COLLEGE PARK, Md. - The Maryland women's basketball team completed a historic back-to-back sweep of Big Ten titles, the men's hoops team invades Indianapolis looking for a title of its own and a huge showdown looms for the Terrapin women's lacrosse team. All of that and more is covered in this week's umterps Notebook.
Back-To-Back Sweep
Congratulations to head coach Brenda Frese and the entire Maryland women's basketball team and staff on winning their second straight Big Ten tournament championship.
The 60-44 victory over Michigan State in Indianapolis completes Maryland's back-to-back sweep of both regular season and tournament championships, which puts the Terps in some rarified air in their new conference home.
The only other team to win the Big Ten regular season and tournament championships in consecutive seasons was the 2008-09 & 2009-10 Ohio State teams. (Note: The Big Ten did not hold a conference tournament until the 1994-95 season.)
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In fact, Maryland is just the third team in the history of the Big Ten to win consecutive regular season and tournament titles. In addition to the OSU women's team, the only men's team to complete the back-to-back title sweep is the Buckeyes' 2009-10 & 2010-11 squads.
This isn't the Maryland women's basketball team's first back-to-back title sweep, but it's been a while. The 1986-87 & 1987-88 Terps swept the ACC regular season and tournament titles. Those teams featured a trio of 1,000-point scorers in Vicky Bullett (1,928 pts), Christy Winter (1,679 pts) and Deanna Tate (1,541 pts).
It's not much of a coincidence that this year's Terrapin team features three 1,000-point scorers in Shatori Walker-Kimbrough (1,463 pts), Brionna Jones (1,216 pts) and Brene Moseley (1,017 pts).
While it was never really in doubt, the tournament victory secures Maryland's NCAA tournament spot with the conference's automatic bid. The only question now is whether the Terps will be a No. 1 or No. 2 seed when the bracket is unveiled on Monday, March 14 (Live on ESPN at 7 p.m.).
Right now, ESPN's women's basketball bracketologist Charlie Creme has the Terps a No. 2 seed in the Lexington Regional with South Carolina (SEC) getting the nod as the top seed in that region. Creme's other No. 1 seeds are UConn (AAC) in the Bridgeport Regional, Baylor (Big XII) in the Dallas Regional and Notre Dame (ACC) in the Sioux Falls Regional.
A Fresh Start
While the women's basketball team has departed Indianapolis, the Maryland men's basketball team heads into town for its Big Ten tournament.
The conference tournament offers the Terps a fresh start after Maryland dropped four of its final six regular-season games, including its final three away from College Park.
Maryland is the No. 3 seed in this week's Big Ten tournament, which has it's plusses and minuses.
On the plus side, there have been two teams to win the Big Ten tournament as the No. 3 seed. Purdue was the first to do it, winning the 2009 tourney. Michigan State is the most recent No. 3 to cut down the nets, doing-so just two seasons ago in 2014.
The other plus is the fact that the top four seeds get a double-bye and already have spots in the quarterfinals on Thursday.
The big minus for being the No. 3 seed is that the Terps will play the last game of the night on Thursday and with a win will then play the second semifinal on Saturday.
The last quarterfinal on Friday is loosely scheduled for a 9 p.m. tip (barring any OT games or lengthy foul-fests). The second semifinal is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. on Saturday. That gives the winner of the second semi less than 24 hours to rest and prepare for the title game, which tips at 3 p.m. on Sunday.
The Terps have received solid play all season from their B1G5 – Melo Trimble, Rasheed Sulaimon, Diamond Stone, Robert Carter and Jake Layman – and will need to continue to do so to advance to a Big Ten championship.
While Maryland's B1G5 have been solid, and at times spectacular, it has not been all together. Did you know only once this season have Trimble, Sulaimon, Stone, Carter and Layman (who are all averaging more than 10 points per game this season) score in double-digits in the same game? And that came in the third game of the season vs. Rider on Nov. 20. If Maryland can get all of its ships steering in the right direction at the same time Terrapin fans could witness something magical.
Fans can watch the Terps' quarterfinal game on the Big Ten Network, while the semifinals and finals will be broadcast on CBS.
Heavyweight Showdown
While most Terrapin fans will have their eyes set on the men's hoops tournament this weekend, they should make noon on Saturday appointment-viewing for the Maryland-Syracuse women's lacrosse game (ESPN3).
