Lady Terps Take on Louisville in March to the Arch

Melanie Balcomb, Vanderbilt's head coach, told her players before Saturday's game that "Maryland wants to play UConn in the Final Four, but that we want to play Maryland today". It was a subtle message to her team that Maryland was overlooking them. The Maryland Terps have higher aspirations than reaching the Sweet 16 or Elite 8. And they should.

They've done that 3 of the last 4 years. These Terps have two seniors that won the national title as freshman. Kristi Toliver and Marissa Coleman know what it takes to win. They should also know that they can't overlook any team at this point of the tournament. Only a stellar effort from Marissa Coleman allowed Maryland to survive and advance last Saturday. Maryland can not afford to spot Louisville 18 points tonight and expect to win. As good as Vanderbilt was defensively, Louisville is better. What Jennifer Risper lacked in size, Angel McCoughtry has. McCoughtry might be a better overall defender than Risper and Risper gave Maryland fits until she got in foul trouble.

Louisville's coach, Jeff Walz, is a former Maryland assistant. This may not help him much in developing a game plan because only two players remain from his tenure in College Park. Toliver and Coleman must play well in order for Maryland to win. The supporting cast must play better than it did against Vanderbilt.

Lynetta Kizer needs to play like she's 6'-4" which means she needs to dominate the paint. Dee Liles needs to defend and rebound. Kim Rodgers and Marah Strickland need to make shots. Brenda Frese needs to make her team realize that the most important game is the next game.

Maryland may or may not have the personnel necessary to defeat UConn, but it won't matter if they can't beat Louisville. If they can take it one step at a time and realize that the next game is the 4th step in a 6 step process they may get a chance to make history.

Sphere: Related Content

Agent Zero Ready for Return

The Washington Wizards' $111 million dollar, two time all star guard Gilbert Arenas appears to be near a return to the court. Arenas has indicated that he will make his season debut Saturday night in a home game against Detroit. The question I have is, why now? There are only ten games left in the season for the Wizards. They stand a very good chance of landing the number one pick in this spring's NBA draft lottery and with that the opportunity to draft Blake Griffin of the University of Oklahoma. Arenas' presence might rejuvenate the Wizards, propel them to a few more wins and adversely affect their draft position.

There is of course no guarantee that the worse record in the NBA will yield the top pick in the 2009 NBA draft. The Wizards were perennial lottery participants throughout the '90's and the first two years of this decade, but only won the top pick once (2001). That proved to be a bad year to get lucky. The Wizards selected Kwame Brown who has turned out to be the worst number one draft pick this side of LaRue Martin. I like the Wizards chances this time around and feel confident that General Manager Ernie Grunfeld will get it right and select Griffin should he decide to leave school early. Griffin is exactly the type of player the Wizards need. He will provide a low post presence, runs the floor well and is a rebounding machine. A line-up consisting of a healthy Arenas, Caron Butler, Antawn Jamison, Blake Griffin and Brendan Haywood could compete with any team in the eastern conference.

This brings me back to why Arenas is returning now. If he is totally healthy, he should play. If he is not, he shouldn't. Arenas needs to show that he can still play at a high level. The Wizards need to know that they made a wise investment when they re-signed him. From that stand point it makes sense for Arenas to play. However, as much as I enjoy seeing Arenas at his best I'd rather see the Wizards get the top draft pick this year. Mr. Grunfeld if you are listening, keep Agent Zero on ice this season, come back with a new slogan next year (we owe you one) and pray nobody else gets injured.

Sphere: Related Content

Washington Sports - Changes We Didn't Count On

President-elect Barack Obama campaigned on a platform of change. His campaign slogan was "Change We Can Believe In". Washington's professional football and basketball teams have endured some changes in the past year - changes we didn't believe would happen and most recently changes we didn't see coming.

The change we didn't think would happen.

Washington Redskins coach Joe Gibbs decided to retire again in January. After an exhaustive search owner Daniel Snyder decided to hand the coaching reigns over to a man with no NFL head coaching experience, Jim Zorn. Not much was expected of the Redskins this season, yet they are tied for second place in their division with a 7-4 record. Those seven victories include road wins over Dallas and Philadelphia. With all the change around Redskins Park one thing has remained the same. The Redskins formula for winning is still the same as it was during the Gibbs regime. Run the ball on offense, stop the run on defense and win the turnover battle.

