SPOKANE, Wash. - Maryland, the co-champion of the Atlantic Coast Conference regular season, makes its 14th appearance in the NCAA Tournament in the past 17 seasons this weekend when it plays Houston in the first round of the Midwest Regional. The Terps, ranked 20th in both polls this week, come into the tournament on a roll, having won nine of their last 11.

The Terrapins (23-8) are a No.4 seed for the third time in their last four appearances, also drawing a `4' in 2004 and 2007. Maryland has its last nine first-round matchups, with the last time the Terps lost their opening game in the tournament coming in 1997. Maryland, a No. 10 seed last year in Kansas City, beat 7th-seeded California, 71-60, in the first round.

The Terps and the 13th-seeded Cougars (19-15) will play at 9:40 p.m. ET Friday from Veterans Memorial Arena in Spokane, Wash. The game will be shown live on CBS and heard over the Terrapin Sports Radio Network.

Locally the game can be seen WUSA-TV Channel 9 in Washington, D.C., and WJZ-TV Channel 13 in Baltimore. Local radio affiliates for the contest include WJZ-FM (105.7), WJZ-AM (1300) and WIAD-FM (94.7). Pregame begins at 8:30 p.m. ET. Note: Due to NCAA contractual arrangements, audio of tournament games will not be streamed live on umterps.com.

Tickets for Maryland's first- and second-round games are priced at $65 per session. Terrapin Club members have priority to purchase tickets which are on sale until 5 p.m. Wednsday through the Maryland Athletics Ticket office. (1-800-462-TERP). Purchased tickets can be picked up beginning at 2 p.m. Friday at the Veterans Memorial Arena will call window.

The winner of the Maryland-Houston game will play either No. 5 Michigan State or No. 12 New Mexico State on Sunday (game time is TBA).

Terp Quick Hits
• Senior guard Greivis Vasquez was named ACC Player of the Year last week, the fi rst Terrapin to win the award since Juan Dixon captured the honor in 2002. Head coach Gary Williams was voted ACC Coach of the Year, his second such honor and the fi rst since 2002. Balloting was conducted by the Atlantic Coast Sports Media Association.
• Vasquez has been named thus far to three All-America teams. FoxSports.com and Sporting News named him to their fi rst team, with Yahoo Sports giving him a second-team nod. Vasquez is the first All-American for the Terps since Lonny Baxter and Juan Dixon earned those honors in 2002.
• The Maryland-Houston matchup features two veteran coaches - Maryland's Gary Williams and Houston's Tom Penders. Those two coaches each have 648 victories in their career and are tied for 5th on the list of active Division I coaches in victories.

Terps Among Decade's Best
Lindy's College Basketball preseason magazine hit the newsstands and touted the University of Maryland men's basketball program in a number of ways.

The Terrapins are listed ninth among the decade's top programs by the magazine. The listing notes Maryland's national championship in 2002, as well as its 223-111 record during the decade.

Senior point guard Greivis Vasquez was listed on the Terps' All- Decade Team along with Lonny Baxter, Steve Blake, Nik Caner- Medley and Juan Dixon.

The Terps share "The Decade's Top 10 Programs" with Kansas, North Carolina, Michigan State, Duke, UConn, Florida, UCLA, Texas and Arizona.

Gary Williams' 21st Season
Williams earned the 2010 Atlantic Coast Conference Coach of the Year Award for the second time in his career in voting by the Atlantic Coast Sports Media Association. He last won in the 2002 national championship season.

Williams, who is 28-15 (.651) in NCAA Tournament games - 24-12 (.667) at Maryland - continues to roll up Hall of Fame-style numbers in terms of his 32-year career and particularly the 21 years he's been directing basketball fortunes at his alma mater...

He is the 5th-winningest active head coach in NCAA Division I men's basketball with an overall record of 648-365 (.640)... The 1,000th game in his illustrious career was on Jan. 23 when the Terps played host to NC State.

Milestones, Streaks, Rankings, etc.
• Maryland has hit at least one 3-pointer in 386 consecutive games.
• MARYLAND HAS WON AT LEAST 19 GAMES IN 14 STRAIGHT SEASONS.
• The Terps have made 17 consecutive postseason appearances.
• Maryland's last losing season came in 1992-93, the last season of devastating NCAA sanctions levied against previous staffs at Maryland... Each school in the ACC has had a losing season since the Terps fell below .500 some 15 seasons ago... In fact, 9 of the 11 ACC teams have suffered through a losing season since the Terps won the NCAA title in 2002... Duke and UNC are the exceptions.
• Landon Milbourne is 1 block away from becoming the 12th player in school history to record 100 in his career.... Eric Hayes has become the 6th player with 500 assists.
• All five Maryland starters are among leaders in the Atlantic Coast Conference in one or more statistical categories.
• Maryland is shooting considerably better than it did in the 2008-09 season... The Terps are currently posting a .472 clip from the floor... A year ago, the Terrapins shot .424... Those two figures are .384 this year and .333 last year from behind the arc.
• Greivis Vasquez is now the 6th player in Maryland history to reach 2,000 career points... He is THE FIRST ACC PLAYER EVER TO RECORD 2,000 POINTS, 700 ASSISTS AND 600 REBOUNDS IN HIS CAREER, AND IS THE ONLY ACTIVE PLAYER IN THE NATION TO HAVE REACHED THOSE MILESTONES... Vasquez comes into the game with 2,129 points, 758 assists and 636 rebounds.
• This season, Vasquez already has set a school record for career 3-point attempts, now with 688, and for career field-goal attempts, now with 1,736.
• Maryland has a 5-3 record in NCAA Tournaments as a No.4 seed... The Terps are 21-9 overall as one of the top four seeds.

Great Guard Play
• Ball-handling has been a strength of the Terrapins this season... Maryland is 1st in the league in assists (16.4 apg), 2nd in turnover margin (+3.5) and 1st in assist-turnover ratio (1.38)... The Terps have had more assists than their opponents in 22 games this year.
• The Terrapins are also among the national leaders in each of those team categories (13th in assists per game, 15th in assist-turnover ratio and 21st in turnover margin) after last weekend.
• Maryland has had 10 or fewer turnovers in 11 contests this season, including a season-low 7 at NC State and only 11 in 50 minutes at Virginia Tech.

Veteran Coaches
Maryland's Gary Williams and Houston's Tom Penders are tied with 648 victories, ranking 5th in wins among active Division I coaches... Williams and Penders have met three times, with Williams holding a 2-1 edge (12/3/2000 - Terps 71, GW 63... 12/5/1999 - GW 74, Terps 69... 3/18/95 - Terps 82, Texas 68, NCAAs).

Adept at Long Range
Maryland has proven to be one of the nation's most profi cient 3-point shooting teams since the rule was instituted in 1987.
• Maryland has made at least one 3-pointer in 386 consecutive games.
• Maryland has failed to make a 3-pointer just twice in the last 454 games.
• The last game the Terps failed to make a 3-pointer was 1/7/1999 when Maryland went 0-for-7 from 3-point range in a 71-66 win at Virginia.
• Since Gary Williams took over, Maryland has hit a 3-pointer in 669 of 676 games.
• Since the rule was instituted in 1987, Maryland has hit at least one three-pointer in 726 of 735 games.
• Maryland made a school-record 217 treys in 2001-02.
• The Terps' top 3-point shooting percentage was .461 (122-for-290) in 1987-88.
• Maryland set new school records for most 3-pointers in a game (17) and most 3-point attempts (37) in 2006-07 against Missouri-Kansas City.