Coppin St.-Maryland Preview

3/20/2008 9:27 PM

By MATT BECKER
STATS Writer

Maryland's chances of getting a top seed in the NCAA tournament appeared to vanish after a disappointing ACC tournament exit. The selection committee saw otherwise, however, and rewarded the fifth-ranked Terrapins with not only the top seed in the Spokane Regional, but also kept them at home.

With the core still intact from the 2006 championship team, Maryland begins another title run against 16th-seeded Coppin State on Sunday.

The Terrapins (30-3) have been ranked in the top five all season, and finished second in the powerful ACC in 2007-08. They're the second-highest scoring team in the nation (82.2 ppg) and led the conference in 3-point shooting (38.7 percent), but after losing to then-No. 12 Duke 74-63 in the ACC semifinals on March 8, there was speculation that Maryland may miss out on a top seed.

"I was definitely surprised, especially how the ACC tournament went," Terrapins senior center Crystal Langhorne said of the NCAA seeding.

Maryland's strength of schedule, which includes a 6-3 record against Top 25 opponents, apparently impressed the selection committee. The Terps' only other losses this season came at then-No. 4 Rutgers on Dec. 3 and at then-No. 12 Duke on Feb. 17.

"We absolutely deserve this. We've only lost three games - all against legit, talented, well-coached teams," said junior Kristi Toliver, who is fourth in the ACC in scoring at 16.8 points. "We're extremely excited, extremely motivated. We're proud of what we've done so far, but we're not going to be satisfied where we're at.

"It's tournament time, and we believe we're the most talented team in the country."

Toliver, Langhorne, junior Marissa Coleman and senior Laura Harper - all instrumental to the 2006 team - are all averaging at least 14.5 points this season.

This time, the Terps are looking to take advantage of playing in College Park, where they set a school record by winning all 19 of their home games this season. Maryland, which has won 30 straight over nonconference opponents, beat 12 such foes at the Comcast Center this season by an average of 27.9 points.

The Terps are 11-0 all-time against in-state rival Coppin State (22-11) - with all of those contests played in College Park. In their last meeting on Dec. 13, 2005, Maryland rolled to a 69-38 victory.

The Eagles are making their third NCAA tournament appearance in the last four years after defeating North Carolina A&T 72-70 in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference title game on March 15. Rashida Suber had the game-winning layup with four seconds as Coppin State won for the 16th time in 17 games after a 6-10 start.

"We got back to where we needed to be,'' Suber said. "We knew what we had to work on to get back here. We got here.''

Suber is the school's career scoring leader with 1,838 points and led the MEAC in scoring this season (17.6 ppg).

Shalamar Oakley is second in the league in scoring at 17.4 points, and was named the conference player of the year and MEAC tournament Most Outstanding Player.

The Eagles have lost their only two NCAA tournament games by a combined 58 points.