The change we didn't see coming.

Washington Wizards coach Eddie Jordan was the longest tenured coach in the NBA's eastern conference. After a dismal 1-10 star to the NBA season, the Washington Wizards fired Eddie Jordan today. Some would say that Jordan's dismissal is justified based on the Wizards record and uninspired play. They would say that the Wizards should not have lost to a Knicks team with only eight players dressed last Saturday night. And I would agree with all of that.

I do not believe however that firing Jordan will fix what ails the Wizards. If you take two starters [Arenas & Haywood] and a key reserve [Antonio Daniels] off any NBA team that team is bound to struggle. If those two starters are the team's best offensive and defensive players...well, then you have the Wizards. You need to look higher up the food chain to determine what ails the Wizards. Ernie Grunfeld is the person responsible for assembling the talent or lack thereof on this team. Ernie Grunfeld gave a $111 million contract to a player [Gilbert Arenas] that has played about twenty-two games in the past 18 months. Ernie Grunfeld re-signed Antawn Jamison for $50 million over four years. Ernie Grunfeld signed Andrae Blatche to a contract extension. But Ernie Grunfeld still has his job.

If I asked you to bake an apple pie but gave you all of the ingredients except apples could you bake the pie? Eddie Jordan was like a chef without all of those ingredients. What he had without Arenas and Haywood is the crust. It's a shame that the players didn't put forth more effort for him. Jordan had more succes with this franchise than any other coach in the past 20 years.

Ed Tapscott is a short term fix for a long term problem. He has no NBA head coaching experience. The Wizards presently have no salary cap room and won't for many years unless some trades can be made.

As the leadership in Washington, DC changes from Democrat to Republican and experienced to inexperienced Washington sports fans can only hope that the changes they didn't expect continue and the changes they didn't see coming lead to a new start.

Sphere: Related Content

Redskins Stuck in Neutral

A season that started off so poorly, then began to look promising has suddenly begun to look like so many recent seasons for the Washington Redskins. The burgundy and gold's offense has been stuck in neutral the past five weeks averaging a paltry fourteen points per game. The defense has been outstanding during the same period, yielding only sixteen points per game.

What's wrong with the offense? Where shall I start? The play calling is unimaginative. You can't keep calling screen passes if you don't stretch the field first by throwing deep passes. You can't keep running draw plays on second and long. You can't even call a deep pass route if your offensive line can't pass block although not every sack is the O-line's fault though. Jason Campbell tends to hold the ball too long and the 2nd and 3rd string running backs don't pass block well.

The offensive woes cannot be traced to a single issue. It's a combination of predictable play calling and poor execution. After ten games, the league has plenty of film on Jim Zorn's offense. In the NFL teams will keep doing the same thing until you prove you can stop it. The Redskins can expect opposing defenses to apply heavy pressure on Jason Campbell and play tight press coverage on the receivers until he proves he can complete some long passes.

The Washington Redskins fans can expect a once promising season to end again without a playoff berth if the offense doesn't begin to pull its weight. The time is now with six games remaining, four of which are against teams with little hope of making the playoffs. Hopefully coach Jim Zorn will take his foot off the brake, put the Redskins' offense in gear and drive them into the playoffs.

Sphere: Related Content

Wizards Need Some Magic

Word out of D.C. is that Wizards head coach Eddie Jordan is planning to shake things up. I say shake 'em like a martini Eddie. Once again, this talented team is off to a slow start. The Wizards started the 2007-2008 season 0-5 and currently own an 0-3 record, good enough for last place in the Southeast Division. The Wizards were expected to miss Gilbert Arenas aka Agent Zero games played, but who thought they would miss Brendan Haywood? Say what you want about Haywood but all he did last season was have a career year, playing solid basketball at both ends of the court consistently. Jordan has decided to start Etan Thomas at center this season and while I love Thomas' passion for the game and aggressive style of play, he is just not a starting NBA center.

The second problem with this team is the starting guard play. The Wizards currently start two guards that are not a threat to score. This enables opposing teams to load up on Caron Butler and Antawn Jamison without fear of Antonio Daniels and DeShawn Stevenson making shots. Speaking of the Wizards two active all stars. They must stop settling for jump shots. I know that this team does not have a low post presence so Butler and Jamison must exploit match ups whenever possible to fill that void.

