Basketball Court

From the illuminated silhouette showing a familiar figure pumping his fist that adorned the outside of the arena, to the season's first sellout crowd inside, Comcast Center had a different feel to it Wednesday night. It had a different feel to Gary Williams, too - different from any of the game nights he had spent there during the last nine years of a 22-year career at Maryland. Even with an old and familiar rival, Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski and his eighth-ranked Blue Devils, it was not the same for the 66-year-old coach.

After taking a year off from school, former Forest Park shooting guard Quentin Judd has finalized his plans for a return to the classroom and the basketball court. Last week Judd, who averaged a team-high 19 points for the Foresters during the 2010-11 season, signed a letter of intent to attend Pensacola (Fla.) State College on a full basketball scholarship. “I'm proud to be a part of this moment. This sets the precedent for all of you to get through the door," Forest Park coach Greate White said to his team after Judd's signing.

Four men were shot - one of them fatally - at a basketball court Saturday morning in Southeast Baltimore. Damon Coleman, 35, of the 2700 block of E. Hoffman St. was shot in the chin area and was later pronounced dead at Johns Hopkins Hospital, said Officer Nicole Monroe, a Baltimore police spokeswoman. The three other men suffered minor injuries, police said. One was shot in the lower back, another in the shoulder and both legs and the third was shot in the mouth. Police found three of the victims, including the man who died, about 6 a.m. lying on the east side of the basketball court in a public housing project in the 1400 block of May Court, Monroe said.

Ten minutes before the start of practice at the Annapolis Area Christian School on Thursday night, Adrian Bowie was slouched over in a chair, waiting patiently in the lobby adjacent to the Kilby Athletic Center's main basketball court. He'd tossed the black-and-white Maryland Under Armour backpack slung over his shoulders onto the ground next to him, and he joked with some teammates as the doors to the gymnasium were finally swung open. The glistening court beckoned. As Bowie filed onto the hardwood behind 26-year-old guard/stand-up comedian Terry Hosley, general manager John Wolfe - a man with admittedly no basketball experience - looked on from the sideline.

They used to dress alike, attend the same schools and play on the same basketball teams.While they have different hairstyles and clothes now, fraternal twins Kortni and Kristi Webb both starred on the basketball court yesterday.The sophomore sisters were foes on the court for just the second time, as 6-foot-1 center Kortni, playing for the Institute of Notre Dame, peered across the court at Kristi, a 5-10 guard/forward for St. Frances in a Catholic League game at the College of Notre Dame.

A year ago, Igor Milosevic was on the verge of being drafted into the Croatian army to fight in a bloody civil war.Today, the only battles facing the 19-year-old are the contests on the basketball court at the Annapolis Recreation Center in downtown Annapolis. Last September, the 6-foot, 5-inch Mr. Milosevic left his home in Zagreb and came to Maryland on a student visa to pursue his dream of becoming a professional basketball player.His older brother, Vladimir, who plays basketball for the University of Maryland Baltimore County, helped him find a school and a team.

The ball swished through the net yesterday at the basketball court at Hanlon Park.Until recently, that was not possible. The inner-city basketball court had no nets, one of the rims was lopsided, the other one was missing, and the court surface was covered with cracks.Yesterday, scores of youngsters took turns playing two-on-two on a court refurbished with private dollars, part of a make-over of 12 courts in Baltimore.The project is funded by FILA USA, the athletic shoe and apparel company based in Hunt Valley, which contributed $20,000.

A little less than an acre of open space in Westminster's Whispering Meadows subdivision may become a tot lot, a miniature park -- or something else.Whatever it becomes will be the result of community members and city planners working together to create an open space plan that will make the residents happier than the basketball court the developers originally proposed.Residents of Whispering Meadows Drive, Mountain Laurel and Field Lily Courts, whose homes surround the open space, petitioned the city government last summer to have it cleared of debris and developed differently than planned.

A former basketball player for Meade High School was ordered held on $20,000 bail yesterday after being charged with fatally shooting another man during an argument at a basketball court.Raymond Russell Sommerville, 20, of the 8600 block of Pioneer Drive played guard for the school during the 1990-1991 season, his senior year.He was charged Wednesday night with first-degree murder in the fatal shooting of Robert Lee Hall Jr., 21, of the 1800 block of Richfield Drive in Severn. It was Anne Arundel County's third homicide this year.

Of all the qualities that Oakland Mills senior Kevin Gibson has brought to the soccer field and basketball court throughout his fine high school career, one clearly stands above the rest. It's not all the goals he kept out of the Scorpions' net as a sweeper on the soccer team or the ones he scored. And it's not the points and rebounds he has piled up in his three years playing forward on the basketball team. More than anything, it's Gibson's ability to lead. "In Kevin, you could see that right away in just how he carried himself," Oakland Mills basketball coach Jon Browne said.

