for 19 from the floor before backup Kim Rodgers drilled a 3-pointer for a 20-17 lead. After Navy misfired on the other end Rodgers again connected from beyond the arc, and Brene Moseley added another to make it 26-17.

“We looked a little rusty from our break, but I was happy to see us kind of settle down before halftime and then get it together for the second half,” Frese said. “I thought the second half was more indicative of how we play.”

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)