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Editor's note: Each week, InsideMdSports.com provides this blog with a Maryland recruiting feature that previously appeared as premium content on its site. Growing up in the shadows of College Park, Romelo Trimble always followed Terps basketball. And after achieving early success at Bishop O'Connell in Arlington, Va., where he led the team in scoring as a freshman, he began to think he might have a chance to play for the Terps. But after another strong year as a sophomore and only lukewarm interest from Maryland, he wasn't sure he'd have that opportunity.

There's not been a lot to cheer about for Maryland basketball fans the past couple of years -- most notably two seasons without a postseason invitation and Terrell Stoglin's misguided decision-making off the court that recently ended the college career of last season's top scorer in the ACC. Things are going to get better in College Park , but for those Terps fans trying to get their fix of hoops and happiness, Steve Blake is providing a...

All that talk about tensions between President Clinton and the military cuts no ice with the National Guard. Its supporters see in Mr. Clinton, a former governor, and Defense Secretary Les Aspin, a former congressman, two politicians who are more responsive to the Guard and its legendary clout than counterparts in the Bush White House.The latest manifestation of this love-in came last week when National Guard officials and their favorite watchdog on Capitol Hill, Rep. G. V. "Sonny" Montgomery, D-Miss.

Denied a combat role in the Persian Gulf war, threatened by massive reductions in force during the Bush era, the Army National Guard today is besieged by demands for its services now that the Cold War is over.Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., wants 4,000 Guardsmen on the Mexican border. Washington's Mayor Sharon Pratt Kelly seeks the Guard's help in combating her crime wave. Puerto Rico has been tapping into the Guard for supplemental police work. Maryland Guardsmen at Aberdeen Proving Ground are helping to put high school dropouts on the right path.

Baltimore Sun reporters Jeff Barker and Don Markus and editor Matt Bracken weigh in on the three biggest topics of the past week in Maryland  sports. How would you evaluate Maryland football's senior class that will appear in its last home game on Saturday? Jeff Barker: This year's outgoing class possessed good talent, particularly on defense. There was Joe Vellano, A.J. Francis, Demetrius Hartsfield, Kenneth Tate, Justin Gilbert and Kevin Dorsey, among others. But it's hard not to feel for this class a bit. It just didn't end right for these guys.

The Army is investigating the case of a Parkville-based National Guard member who was reported absent without leave after her battalion was assigned to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, a military official said this week. Nancy Sophia Fortune of Baltimore failed to join her battalion at Fort Stewart, Ga. The unit was sent to Cuba to guard Taliban and al-Qaida prisoners who began arriving from Afghanistan, said Col. Howard S. Freedlander, a spokesman for the Maryland National Guard. A five-year veteran and payroll specialist at the Parkville Armory, Fortune was reported missing two weeks ago at Fort Stewart, Freedlander said.

When I keep hearing that second-year player Jah Reid might be getting some playing time at left guard, there is cause for concern. I knew he was a project when the Ravens drafted him in the third round out of Central Florida, but I haven't seen anything that would warrant him getting playing time. He has spent more time in the training room for rehab than on the practice and playing fields. I'm concerned. To be even having this conversation means the Ravens are in deep trouble at left guard.

WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon plans to send more than 14,000 National Guard troops back to Iraq next year, shortening their off-duty time to meet the demands of President Bush's buildup, Defense Department officials said yesterday. National Guard officials told state commanders in Arkansas, Indiana, Oklahoma and Ohio last month that while a final decision had not been made, veteran units from their states could be designated to return between January and June of next year, the officials said.

Two men armed with handguns robbed an armored truck guard at midday yesterday outside a supermarket in Columbia's Hickory Ridge village, the latest in a series of serious crimes in the planned community's neighborhood shopping centers.No one was injured in the holdup, and the men fled with an undisclosed sum of cash. Left behind was the wheelchair that one of the men sat in as the pair waited to rob the guard."This was a bold incident in broad daylight in the middle of a village center," said Howard County Police spokesman Sgt. Steven Keller.