In the last two games the Wizard's most productive line-up has included Nick Young and Juan Dixon at guard, Butler and Jamison at forward and either Darius Songaila or JaVale McGee at center. I'm not suggesting that these five players should constitute the starting unit but clearly they need to play more. Some would argue that the Dixon/Young backcourt is a liability defensively. I would say that this tandem has produced more steals and fast break points the past two games than the starters have in three. The bottom line is that this team is never going to be a great defensive team. The Wizards need to out score teams to win. Stevenson and Daniels aren't exactly locking down the opposing starters at guard so if they are not hitting shots they have to sit.

The Wizards best option at center right now is the rookie JaVale McGee. He's an athletic 7-footer with average big man skills, but again he is 7 feet tall. He will block a couple of shots a game and alter a few others. McGee's youthful energy can really help the team with rebounding at this point. The most disappointing facets of the Bucks game were the poor free throw shooting and turnovers. Seventeen missed free throws and twenty turnovers. That's a recipe for defeat most nights. With the next two games against the new look New York Knicks and superman's Orlando Magic the prospects of another 0-5 or worse start are pretty good. Now is a good time to shake things up.

Sphere: Related Content

Wizards Sign Jamison, Agree to Terms with Arenas

As Gomer Pyle used to say, "surprise, surprise". Who said that Wizards owner Abe Pollin is cheap? Oh yeah, that was me. The Wizards have retained their two big name free agents, Antawn Jamison and Gilbert Arenas and appear to have the cap room necessary to sign another role player. One question I will attempt to answer here is who that additional player should be. But first let's look at the Jamison and Arenas deals.

Jamison had a great year, an all-star season, averaging 21 pts and 10 reb per game. Having said that he is 32 years old and will be 36 by the time his new 4 year $50 million contract expires. I understand that the first year salary will be around $9 million. I was thinking that Jamison should have received a contract that averaged $9 million a year and apparently the Wizards initially thought the same. It has been reported that their first offer to Jamison was for 3 years and $27 million.

The Wizards offered Gilbert Arenas the maximum allowable salary under the NBA's collective bargaining agreement, $127 million over six years. The question I have is...is Arenas a max player? When I think of a max player I think of Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett - players that have won MVP awards and championships...players that have made their teams better with unselfish play, not players who have made their teams better by not playing. Don't get me wrong. Arenas is a very good player, especially at the end of games when he can either create a shot or get to the foul line. It's the time between minute number one and minute 47 that concerns me. It's the matador defense and poor shot selection that concerns me.

I am not however, concerned with Arena's character. Off the court he realizes that he can't do it all by himself. He left about $16 million on the table when he agreed to accept $111 million dollars over 6 years. This is no small amount of money especially in this era of me, me, me I gotta get mine athletes. I applaud Agent 0 for his generosity. I can only hope that he has come to realize that he can't do it alone on the court as well.

Washington has not made any significant changes to its roster since the end of the season. They drafted a 7-footer from the University of Nevada, JeVale McGee, but it's hard to imagine him contributing much next season. They will have to get it done with virtually the same players they had last season. The thinking around the Verizon Center is that the Wizards are one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference when they are healthy. The problem is that they are rarely healthy. They need to sign another small forward/big guard to provide depth behind the eternally brittle Caron Butler. Matt Barnes would be my choice. He can play the '2' or '3'. Barnes is a decent defender and can help spread the defense by making perimeter shots. Nick Young and Dominic McGuire need more playing time. They have proven they can be effective when given minutes. Andrae Blatche and Oleksiy Pecherov need to show me something. Blatche was inconsistent and Pecherov only seemed interested in jacking up 3-pt shots whenever he entered a game. Note to Stewie...you are not Dirk Nowitzky. Get in the paint, rebound and block shots. We don't need you to shoot 3-pointers. If you want to play get in the paint and make something happen.

There is frequent chatter on sports talk radio about the Wizards needing a bruising big man. They already have one. He missed the entire 2007-2008 season. Yes, I'm talking about Etan Thomas. What's wrong with a starting line-up of Arenas, Butler, Haywood, Thomas and Jamison? Every team and every line-up needs role players. My proposed line-up yields 3 scorers and 2 role players. Basketball is a game of match-ups. It's time for the coaching staff to start thinking outside the box. The Wizards need to identify roles for the bench players and put them in situations (favorable match-ups) that allow them to have success. That will keep Arenas, Jamison and Butler fresh by reducing their minutes. Only then will this team come close to realizing its potential. Good talent can only take you so far. Good chemistry can take you all the way to the title.

