Mike Burke - Sports
Homecourt disadvantage?
In watching the Kristi Toliver-Marissa Coleman era at the University of Maryland come to a tearful end on Monday night, you almost had to wonder by the time the Lady Terps had arrived in Raleigh for the regional semifinals if they hadn’t already spent too much emotion and left it in College Park where Toliver and Coleman were accorded a heroes’ send-off after Maryland’s first two NCAA tournament games were played at Comcast Center.
The Terps dodged a bullet in the region semifinal, fighting back from 18 down to beat Vanderbilt, 78-74, and advance to the final against Louisville. But they needed every single one of Coleman’s 42 points and 15 rebounds to do it. Certainly, Sweet 16 and Elite Eight games are said to be the hardest of an NCAA run for any top seed, but Maryland just didn’t look like Maryland, even in victory.
As for the 77-60 loss to Louisville and former Maryland assistant Jeff Wolz, now the Cardinals’ head coach, with the exception of the late first-half run to get to within five, the Terps were never really in it, instead being beaten at their own game by a smothering perimeter defensive performance by Louisville. As soon as the Terps were back in it, they were back out of it, and the comeback they needed against Vanderbilt was never there.
There’s no way of telling, of course, because the NCAA women’s tournament schedule is what it is. Particularly in the early rounds, finances being what finances are, games have to be played at sites that support women’s basketball. Just ask top-seeded Duke in the Berkeley Region, which had to play No. 9 Michigan State on Michigan’s State’s home floor.
Still, taking nothing away from Vanderbilt and Louisville, there is now food for thought that opening the NCAA tournament at home, while advantageous in the beginning, can take its toll physically and emotionally in the end.
North Carolina?
It has been brought to my attention more than once that in last Sunday’s column in my haste to make my point that the expansion of the ACC was a bad thing for all involved — including the guy at the Kenny Rogers Roaster — like an overzealous Nixon White House aide, I created a fact. The ACC championship football game was not played in North Carolina last season as I said it had been. So, of course, how could it have sold out last year if it won’t even be played in the Tar Heel state until 2010?
To those who caught my unfortunate error, thank you for pointing it out to me. To all who were offended by it, I apologize.
But the expansion of the ACC is still a bad thing.
Noria?
It has also been brought to my attention that the name of the Fort Hill softball team’s catcher is Adria Lewis, and not Noria Lewis, as was reported in the game story I wrote for Tuesday’s Times-News.
This, of course, I knew. I mean, what the heck ... she’s been on the darn varsity team for three years and now I can’t get her name right?!
Adria, please accept my apology. As I have reached the ripening age I have reached, I am discovering that the eyes and the memory really are two of the first things to send warning shots.
Safe to say, Noria (Noria?) has played her last game.
Mike Burke is sports editor of the Cumberland Times-News. Contact Mike Burke at mburke@times-news.com.
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