Backcourt

After a frustrating season in which Atholton missed out on the Class 3A playoffs to several weaker Baltimore teams, the Raiders should be in good position for a return to the regionals.Dropping back into Class 2A, the Raiders no longer have to worry about posting a strong season and staying home at playoff time."As a coach, I want to see us get back to the playoffs," said Raiders coach Jon Peterson, whose squad did not play enough 3A and 4A teams to accumulate the points necessary to edge the city schools last season.

LANDOVER -- Although they're not among the league's elite teams, the Miami Heat still provides some of the more difficult backcourt matchup problems for the Washington Bullets. Particularly troublesome has been 6-foot-8 guard Steve Smith, who had hit 70 percent of his shots in the last two meetings between the teams -- both blowout wins by the Heat.With little more to lose in a season of many losses, the Bullets gambled last night as Rex Chapman started alongside Calbert Cheaney in a backcourt with no true point guard.

The changing of the guards continued in the Washington Bullets backcourt yesterday when eight-year veteran Darrell Walker was traded to the Detroit Pistons for two second-round draft choices, in 1993 and 1995.The loss of Walker, the Bullets' best defensive guard and the team's leading rebounder two seasons ago, left coach Wes Unseld wondering who his starting guards would be when the Bullets open their 1991-92 NBA season Nov. 1.Of the guards on the Bullets roster at the start of the 1989-1990 season, only Ledell Eackles now remain.

CHICAGO -- With nine minutes left in Game 3 of the NBA Eastern Conference finals, the deafening sound system at Chicago Stadium blasted out "Hit the Road, Jack."It was a parting tribute to New York Knicks guard John Starks, who just had been ejected for taking one too many swipes at Chicago Bulls superstar Michael Jordan.The song has become a familiar road melody for Starks, a hero in the Knicks' two victories in New York to open the best-of-seven series, but a symbol of his team's frustration in Saturday's103-83 rout by the defending champions.

ATLANTA REGIONAL No. 3 Texas vs. No. 7 Xavier Time: 7:27 p.m. Records: Texas 25-7, Xavier 25-10. How they got here: Texas defeated No. 14 Princeton, 66-49, beat No. 6 North Carolina, 78-75; Xavier defeated No. 10 Louisville, 80-70, beat No. 2 Mississippi State, 89-74. What to watch for: Texas has the deepest bench in the tournament and a stable of talented big men, but that won't matter unless the Longhorns can adequately defend Xavier guards Lionel Chalmers, Romain Sato and Dedrick Finn.

PORTLAND, Ore. -- They had just successfully dug themselves out of a 16-point second-half hole, and the Washington Bullets found themselves in a winnable game.A three-pointer by Rex Chapman had just gotten the Bullets to within two points late in the game, and you could see the energy in the Washington huddle."We're gonna win this one, we're gonna win this one," Doug Overton shouted to his teammates during a timeout. "Let's go get it."But when the Bullets came out of that huddle, Overton ruined a near-flawless game by fouling Rod Strickland in the backcourt.

NEW YORK -- They call it "ugly ball" here, a label tagged to the style played by the New York Knicks. It's neither crowd-pleasing nor for the faint of heart. But last night it was good enough to put the Knicks within one game of an NBA championship.After blowing a 12-point, third-quarter lead, the Knicks rallied in the closing minutes from a three-point deficit for a 91-84 victory over the Houston Rockets before a sellout crowd of 19,763 at Madison Square Garden.The win gave New York a 3-2 lead in the NBA Finals, with a chance to clinch its first championship in 21 years tomorrow night in Houston.

After last night's 83-68 victory at the University of Maryland Baltimore Maryland last night, Towson State coach Terry Truax was asked what it felt like to win his 100th game."

Coach -- Brenda Frese, fifth season at Maryland (84-45), eighth overall (141-75) Affiliation -- Atlantic Coast Conference 2005-06 -- 34-4, 12-2 in ACC (tied for second), lost to North Carolina, 91-80, in final of ACC tournament; won NCAA championship Arena -- Comcast Center (17,950) Consensus ACC favorite -- Maryland Starters lost -- None Probable starting lineup -- G Shay Doron; G Kristi Toliver; F Marissa Coleman; F Crystal Langhorne; F-C Laura Harper. Backcourt -- Toliver cemented her place in Maryland lore with a stunning three-pointer late in regulation against Duke in the national championship game, but her steady quarterbacking of the offense was far more critical.

South Regional semifinals Site -- Reliant Stadium, Houston Memphis (35-1) vs. Michigan State (27-8) Time -- 9:57 (approx.) How they got here -- No. 1 seed Memphis def. No. 16 Texas-Arlington, 87-63, and No. 8 Mississippi State, 77-74; No. 5 seed Michigan State def. No. 12 Temple, 72-61, and No. 4 Pitts burgh, 65-54. The buzz -- Expect to see a lot of de fense. Both teams are deep and ath letic. Michigan State has a lot of big bodies to throw at Memphis, so there should be a lot of physical play in the low post.