Maryland, the unanimous No. 1 team in the country, heads north to Syracuse to play the No. 3 Orange at noon in the Carrier Dome.
The eyes of the lacrosse community will focus in on the matchup of Maryland's Taylor Cummings, the reigning two-time Tewaaraton Award winner, and Syracuse's Kayla Treanor, a two-time Tewaaraton Award finalist. And with good reason, Cummings could go down as the greatest collegiate women's lacrosse player in history and Treanor is having a sensational early 2016, averaging 5.0 points per game and 12 draw controls per game.
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But it is likely the other stars will have important roles in the outcome of the game.
The Orange's Haile Majorana and Riley Donahue have each totaled 24 points on 14 goals and 10 assists, while Nicole Levy has 17 points on 10 goals and 7 assists.
Maryland, which has played just four games compared to Syracuse's seven, has its own trio to support Cummings. Sophomore Megan Whittle is the Terps' leading scorer this season with 15 goals and junior Zoe Stukenberg is just one behind. Freshman Caroline Steele has also been dynamic, pitching in with seven goals.
Both teams have been stout defensively this season. Maryland is allowing opponents just 6.75 goals per game, while Syracuse's opposition is tallying just 7.57 goals per game.
Freshman Megan Taylor has been terrific in goal for the Terps with a 5.03 goals against average. Syracuse has an edge in experience with grad student Allie Murray (7.47 GAA) in-between the pipes.
Quick Hitters:
• The first spring practice of the DJ Durkin-era got underway this week. Be sure to follow @TerpsFootball and @CoachDurkin on Twitter for updates throughout the spring.
The annual Red/White Spring Game is set to take place on April 16 at 12:30 p.m. at Capital One Field at Maryland Stadium. Admission and parking are free.
• The Maryland baseball team won two of three at the Keith LeClair Classic in Greenville, N.C., this past weekend. One of the impressive things to come out of the weekend was the Terps' win over Tennessee on Friday afternoon.
Maryland usually counts on a quality outing from All-American Mike Shawaryn, but even the Unicorn can have a bad outing every now and then. He wasn't sharp vs. the Volunteers, allowing five earned runs in just 4 1/3 innings, but the bats, which plated just two runs in Shawaryn's first two starts of the season, were alive and the Terps earned a tough 10-9 victory.
Taylor Bloom, the other half of Maryland's 1-2 pitching punch, came out strong in the second game, tossing seven innings of 1-run ball in an 8-1 win over SE Louisiana.
• Good luck to CiCi Onyekwere and Micha Powell this week at the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships. Onyekwere will compete in Birmingham, Ala., in the weight throw, while Powell qualified in the 400m.
• Gymnast Kathy Tang finished up her home career with a solid performance in the Maryland Five Meet this past Sunday. Tang won the vault with a 9.85 and just missed the podium with a fourth-place finish on floor with a 9.85 routine.
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Tang and the Terps will now head to Columbus, Ohio, for the B1G Five Meet this Saturday vs. host Ohio State, Illinois, Michigan State and Nebraska. Terp fans can catch all the action beginning at 4 p.m. on the Big Ten Network. This will be Maryland's final tune-up before the Big Ten Championships on March 19 in Lincoln, Neb.
• The Maryland men's lacrosse team rebounded from a tough 9-4 loss to No. 1 Notre Dame in California on Saturday (don't let the score fool you – this was a knock-down, drag-out 4-4 defensive clinic until 5:00 to play when ND got a couple of goals and the Terps had to press out) with a 12-8 win at Drexel on Wednesday.
Maryland never trailed in the game, but it was 5-5 in the third before the Terps pulled away with three straight goals to close out the quarter. Colin Heacock continued his breakout season with his first career four-goal game and Philly native Matt Rambo chipped in with a hat trick. But more importantly perhaps is Maryland getting a pair of goals apiece from Tim Rotanz and Pat Young, who each entered the game without scoring a goal this season.
The Terps play their third-straight road game this Saturday when they head to Princeton for a noon game that will be televised live on ESPNU.
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Patrick Fischer is the Director of Digital Media and Website Management for the University of Maryland Department of Intercollegiate AthleticsThe views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of the Maryland athletics department or its athletics programs.
