Florida Gulf Coast

Kevin Norris was in the Lake Clifton stands Jan. 27 when Patterson battled Largo in a Basketball Academy matchup. On the court that night for the Clippers was a 6-foot-10 shot-blocking machine that quickly caught the Florida Gulf Coast assistant's eye. “I had a pretty good game,” said Patterson senior Leonard Livingston . “Norris, he just said that they were interested. They wanted to see how the rest of our season would go. [He wanted to] try to get [me] down there anytime.” Livingston wasn't familiar with Florida Gulf Coast, but he liked Norris - a Lake Clifton grad and former Miami point guard - and continued on with his senior season.

Louisville beating Baylor Jeff Otterbein Hartford Courant Baylor losing to Louisville in the Sweet 16 of the women's tournament is the single biggest upset not only this season but many would say in women's college basketball history. Few thought Brittney Griner and Baylor would not be cutting down the nets in New Orleans. Of course, no one could have imagined Griner not making a field goal in the first half. Baylor had won 32 in a row, Griner had scored 30 or more points in her previous four games, Baylor had outscored its opponent by nearly 1,000 points this season, and these games leading up to the championship seemed a mere formality.

Interesting first half for the Terps. They lead Florida Gulf Coast by seven, 34-27, after former St. Francis standout Dante Holmes hit midrange jumper at buzzer. Maryland trailed early by seven and led by as many as 10. Here are some observations from the half: Terrell Stoglin is the epitome of a streaky shooter. After not scoring the first 12-plus minutes, Stoglin had nine points in about four minutes and finished the half with 12. He took some bad shots, but not as many as in earlier games, Mark Turgeon's message must be reaching him. John Auslander gave Maryland a nice lift off the bench.

He has credentials David Teel Daily Press USC is not bereft of basketball tradition and potential. Five coaches have guided the Trojans to multiple NCAA tournaments, most recently Henry Bibby and Tim Floyd (three each). Bibby had USC within a game of the 2001 Final Four before losing to eventual national champion Duke. So if Andy Enfield is as good as advertised, the Trojans should be perennial contenders in the Pacific-12, which has produced all of two national champions (UCLA 1995, Arizona '97)

So what should Mark Turgeon talk about the next time his team practices - the first 30 minutes of a 73-57 win over Florida Gulf Coast Friday night at Comcast Center or the last 10? Given what Turgeon has been saying in his recent press conferences, I think he will have his team look at what they did right in building a 16-point lead early in the second half and what they did wrong in nearly blowing the big lead. As Maryland (3-2) gets ready for its next game Tuesday at home against Illinois in the ACC/Big East Challenge, these are the good, the bad and the very ugly from the win over the Eagles.

Whether it's kidney stones, turnovers or missed free throws by his precocious team, first-year Maryland coach Mark Turgeon is not sleeping well these days. Coming off an embarrassing, turnover-riddled 26-point loss to Iona in Puerto Rico Sunday, Turgeon had a few sleepless nights this week. Friday night's 73-67 win over Florida Gulf Coast, before an announced 12,080 at Comcast Center, was not exactly the REM-inducing remedy Turgeon was seeking. “Like a day in the park, really easy for us,” a relieved Turgeon said after the game.

As a fledgling coach fresh out of graduate school at Maryland, Andy Enfield worked with Keith Booth at Cole Field House on his 3-point shooting right before the former Terps star was drafted in the first round by the Chicago Bulls in 1997. As an assistant coach the past five years at Florida State, Enfield returned here for games with the Seminoles. It will be a little different Friday night when Enfield, who starred at Johns Hopkins from 1987 through 1991 and remains the school's all-time scoring leader, brings his own team — Florida Gulf Coast — to Comcast Center to play the Terps . But Enfield will not be the only member of Florida Gulf Coast's traveling party with local ties.

My NCAA tournament brackets are in shambles. The South regional, in particular, looks like a vast Loser Wasteland. And no amount of Smithwicks (left over from St. Patrick's Day) can put a happy face on the horror that has been done there. Believe me, I've tried. Did I mention I had Georgetown going to the Final Four? I should probably mention that. And you know who knocked Georgetown out of the Big Dance, of course. Yes, the team that torched my dreams is none other than America's new darling, that scrappy bunch from the school no one's ever heard of, Florida Gulf Coast University, coached by Andy Enfield, who no one had ever heard of after he played for Johns Hopkins years ago. Thanks, Eagles.

After accepting the head coaching position at Florida Gulf Coast University in March 2011, Andy Enfield called his parents, Bill and Barbara, both of whom had seen their son achieve academic, business and athletic successes in high-profile places. Had they ever heard of the school? "No," Bill said. "No," Barbara said. "I mean, it's so new. " Now, though, sports fans are becoming familiar with a college located in Fort Myers, Fla., that enrolled its first student in 1997 and didn't begin playing Division I basketball until 2007.

The Cinderella team of this year's NCAA men's basketball tournament hails from Florida, but its coaches have Maryland roots. Andy Enfield set scoring records at Johns Hopkins before he became head coach at Florida Gulf Coast, the darling of the tournament. His assistant, Kevin "Stink" Norris, grew up in East Baltimore and starred at Lake Clifton. Together, they've put a local face on an upstart team that breaks new ground with every win. The Eagles are the first 15 t h seed in tourney history to make the Sweet 16, and an upset of No. 3 Florida on Friday night would carry Florida Gulf Coast further still.