One of his closest friends was shot and killed in a case of mistaken identity. The prep school program he signed on to play for suddenly folded. And his family - including his newborn son - was more than 400 miles away. For Tione Womack , life after high school proved to be an unexpectedly jarring introduction to the real world. “It was just like a pause on my life,” said Womack, who graduated from Randallstown in 2008 and enrolled at Queen City Prep in North Carolina.

Loyola men's basketball Patsos wins Skip Prosser Award Loyola men's basketball coach Jimmy Patsos was named the 2012 recipient of the Skip Prosser Man of the Year Award on Friday night at an awards banquet hosted by CollegeInsider.com at the NCAA Final Four in New Orleans. The award is named in honor and memory of Prosser, who was coach at Loyola, Xavier and Wake Forest before dying in July 2007. It recognizes coaches who achieve success on the basketball court and display moral integrity off it. Patsos recently completed his eighth season at Loyola, a year during which he guided the Greyhounds to a 24-9 overall record and the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference championship for the first time since 1994.

From the illuminated silhouette showing a familiar figure pumping his fist that adorned the outside of the arena, to the season's first sellout crowd inside, Comcast Center had a different feel to it Wednesday night. It had a different feel to Gary Williams, too - different from any of the game nights he had spent there during the last nine years of a 22-year career at Maryland. Even with an old and familiar rival, Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski and his eighth-ranked Blue Devils, it was not the same for the 66-year-old coach.

Ice hockey Glenelg (1-3) notched its first win of the season with a 9-3 victory over Wilde Lake/Hammond/Oakland Mills (1-3). Senior goaltenders Tyler Hough (19 shots, 17 saves) and Stephen Condor (4 shots, 3 saves) were in net for Glenelg, with the scoring provided by Carlos Ramirez (1 goal, 2 assists), Charles Harrison (1 goal, 4 assists), Simon King (1 goal), Jake Valenze (2 goals), Jun Park (2 goals), Johnny Lyons (2 goals), Blake Heuer (2 assists), William Dalton Hawkins (2 assists)

Set to start his sixth season at Milford Mill, boys basketball coach Albert Holley has already posted impressive numbers. He has won 102 games, captured the past three Baltimore County championships, and his No. 5 Millers are two-time defending Class 3A state champs. Holley is equally proud of other numbers he finds even more important: "The past five years I've been here, we've graduated 25 seniors and 23 are in college right now," he said. "Not all of them are playing, some are studying engineering, some are studying to become doctors.

Summer is finally here, and vacations are just beginning. For rising Meade High School senior and Russett resident Jamie McKeither, playing on the basketball court will be the main focus. Traveling with her Nike BlueStar teams this summer playing center, forward and guard positions is definitely a grueling schedule but one McKeither is ready to conquer. Her passion and love for the sport can be seen by her many other accomplishments, including playing guard, forward and center positions with the Meade Mustangs, where she plays with another Russett resident, Imani Bailey, who was profiled in my June 16 neighborhood column.

ORANGE FARM, South Africa - The first time Michael Scholl brought a basketball into this poor black township, most children had never even touched, let alone dribbled, one. Early experiments with the new sport resembled rugby more than basketball, as the children piled onto whoever had the ball. But nearly two years later, this township has made the game its own. Township teams go by names like "The Contraceptives," "Clean Hands," and "The Hygienics." The backboards are emblazoned with the message: "Love Life."

Albert Mason told his son to "start praying and talk to the Lord the way you talk to me," as his son waited to be placed in an ambulance.That was three years ago when St. Mary's A. J. Mason thought his athletic career was over, but more importantly, feared he would never walk again.Mason suffered a severe spinal injury while blocking on a kickoff return in the Saints' second game of the season.He cracked the third, fourth and fifth vertebrae in his spine and would twice require surgery to fuse them back together with pieces of his hip bones.

Towson is getting a shiny new arena for the start of the 2013-14 season, but the university isn’t waiting for the Tiger Arena to be built to make a splash on the basketball court. The Tigers in the fall will unveil a new floor at the Towson Center that has watermark tiger stripes and a new Tigers logo at the scorer’s table. “Just like Oregon did last year at the Matthew Knight Arena with their new look, we feel that our new court is a plus for recruiting because kids like things that are unique and cutting edge in design,” new Towson men’s basketball coach Pat Skerry said in a statement released on the team’s website.

His name is Terrell Suggs, but for the next couple of months they will call him "LeTron James. " While the NFL and the National Football League Players Association negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement, players are finding other ways to stay in shape because the current lockout prohibits them from working out or participating in minicamps at their respective training facilities. That's where "LeTron James" comes in. Suggs is playing pickup basketball four or five times a week in a semi-pro league in his home state of Arizona.