Sphere: Related Content

Wizards Win and Go Home

What does a team do when its franchise player announces an hour before tip-off of an elimination game that he is doing a "Jerry Stackhouse"...shutting it down for the season? The team, the Washington Wizards, goes out and plays one of its best games of the playoffs and survives to play another day. Gilbert Arenas has decided that his left knee is not fit enough for him to play at a level that will help the Wizards win. Apparently he forgot to tell coach Eddie Jordan because he [Jordan] was planning to start Arenas in game five.

There has been a lot of talk about Washington being a better team without Arenas. They are not. Washington is a better team without an injured Arenas though. It was nice to see Roger Mason in the game for Washington's final offensive possession. All Mason has done all season is play consistent, smart basketball. He doesn't try to do more than he's capable of on offense and plays very good defense. Arenas' absence should also free up some minutes for rookie Nick Young. Other than Butler and Arenas, Young is the one Wizard who can create a shot for himself and his teammates.

There is no secret to the defensive formula for defeating the Cleveland Cavaliers. Rebound the ball. Defend the paint. And close out on the 3-point shooters. The problem for the Washington Wizards has been executing that plan. The Wizards had played well for 46 and a half minutes but found themselves trailing the Cavaliers by 5 points with 1:30 left in the game. The season appeared to be all but over. A couple of missed Cleveland 3-point shots later the Wizards trailed by one with 12 seconds left. Washington inbounded the ball to Caron Butler who took LeBron James to the basket to score with 3.9 seconds left. That is an eternity when you have a player like James who can score pretty much at will or set up a teammate with an open shot.

Lebron James has tormented the Wizards for the past three seasons with end of game heroics. This time, however, he was not able to get the job done. His driving layup bounced off the rim as time expired. Maybe the "course o' lez boulez" has finally been lifted? This sets up a return to D.C. for game 6. What type of game will we see? I think that game six will look a lot like games one, four and five with the the keys being rebounding and end of game execution. Hopefully the basketball gods will once again smile upon the Wizards because if they lose game six they don't go home, they stay home.

Sphere: Related Content

Wizards Clip L.A., Agent 0 Close to Return

Wow! Talk about pulling victory from the jaws of defeat. That's exactly what the 'zards did Saturday night in downtown Washington at the arena D.C. fans know as the phone booth. The Wizards hadn't actually played that poorly, yet they were on the brink of losing this important home game.

They shot the ball poorly from the field, but remained close to the Clippers by out rebounding them and shooting 79% from the free throw line. The Clippers went ahead 92-87 on a Nick Fazekas bank shot with 2:31 remaining in regulation and the Wizards faithful began to file out of the arena. The Wizards kept scrapping though and found themselves behind 98-94 with 7 seconds left in the 4th quarter.

It was at this point that L.A. did what losing teams do...fail to close out the game. They allowed Antawn Jamison to make a 3-point shot with 4 seconds left to cut the deficit to 1. After a pair of Tim Thomas free throws made the score 100-97 Cuttino Mobley did the unthinkable. He fouled Antawn Jamison on a 3-point attempt. Somebody please explain to me the reasoning behind the NBA's ball advancement rule following a timeout. Washington called timeout after the Thomas free throws and was then able to advance the ball across half court for the throw-in. This made it much easier for the Wizards to set up the play that resulted in Mobley's ill-timed foul. Why do the best athletes in the world need this extra advantage? How in the world could Cuttino Mobley foul Jamison on a 3-point attempt? Even more surprising than that was the fact that Jamison made all three free throws.

The game goes into overtime and the Wizards rode that wave of momentum to a stunning 119-109 victory. This game went from one of those you look back on and say..."if we had won that game..." to one that makes you think "winning this game gave us so much confidence" I was prepared to write about how disappointing this loss was, but had to change my focus. This was an impressive win. Brendan Haywood was a late scratch from the line-up due to a sore knee. Caron Butler was playing only his second game in the past month and Gilbert Arenas has been out of action since November.

Coach Eddie Jordan should be considered for coach of the year. Nobody has done more with less this season. The silver lining in the cloud that is the Wizards injury situation is that Nick Young, Andray Blatche and Dominic McGuire have gotten valuable minutes and all have made significant contributions this season.

