Acc Tournament

- The Atlantic Coast Conference tournament has a familiar feel for the second-seeded Maryland Terrapins. After all, they have played each of the participants this season and could find themselves playing at least one team for a third time. At the same time, the tournament is very different - the schedule is more compressed - than the regular season. Preparing for it requires a new set of procedures. About the only thing like it for No. 19 Maryland this season was the Maui Invitational, in which the Terps played three games in three days in November, losing two. The team could have a similar schedule at Greensboro Coliseum if it wins tonight and Saturday to advance to Sunday's final.

No. 9 Duke captured its first Atlantic Coast Conference championship since 2004 by beating North Carolina State, 70-60, in Greensboro, N.C., behind 18 points from tournament Most Valuable Player Jasmine Thomas . Karima Christmas added 13 points for the Blue Devils (27-5), who forced 23 turnovers and out-rebounded the Wolfpack 46-32 in claiming their sixth ACC title and first since winning five in a row from 2000 to 2004. Nikitta Gartrell had 19 points to lead the sixth-seeded Wolfpack (20-13)

Karon Abraham scored 19 points and defending champion Robert Morris beat Mount St. Mary's, 80-62, on Sunday night in the Northeast Conference semifinals in Moon Township, Pa. The second-seeded Colonials (22-11) will play top seed Quinnipiac on Wednesday in the conference championship for a berth in the NCAA tournament. The Colonials will be playing for their seventh conference tournament title. Rob Robinson added 14 points, Dallas Green had 11 and Velton Jones 10 for the Colonials, who had split two games this season with Mount St. Mary's and beat the Mountaineers in last year's NEC title game.

Y ou come here today looking for hope. You come here asking: Can Maryland win the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament for the first time since 2004? Don't lie to me, you say. Don't toy with my emotions. Fine, I'll give it to you straight: Yes, the Terps have a great chance to win it all in Greensboro, N.C., this weekend. And we'll get into exactly why in a moment. But whatever you do, don't read too much into their sloppy 74-68 win over Virginia on Saturday.

1. ACC Tournament (Thursday-Sunday on RAYCOM and ESPN): If you're not hardcore enough to travel to Greensboro, N.C., to see if Gary Williams' Terps can win their first ACC tourney since 2004, I guess you'll have to tune in on TV. The downside: Duke players won't be able to hear your boos. MATT VENSEL, B 2. ARTBus Tour Six hours on a bus is rough, no matter your destination. But we make an exception for the annual Evergreen Museum and Library's ARTBus, with artist/indie curator Jason Hughes leading an insidery look at the rising stars of Baltimore's arts scene.

Former Maryland women's basketball player Tara Heiss was one of 12 players named to the Atlantic Coast Conference's sixth annual class of Women's Basketball Legends to be honored at the ACC tournament March 4-7 in Greensboro, N.C. Heiss played for the Terps from 1974 to 1978. Her 504 career assists rank third all-time at Maryland, and her scoring average of 14.2 points ranks eighth. Heiss also set a school single-game record, which has since been broken, by scoring 34 points against Delaware in 1976.

If Maryland needed a place to regain its comfort zone, where better than Greensboro Coliseum, site of this season's Atlantic Coast Conference tournament? And who better to play than UNC Greensboro (2-11), an undersized team that had already lost to five ACC teams by an average of 21 points? Using pressure defense and transition baskets, the Terps rolled to a 97-63 victory Sunday that set things right - at least for now - after last week's home loss to William & Mary. For Maryland (9-4)

World Series of Poker Oakland's Moon to face off against Cada for top prize A 21-year-old playing in his first World Series of Poker main event in Las Vegas is poised to become its youngest champion if he can beat an amateur logger who had never gambled for high stakes before entering the no-limit Texas Hold 'em tournament. Joe Cada, from Shelby Township, Mich., is 340 days younger than Denmark's Peter Eastgate, who last year broke the age record set by 11-time gold bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth two decades earlier.

Relief and disappointment for two area programs punctuated the release of the NCAA tournament brackets Sunday night. Despite four losses in its past seven contests, the No. 13 Maryland men's lacrosse team earned one of nine at-large bids and will travel to Indiana to face seventh seed Notre Dame (15-0) at noon Sunday. The Terps (9-6) had stumbled in recent weeks, losing a seven-overtime thriller to then-No. 1 Virginia, dropping back-to-back games to in-state rivals Navy and Johns Hopkins, and getting ousted from the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament by a North Carolina team that had previously lost 12 straight in tournament action.