FRIDAY'S TELEVISION HIGHLIGHTS MLB exh. Yankees@Washington MASN, MLB2 Yankees@Washington (T) MASN7 Toronto@Philadelphia MLB7 Oakland@San Francisco MLB10 C. base. Northwestern@Nebraska BIGTEN7:30 Texas Christian@Texas Tech FCS7:30 NCAA m. Arizona vs. Ohio State (T) CBSSNNoon La Salle vs. Wichita State (T) CBSSN2 Sweet 16: Oregon vs. Louisville 13, 97 Sweet 16: Michigan vs. Kansas TBS7:30 Sweet 16: Michigan State vs. Duke 13, 99:30 Sweet 16: Florida Gulf Coast vs. Florida TBS10 NCAA w. D-II final: teams Dowling vs. Ashland CBSSN8 NBA Washington@Orlando CSN7 Boxing Friday Night Fights ESPN9 PGA Euro.

The Cinderella team of this year's NCAA men's basketball tournament hails from Florida, but its coaches have Maryland roots. Andy Enfield set scoring records at Johns Hopkins before he became head coach at Florida Gulf Coast, the darling of the tournament. His assistant, Kevin "Stink" Norris, grew up in East Baltimore and starred at Lake Clifton. Together, they've put a local face on an upstart team that breaks new ground with every win. The Eagles are the first 15 t h seed in tourney history to make the Sweet 16, and an upset of No. 3 Florida on Friday night would carry Florida Gulf Coast further still.

My NCAA tournament brackets are in shambles. The South regional, in particular, looks like a vast Loser Wasteland. And no amount of Smithwicks (left over from St. Patrick's Day) can put a happy face on the horror that has been done there. Believe me, I've tried. Did I mention I had Georgetown going to the Final Four? I should probably mention that. And you know who knocked Georgetown out of the Big Dance, of course. Yes, the team that torched my dreams is none other than America's new darling, that scrappy bunch from the school no one's ever heard of, Florida Gulf Coast University, coached by Andy Enfield, who no one had ever heard of after he played for Johns Hopkins years ago. Thanks, Eagles.

After accepting the head coaching position at Florida Gulf Coast University in March 2011, Andy Enfield called his parents, Bill and Barbara, both of whom had seen their son achieve academic, business and athletic successes in high-profile places. Had they ever heard of the school? "No," Bill said. "No," Barbara said. "I mean, it's so new. " Now, though, sports fans are becoming familiar with a college located in Fort Myers, Fla., that enrolled its first student in 1997 and didn't begin playing Division I basketball until 2007.

As a freshman at Kenwood, Trevis Buckhanon Jr. was targeted regularly by opponents looking to embarrass the gangly big man. The son of a former Douglass star and Baltimore City hoops champion, the younger Buckhanon had been raised to play football, and only recently gave up the gridiron to focus on basketball - which he started playing in seventh grade. So despite Buckhanon's 6-foot-4 stature, freshman year on Kenwood's JV squad was a challenge. “They came at me,” Buckhanon said.

Wayne Hill left Walbrook two years ago as a 5-foot-7 freshman. When Hill returned to Baltimore last fall after a year in North Carolina, Forest Park coach Greate White  was struck by a fairly obvious change in the combo guard's appearance. “He was 5-7 when he left and he came back 6-4,” said White, who coached Hill on Walbrook's junior varsity during the 2009-10 season. “I recognized him, but I was like, 'Wow, he has grown.' Once he got on the court, you could tell his game had grown and matured also.

Andy Enfield, the all-time leading scorer in Johns Hopkins men's basketball history and a member of the university's Athletic Hall of Fame, was introduced as the second-ever head coach at Florida Gulf Coast on Wednesday. A 1991 Johns Hopkins alumnus, Enfield worked the past five years as an assistant at Florida State, where recruiting and player development were chief among his responsibilities. Prior to his stint with the Seminoles, Enfield was an assistant with the NBA's Milwaukee Bucks (1994-1996)

Even in the best of times, Maryland basketball coach Mark Turgeon can be a glass-half-empty kind of guy. Coming off a game in which his team lost by 26 points and committed 26 turnovers against Iona in the Puerto Rico Tip-Off tournament, the glass Turgeon has been drinking from has a couple of drops - tops. Continuing the tone of his post-game session with the media Sunday in San Juan, Turgeon was just as blunt during a news conference Wednesday at Comcast Center. Maryland (2-2)

Kevin Norris was in the Lake Clifton stands Jan. 27 when Patterson battled Largo in a Basketball Academy matchup. On the court that night for the Clippers was a 6-foot-10 shot-blocking machine that quickly caught the Florida Gulf Coast assistant's eye. “I had a pretty good game,” said Patterson senior Leonard Livingston . “Norris, he just said that they were interested. They wanted to see how the rest of our season would go. [He wanted to] try to get [me] down there anytime.” Livingston wasn't familiar with Florida Gulf Coast, but he liked Norris - a Lake Clifton grad and former Miami point guard - and continued on with his senior season.