Terrapins Are Young, 10-0 and Hungry for the Top

They run, they press, they dunk and they probably lead the nation in alley-oop passes.

They’re fresh faces on a scene grown weary of Duke-North Carolina skirmishes and blue-blooded Kentucky in the NCAA championship game.

Could the Maryland Terrapins be college basketball’s best team?

Stanford took the Sports Illustrated cover, Duke was the Associated Press preseason No. 1, Connecticut holds the spot for now.

But everybody’s favorite newcomer, Maryland guard Steve Francis, leads a team loaded with experienced players in seniors Laron Profit, Terrell Stokes and center Obinna Ekezie, and the Terrapins are closing in on Connecticut’s lead.

Maryland had 17 first-place votes to Connecticut’s 53 in the latest AP poll, and 11 to Connecticut’s 19 in the ESPN/USA Today coaches’ poll. Power rankings? Try No. 1 Maryland at 122.5 and No. 2 Connecticut at 122.3.

“Looking at the records, the teams we’ve played, I think we probably are No. 1,” Ekezie said. “I don’t think UConn has played as good of competition as we have. They’ll be going into the Big East pretty soon, so I don’t know if they’ll be playing anybody as good.

“They’re definitely a good team. The way the system is, I don’t think they’ll be stripped of No. 1 until they lose.”

Maryland (10-0) won its first eight games by an average of 32.8 points and has beaten UCLA, Pittsburgh, Stanford and DePaul.

The Terrapins get another chance to prove themselves Saturday against defending national champion Kentucky at Rupp Arena.

“It will be a great, great experience--23,000, 24,000 people, the whole world watching,” Stokes said. “We think we’re the No. 1 program in the country. That’s our feeling. We’re not telling anybody else they have to feel that, but that’s the confidence we have.”

It’s a team that shows remarkable cohesion considering Francis, a junior college transfer who can take just about anybody one on one, is in his first year with the team.

“He’s a player who can fit in very well with all the good players on our team. He didn’t come in here to save the program,” Stokes said. “But he’s a great guy in the open court. That’s his game.”

When sophomore Terence Morris, who had a 10-for-11 outing against DePaul, is almost an afterthought, it’s a pretty good team.

But is Maryland really the best?

“I think Duke is,” said Stanford Coach Mike Montgomery, whose team lost to Maryland, 62-60, on Sunday.

“The thing I’m not sure about Maryland is the style of play, when people can handle the pressure.

“It didn’t seem to me to be pressure you’re not going to be able to handle. If you prepare for it and have people who can handle the pressure--when that’s the case, I’m not sure yet where Maryland’s points come from if they have to score in a halfcourt game.”

UCLA Coach Steve Lavin predicted Maryland would beat Stanford, but thinks Duke probably will beat Maryland--again, saying that pressure is most effective early in the season before teams learn to expect it and are confident breaking the press. He also gave Duke’s front line an edge.

Pencil in this date: Jan. 3.

That’s when Duke plays at Maryland in the teams’ first meeting this season.

There will be payback at stake. Last season, Duke beat Maryland by a stunning margin at Cole Field House, 104-72, then beat the Terrapins at Cameron Indoor Stadium, 86-59.

“They came in and beat us by 30 points and hit all these crazy threes,” Stokes said. “We remember that real well.”

STANFORD STILL STANDS TALL

That’s a pretty darn good 5-2 team in Palo Alto.

So Stanford lost to North Carolina in Madison Square Garden, practically Tar Heel guard Ed Cota’s backyard, and lost to Maryland by two points at the MCI Center in Washington--another backyard game now that the Terrapins, not the Hoyas, seem to own Washington.

It’s not 18-0, granted. But Stanford is capable of shoring up its shooting woes, and injuries heal--although the news Montgomery received Wednesday that center Jason Collins’ dislocated wrist will be put in a cast and might require surgery, was bad, especially considering that Tim Young isn’t playing well.

But figure that the Cardinal is going to be fine with the crew that reached last season’s Final Four, even with two losses already.

“I’m not sure that we played teams as good as these in that whole run,” Montgomery said. “Last year, Arizona, obviously; Connecticut, Kentucky--those are the teams we played that were of the level of North Carolina and Maryland.”

The NCAA tournament victories last season were against the College of Charleston, Western Michigan, Purdue and Rhode Island in a close call before the overtime loss to Kentucky in the semifinals.

And that 18-0 start? Well, at this point last season, Stanford had played San Diego, Hawaii Hilo, Valparaiso, Butler, Georgia, San Diego State and Pacific.

“I don’t know if we played a top-20 team in that [18-0] run last year,” Montgomery said, although Stanford beat No. 8 UCLA. “We probably could do the same thing again under a similar set of circumstances.”

A preseason No. 1 pick by some, Stanford is at

No. 6, a ranking Montgomery calls “more realistic.”

“I think the whole thing was a setup,” he said. “I think we’re on target.”

One dramatic difference from last season is Stanford’s shooting. Pete Sauer, Arthur Lee and Kris Weems are all having their struggles, and a season after Stanford shot almost 41% from three-point range, the Cardinal is at 32%. A knee injury to Ryan Mendez hurts. Stanford’s shooters are no longer secrets, and they might have to work harder for their shots.

“We’re not shooting the ball as well as we need to,” Montgomery said. “We’ve had open looks we’re not making, and we’ve got to get our inside people consistent too.”

A-C-C, A-C-C

You can almost hear the conference-pride chants all the way to the West Coast. All who dared suggest the Pacific 10 was closing in on the Atlantic Coast Conference were flat-out wrong, present company included.

The Pac-10’s record against the ACC is 1-4.

Maybe come March the Pac-10 will pull its now-habitual strong Sweet 16 showing in the NCAA tournament. For now, the evidence is Maryland and North Carolina over Stanford, Maryland over UCLA and Virginia over Washington State, with the only Pac-10 victory belonging to Washington, which beat Georgia Tech.

The No. 22 Huskies are on their way out of the top 25 after three consecutive losses--to No. 1 Connecticut, Boise State and Gonzaga.

When Gonzaga fans chanted “Overrated,” at Washington at the end of the game, the Huskies didn’t have an answer.

ROCK, SHOCK JAYHAWK

USC’s solid shot at upsetting seriously overrated No. 10 Kansas on Saturday became a more difficult assignment after Iowa beat Kansas on Tuesday at Allen Fieldhouse.

Why the delirium for Iowa, which celebrated as though it had just upset a No. 1 team? Kansas hadn’t lost at home since 1994, a streak of 62 games.

Which raises the question, how long since Kansas lost two games in a row at home?

It hasn’t happened since 1989, when Kansas State and Missouri beat Kansas back to back during a 19-12 season.

Kansas hasn’t lost two games in a row anywhere since 1994, but USC has a shot, as anyone who saw Pepperdine shoot its way out of an upset opportunity at the Wooden Classic on Saturday knows.

ONE OF A THOUSAND KNIGHTS

When Indiana’s Bob Knight kicked at the scorer’s table and received a technical during an overtime loss to Kentucky this week in his 1,000th coaching game, Kentucky players had plenty to say about it.

“I kept hearing this thump,” center Mike Bradley told the Lexington Herald-Leader. “Then I heard another thump. I was thinking, ‘What is that?’ Then I remembered who we were playing. I guess he was kicking the scorer’s table?”

Saul Smith, the son of Kentucky Coach Tubby Smith, said he figured he’d better get away “before he started swinging at somebody. I knew if I went down with my coach, all he’d do is yell at me, not hit me.”