Dion

CELINE DIONCeline Dion (Epic 46893)Even though Celine Dion built her reputation in French-speaking Canada, the sound that emerges on "Celine Dion" could have come from Montana or Madrid as easily as Montreal. How so? Because like Gloria Estefan or Roxette's Marie Frederiksson, Dion has a sort of universal pop voice; strong, confident and very slightly soulful, it is equally suited to big ballads and dance beats. Dion's American debut serves up both, naturally, and though it's easy enough to hear the appeal of slow, sentimental numbers like "Where Does My Heart Beat Now," the album is most bearable when serving up danceable fluff like "Love By Another Name."

Editor's note: Each week, InsideMdSports.com provides this blog with a Maryland recruiting feature that previously appeared as premium content on its site. The whispers about Dion Wiley's talent began a year ago. And as last summer progressed, Wiley's name began popping up on top-100 lists everywhere. Now in the final stages of his junior season, Wiley's earned a reputation as one of the top shooting guards on the East Coast - and a spot high on Maryland's recruiting board.

Editor's note: Each week, InsideMdSports.com provides this blog with a Maryland recruiting feature that previously appeared as premium content on its site. It's safe to say Maryland has established itself as a serious player for Potomac junior Dion Wiley . Wiley, a highly sought shooting guard regarded by many as a top-50 prospect in the Class of 2014, visited Maryland unofficially Saturday, and then decided to return Sunday to watch the team play pick-up games.

Maryland shooting guard target Dion Wiley had a huge game Saturday at the National Hoops Festival at DeMatha. The four-star junior scored 26 points, grabbed eight rebounds, and added two assists and two steals in Potomac's win over St. John's (D.C.). Rivals.com's Eric Bossi wrote that Wiley " has one of the quickest triggers in the class of 2014 . " At times the four-star wing's ball handling is a little shaky, and he has to develop more of a midrange game, but there's no question he's a high-major scorer.

Maryland is one of many schools in the running for Abdul-Malik Abu . The 2014 forward was profiled over the weekend by NBC Sports' College Basketball Talk. One Division I coach told NBC that Abu reminded him of " a young Emeka Okafor . " He claims interest and offers from a long list of schools, among them Maryland Notre Dame, Seton Hall, Providence, Miami, Kansas, Michigan State, Temple, Iowa State, Cincinnati, Rutgers, and others. ** Northstar Basketball caught up with 2014 Potomac guard Dion Wiley for an update on his recruitment.

LAS VEGAS - On Jan. 1, 2000, the story goes, Celine Dion, exhausted from touring and wanting to be a stay-at-home wife and mother, came to Las Vegas with her manager-husband and 250 of their family and friends. The couple renewed their wedding vows. They also saw O, the Cirque du Soleil spectacular on water at the Bellagio, and so moved and flabbergasted was Dion that she came to an inevitable conclusion: She wanted one for herself. She's getting one. In A New Day, which is what her new Vegas extravaganza is called, Dion, strapped to a harness, soars 50 feet in the air, to the top of the gargantuan proscenium, as she belts out the love ballad "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face."

We were sitting in the office, humming the love theme to "Titanic," wondering Will that brilliant diva Celine Dion ever get the exposure she deserves? when something happened that made us want to rise to our feet and beat our chest with one clenched fist, the way Celine does when she sings "My Heart Will Go On." That something, of course, was the arrival of "A Voice and a Dream: The Celine Dion Story" (Ballantine Books, $5.99).Yes, Celine fans, we know what you're thinking: Between listening to Celine's newly released French album and her soon-to-be-released Christmas album, watching her just-around-the-corner holiday special and following her world tour into the year 2000, however will we find the time to read 174 pages about "the world's hottest diva in a captivating story of a real-life Cinderella"?

In some ways, the worst thing about classic rock recordings is that they eventually become seen as such -- as classics, immaculate, immutable, immortal. There's something almost sacrosanct about long-treasured rock albums, so much so that the average fan can no more imagine altering the Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" or the Eagles' "Hotel California" than they could inserting a sax solo into Mozart's "Ein Kleine Nachtmusik."But that's not necessarily the way music was meant to work.

Some years, the Grammy broadcast feels like a roller-coaster ride, hurtling us from shock to thrill with no sense of what's next.But not this year.It was a quiet night, with little in the way of surprises and suspense. Celine Dion won Record of the Year for the "Titanic" hit, "My Heart Will Go On," and the song itself was named Song of the Year.Needless to say, her victory was no surprise to anyone who saw last year's Academy Awards show.Lauryn Hill, who was nominated for 10 awards, took home five, including Album of the Year, Best New Artist, Best Female R&B Vocal Performance, Best R&B Song and Best R&B album.

While the Maryland men's basketball staff waits on a decision from Memphis point guard transfer Antonio Barton , Baltimore Sun reporter Don Markus this week took a look at the Terps' 2013-14 roster with and without the Lake Clifton graduate . I have to assume Turgeon is bringing Barton in with the intention of starting him, or at least giving him every opportunity to start. That said, Barton and incoming freshman Roddy Peters should share a majority of the minutes at point guard.