The latest news on the Arenas watch is that Agent zero is set to undergo an MRI exam on his left knee Monday, the results of which will determine if he is ready for game action. Arenas is understandably concerned with re-injuring himself and missing out on a huge pay day this summer. Here is my two cents. If he is not 100% healthy he shouldn't play. If his knee is structurally sound and pain-free he should play. Arenas loves to play basketball. He'd play for free. In fact he did play for free as a rookie in Golden State. He wasn't getting much playing time so he began playing in a recreation league in the Oakland area. When the Warriors found out they made him stop. There is a lot more at stake for Arenas this time around but he has made more than $50M in the past five years so if he is hurting for money right now, shame on him.

Sphere: Related Content

No Cavalier Performance by the Wizards

The Washington Wizards reached a new level of futility tonight. They faced a Cleveland Cavalier team that had only 6 regular players in uniform. In fact the Cavs had to sign two D-League players in order to reach the NBA mandate of 8 players in uniform. Yet the Wizards still found a way to lose the game. They were beaten on the boards 43-31. The team defense was lousy as evidenced by the fact that Damon Jones scored 27 points. Damon Jones can do two things well...shoot 3-pointers and run his mouth.

The Wizards allowed Jones to do both while never exploiting his weaknesses...he's a poor on the ball defender and ballhandler. He didn't need to dribble however, because he was getting wide open 3-point shots all night. Jones scored 10 field goals, 7 of them triples, none of them contested. I think it's fair to say that the Cavs would not have won this game without Jones' scoring. LeBron James scored 33 points and grabbed 15 rebounds. Only one other Cleveland player scored in double figures. Five Washington players scored in double figures which only goes to prove that it's not the quantity of the scoring but the quality of it that counts.

They never really exploited the Cavs small line-up.

They jacked up early shot clock jump shots instead of exploiting the size advantage they had along the front line.

They failed to close out on shooters.

Sure...the Wizards are missing players too, but the players on their roster have been with the team the entire season. I doubt that a team comprised of Gilbert Arenas, Roger Mason, Oleksiy Pecherov, Dominic McGuire and Darius Songaila could have defeated an NBA team missing two of its starters. All this game did was enhance LeBron's profile as an MVP candidate and push the Wizards a step closer to missing the playoffs. They are 1-10 in their last 11 games with an overall record of 25-29, good for 6th place in the Eastern Conference. Washington has very little margin for error right now. This team needs its veterans to play at a high level physically and mentally. It also wouldn't hurt to get Caron Butler and Gilbert Arenas back in the line-up. But more than anything, this team needs to string together some wins. That will take a more cavalier approach to the game than we've seen lately.

Sphere: Related Content

Terps have a Devil of a Time in Durham

Maryland coach Brenda Frese gave birth to twin boys Sunday. The inside/outside combination of Crystal Langhorne and Kristi Toliver gave birth to a Terps victory. Maryland is the more talented team and expected to win this game. The Terps however, needed to win this game to prove to the nation and themselves that they are legitimate title contenders. One would think that with a record of 27-2 there would be no doubt about this team. Yet there is. Maryland has played many close games this year against teams with inferior talent. This is because they still struggle with teams that employ an aggressive pressing defense.

From the start of Sunday's game it was apparent that the Terps were intent on getting the ball inside to Langhorne and Laura Harper. This strategy was very successful for the first 10 minutes of the game. They built a 14 point lead on the strength of strong interior play from Langhorne and Harper. The ball movement on offense was excellent. Then Duke started to press --a 2-1-2 zone trap. And Kristi Toliver started to dribble around in circles like she is a Harlem Globetrotter. And the turnovers began to stack up like rush hour traffic on the Woodrow Wilson bridge. The formula for beating Maryland is well-known. Play physical defense, especially on Kristi Toliver, pound the boards and attack the Terp's frontline with your post players.

The Duke press was very effective and largely responsible for producing 24 turnovers by Maryland. The Blue Devils cut the 14 point deficit to 5 late in the 2nd half. They had Toliver frustrated - 12 turnovers. Then something odd happened. They stopped pressing. They committed silly turnovers. They took wild shots. Duke allowed Maryland to escape with a well-earned 76-69 victory...and hopefully gave birth to a more confident, determined Terps team that will go deep into the 2008 NCAA tournament.

Sphere: Related Content