College Park

Are expectant mothers adding Marissa and Kristi to their lists of baby girl names today? Are thousands of Marylanders budgeting for $175 Final Four seats? If the General Assembly chooses to rewrite the lyrics to "Maryland, My Maryland," will it include laudatory references to Head Coach Brenda Frese? If not - why not? With their 92-89 overtime victory over Duke on Sunday, the Maryland Terrapins women's basketball team accomplished something their Y-chromosome-toting counterparts in College Park never have: They won the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament after capturing the regular season title, too. Their position as one of four top seeds in the March Madness tournament is virtually assured.

College Park -- Maryland offensive lineman Scott Burley does not want to research his mother's disease, or know any more about lupus than what she tells him and what he's seen. "As long as she's doing well," he said, "I'm happy." Sabrina Lucas is doing well - her lupus is in remission - and for the first time in a few years, everything seems to be going right for her son, too. Burley, a native of Baltimore and former Woodlawn High standout, was a freshman at Maryland when he learned his mother was diagnosed with a potentially fatal disease that attacks the immune system.

COLLEGE PARK -- A bond between brothers and the schools that separated them was captured in a family photo taken this past summer: Maryland junior receiver Isaiah Williams was wearing his jersey from the Champs Sports Bowl, while his older brother, Ira, a 2001 graduate and former receiver for Wake Forest, was sporting a Demon Deacons T-shirt. "Last year he trash-talked me quite a bit," said Isaiah Williams, referring to when Wake Forest beat Maryland in the regular-season finale, knocking the Terps out of the running for the Atlantic Coast Conference championship.

Maryland colleges and universities ended a strong fundraising year with a pair of billion-dollar campaign announcements from the University of Maryland, College Park and the Johns Hopkins University, and a flurry of major gifts that included $50 million to Hopkins and $5 million to the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. But in addition to sharing seven figures, the gifts making headlines in recent months had something else in common: Virtually all were made by friends and foundations, not former students of the receiving institution.

COLLEGE PARK -- Maryland football coach Ralph Friedgen says he routinely plucks about 20 players at random from the practice field each month and requires them to take drug tests. "I have the largest group of male athletes on campus," says Friedgen, whose tests come in addition to others done by the university and the NCAA. "I have 18- to 22-year-old kids. If I don't stay on top of that, then I'll have a real problem." Friedgen has been known to dispatch assistants to bars to try to keep players out of harm's way. His coaches also conduct periodic evening dormitory checks, and men's basketball coach Gary Williams began requiring his players this past season to live on campus.

College Park -- At this time last season, Maryland coach Ralph Friedgen was lamenting the loss of 86 percent of his passing offense to graduation and the NFL. What was probably one of his biggest worries at the time has since become one of the Terps' most promising assets for 2007. Maryland returns all three of its leading receivers to the lineup and has a talented group of younger players who also have the ability to contribute. Redshirt sophomore Darrius Heyward-Bey, whose productivity last year ranked him among the best in the Atlantic Coast Conference, set the school record for receiving yards by a freshman with his team-high 694 yards.

Prince George's County police have been flooded with tips and have identified several "persons of interest" in their investigation into the "college-age" man who raped one University of Maryland student last week and kissed or fondled three others, officials said yesterday. At a campus meeting, Maj. Kevin Davis of the county police told several dozen students that his detectives have stepped up police presence and "covert operations" in the college town. "There are more police per square foot in College Park than virtually any area in Prince George's County," Davis said.

COLLEGE PARK -- For a half, the Notre Dame women's basketball team played third-ranked Maryland about as close to the scouting report as could be expected, taking away its interior game and transition offense, daring the Terps to win the game from the perimeter. Maryland took the dare and beat the 23rd-ranked Fighting Irish, 75-59, last night to earn a berth in tomorrow's Preseason Women's National Invitation Tournament championship game against No. 4 LSU at Comcast Center. LSU@Maryland Preseason WNIT final, tomorrow, 3 p.m.

COLLEGE PARK -- If there was one glaring difference between Maryland and Duke heading into yesterday's game at Comcast Center, it was the five seniors in the Terps' rotation compared with the least-experienced team at Duke since World War II. Well aware that time is dwindling to end their college careers on an upswing, Maryland's veterans finally played as if something were on the line and pulled together for a convincing 72-60 win against No. 16 Duke...

After serving as a popular superintendent of Baltimore County public schools for 16 years, Robert Y. Dubel retired in 1992. "I didn't stay retired for too long," he said in an interview. "I took a part-time job right away at College Park in the College of Education teaching in the master's and doctoral programs, and when it started moving toward a full-time position, I quit in 1997." He still does a little educational consulting and returns to the University of Maryland occasionally to lecture delegations from China about elementary and secondary education.

