Eastern Michigan

A school-record seven home games, including Atlantic Coast Conference matchups with North Carolina, Clemson, Virginia and Duke, highlight Maryland's 2001 football schedule, announced yesterday by the ACC. The Terrapins also will be host to nonconference games against traditional rival West Virginia, Eastern Michigan and Troy State. All four of Maryland's road games will be against ACC schools: Wake Forest, Georgia Tech, Florida State and North Carolina State. The Sept. 1 game at Byrd Stadium against North Carolina marks the earliest ACC opener in school history and will feature a matchup of first-year head coaches Ralph Friedgen of Maryland and John Bunting.

Opponent: Las Vegas Silver BanditsSite: Baltimore ArenaTime: 7Outlook: The BayRunners will be without leading scoring Rodney Elliott, out at least a week with a sprained ankle, joining LaBradford Smith on the injured list. The team signed Lonnie Harrell from Northeastern University and Charles Thomas from Eastern Michigan to replace the two. Las Vegas' J.R. Henderson is third in the league in scoring, averaging 21.8 points. Former Dunbar standout Ernest Hall is averaging 6.5 points a game for the Bandits.

By the numbers2.5 Years it took Arizona guard Josh Pastner to graduate. Pastner will graduate tomorrow and then rejoin the team for a game that night against Iowa State in Las Vegas.5 Atlantic 10 teams shooting under 50 percent.7.7 Seconds remaining when opposing players hit key three-pointers to help beat winless Eastern Michigan. One by Boise State won the game, the other by Colorado State sent the game into overtime. Eastern Michigan also lost a game with five seconds to play.11 Pac-10 players who have missed games because of ankle sprains.

Lional DaltonPosition: Defensive tackleHeight: 6-1Weight: 320Age: 23College: Eastern MichiganYear: RookieHighlights: Dalton, a two-year starter at Eastern Michigan, was signed as a free agent and may make an impact on the defensive line and on special teams. Earned first-team all-Mid-American Conference twice and was selected co-defensive MVP for the Eagles last year as a senior. Recorded 46 tackles as a senior and two fumble recoveries despite triple-teaming at times. Also competed for the indoor track team as a sophomore and broke the school record in the shot put at 56 feet, 2 inches.

HARTFORD, Conn. -- It was the classic fable of the tortoise vs. the hare at the Hartford Civic Center last night, and the tortoise won again.Princeton's Ivy League champions used their precise three-point shooting and demoralizing backdoor plays to oust the UNLV Runnin' Rebels, 69-57, in the opening round of the East Regionals.The Tigers (27-1) were not perfect in conducting their usual basketball clinic. They trailed 20-15 after the first 11 minutes."UNLV was coming in with a lot of emotion from winning their [WAC]

You need a little help trying to figure out this year's NCAA tournament? Having trouble distinguishing Eastern Michigan from Western Michigan or South Alabama from Northern Arizona? Where's Dick Vitale when you need him? (Oh, you like him where he is, in the studio, next to Digger Phelps, keeping relatively quiet?)In an attempt to educate our readers -- not to mention help them avoid early elimination from their office pools -- The Sun provides the NCAA A to Z Tournament Guide. And, unlike Mo Vaughn, we will get through the whole alphabet without any trouble.

Sun staff writer Don Markus continues the March Madness Tour that will take him to eight conference tournaments in eight days. TOLEDO, Ohio -- The Mid-American Conference usually saves its best games and most compelling story lines for the NCAA tournament. Who can forget Ball State's run to the Sweet 16 in 1990 with a then relatively unknown coach named Rick Majerus? Or Eastern Michigan nearly making the Elite Eight the next year before succumbing to North Carolina?It is the best conference few ever notice between November and February, the rivalries just as heated as the ones that exist in the Big Ten or ACC. It is a league that can boast three players chosen among the NBA's best 50 all-time, a league that might have as many as five players drafted later this year.

TEMPE, Ariz. - The Arizona-Iowa game was midway through the second half yesterday at the University Activity Center when the public address announcer reported a partial score from the NCAA East Regional:Texas Tech 63, North Carolina 38.It was the sound of a powerful conference's reputation shattering along with the backboard that was shattered at that game.What does ACC stand for this year? Average Caliber Conference.Not that Carolina losing to Texas Tech was a shock. It wasn't TTC even an upset.

INDIANAPOLIS - They kept watching Brian Tolbert and Eastern Michigan hit jump shot after jump shot. They kept seeing their deficit grow until it had reached 13 points.But the top-seeded Connecticut Huskies kept doing something else: They kept their cool."Coach said during the first couple of timeouts, 'They can't keep shooting like this,' " said senior guard Doron Sheffer. "After a while, they got tired and started missing their shots."And Sheffer started hitting his. As did All-America guard Ray Allen.

INDIANAPOLIS - Mike Krzyzewski tried to take his Duke basketball team on a trip down memory lane in yesterday's opening round game of the NCAA tournament Southeast Regional at the RCA Dome.But instead of reliving 1991, when a dominant team won here for the first of its back-to-back national championships, the Blue Devils simply relived the final week of their current, injury-battered season.The result was a 75-60 pounding at the hands and feet of Eastern Michigan, which moved into tomorrow's second round against top-seeded Connecticut.