Men's college soccer Loyola, Maryland to meet in first round of College Cup Loyola will play defending champion Maryland in the first round of the NCAA College Cup on Thursday in College Park, with the winner advancing to meet Penn State on Sunday. Loyola (11-7-3), the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference champion, is making its school-record third consecutive appearance in the Cup and its seventh in the school's NCAA Division I history. Maryland (12-5-2) lost to Virginia in the Atlantic Coast Conference quarterfinals.

College football Hopkins at Hampden-Sydney in first round of NCAAs Johns Hopkins will play at undefeated Hampden-Sydney at noon Saturday in the first round of the NCAA Division III playoffs. Hopkins (8-2) sealed its second outright Centennial Conference championship with a 38-14 win at McDaniel in the regular-season finale Saturday. This will be the Blue Jays' (8-2) second appearance in the playoffs and the 22nd meeting between the schools. The Tigers (10-0) are making their third appearance in the playoffs.

Grace A. Baker, a founder of a cultural program at her retirement community and a dedicated peace activist, died of heart failure Nov. 7 at Roland Park Place. She was 95. Grace Elizabeth Hills Almond was born at home in Baltimore and attended Roland Park Country School until moving in 1922 with her family to Round Bay on the Severn River in 1922. She was a 1931 graduate of Annapolis High School and earned a bachelor's degree in economics and sociology in 1935 from Goucher College.

Beyond the throng of sequin-covered dancers sashaying to the floor, Allison Dennis stood nervously in her modest-by-comparison flouncy polka dot miniskirt, eager for her group to be called. It was, after all, only her second dance competition. But like so many relative newcomers to ballroom dancing, what she lacked in experience she made up in attitude. "It's exciting, it's exhilarating, it's exhausting," said Dennis, breathless, as she strutted off the dance floor with her partner, Robert Granville; both are sophomores at the University of Maryland, College Park.

Mildred K. Sheff, who for more than two decades made sure that City College Latin students thoroughly knew their declensions and conjugations, died Oct. 30 of a stroke at Atrium Village, an Owings Mills assisted-living facility. She was 96. Mildred Katz, the daughter of a candy manufacturer and homemaker, was born at home on Gough Street in Fells Point. She later moved to Forest Park with her family and graduated in 1930 from Forest Park High School. She was a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Goucher College, where she earned a bachelor's degree in 1934 in the classics.

COLLEGE PARK - -When a Division I college football team struggles, the most vocal portion of the fan base tends to make itself heard. That's the case at Maryland, where coach Ralph Friedgen and his staff have been a target of criticism in blogs and on message boards as the Terrapins have slipped to 2-6 overall (1-3 in the Atlantic Coast Conference) - his fewest victories this late in a season since taking over the program in 2001. While Friedgen has the support of a number of prominent boosters, his critics say Maryland's football program, which had a bye this weekend before playing Saturday at North Carolina State, needs new leadership.

COLLEGE PARK - -Forget the poor economy: Yesterday was a day for start-up dreaming at the University of Maryland. More than 500 people turned up for the university's ninth annual technology start-up boot camp. It was a full day of speakers and sessions dedicated to helping the university grow as a regional powerhouse for innovation and business incubation. The audience was dotted with graduate and undergraduate students, venture capitalists and local entrepreneurs. and faculty members, some of whom are involved in their own start-up businesses.

COLLEGE PARK - - Evan Ulrich's invention looks like some sort of tricked-out shoehorn, with a propeller. And it's the last thing you'd expect to see take flight and go into combat. But there it is, on the concrete plaza outside the Jeong H. Kim Engineering Building at the University of Maryland. With a high-pitched whine, a single prop begins to spin. Then, responding to commands from Ulrich's radio transmitter, the foot-wide craft hops into the air and loops around the plaza like a giant dragonfly.

Today, with the Maryland Board of Regents discussing a first-in-the-nation policy regulating entertainment events on its 13 campuses, we are proud to say that students have stood up and said: "No policy." As the student representative on the Board of Regents and the student body president of the University System of Maryland's flagship university in College Park, we don't support porn. Rather, we support the right of students and student groups to host entertainment events on their campuses without the fear of censorship by a university administrator or a state politician.

COLLEGE PARK - -It seems long ago that Maryland quarterback Chris Turner appeared at the Atlantic Coast Conference's preseason media conference and said of the Terrapins: "We're easily a 10-win team." It was late July, the weather was warm and muggy, and Turner and other top ACC players had mixed media interviews with a round of golf at a resort in Greensboro, N.C. "We're not here to just win eight games and go to an average bowl," the senior quarterback had said. Twelve weeks later, Turner's Terrapins are 2-5 (1-2 ACC)