Jackets

Ray Lewis has dipped his toes into the sports apparel market with a new line of jewelry, logo T-shirts, hats and jackets. The veteran Raven attempts to join the ranks of world-class athletes who have successfully made the leap into clothing, including Venus and Serena Williams, Michael Jordan, Lance Armstrong and Tiger Woods. Items from Lewis' line, RL 52 Style, range in price from $25 for hats to $300 for bomber jackets. Jewelry, which ranges in price from $800 for a gold charm necklace to $1,900 for a diamond-accented necklace, will be created by New York designer Mauri Pioppo.

Georgia Tech football players already had the near-perfect ending before the season began.Another great season. Another major bowl. A shot at a second consecutive national championship.And who could blame them?The Yellow Jackets (11-0-1 last year) returned eight defensive and seven offensive starters from last year's co-national championship team including All-America candidate Shawn Jones (United Press International's coaches poll named the Yellow Jackets national champions while the Associated Press' sports writers poll picked Colorado.

COLLEGE PARK -- National publications were making Maryland a No. 4 seed in the NCAA tournament last week, while Georgia Tech's resume was more fit for the NIT.When the two meet at Cole Field House this afternoon (4 p.m., Ch. 54), however, the Terps will be the team looking to regain the winning touch and the Yellow Jackets will try to continue a late-season surge that could push them from the NCAA bubble into the 64-team field.Georgia Tech (17-9, 6-7) began the week with a ranking of No. 54 in the Rating Percentage Index, but Wednesday's win at Florida State was its third straight, and suddenly the Yellow Jackets are Maryland's competition for third place in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Perhaps the most telling sign about how the Georgia Tech football team and its unbeaten record are perceived around the country is in the point spread for today's Florida Citrus Bowl game against 19th-ranked Nebraska.Despite their gaudy credentials -- a 10-0-1 record, a No. 2 ranking, a streak of 15 games without a defeat and the only Division 1-A team without a defeat this season -- the Yellow Jackets enter as two-point underdogs. Consider, too, that the 9-2 Cornhuskers are coming into the game without their top quarterback.

COLLEGE PARK -- With 2:38 left to play, Maryland junior forward James Gist showed off his school-record 36-inch vertical leap and slammed in an uncontested dunk with both hands and an equally monstrous roar. It was the finale to his career-high 25-point performance on 10-for-11 shooting from the field, leading Maryland to an 80-65 win over Georgia Tech last night at Comcast Center. Gist, who was averaging 11.5 points, was his own inside-out combination last night, soaring over the Yellow Jackets for dunks and blocks, and even adding a three-pointer.

COLLEGE PARK -- It was Oct. 7, 1989, a day most of the University of Maryland players remember as the longest in a season that already had gone sour.On that afternoon, Maryland lost to Georgia Tech, 28-24, as the Yellow Jackets ended a 16-game Atlantic Coast Conference losing streak. Maryland dropped to 1-5.It wasn't so much the loss, as the celebration that followed.Most of the crowd of 32,062 at Bobby Dodd Stadium came onto the field. They tore down the goal posts, and Georgia Tech players carried off coach Bobby Ross.

ATLANTA -- It happens nearly every time in these early season games between a major college basketball program like Georgia Tech and a lower-level program like Morgan State. The little guy gets mashed in a mismatch on the boards.The Bears had some other problems in their season-opener here last night, but their biggest problem was they couldn't compete inside and they were hammered, 74-58.Scott Deas and Jeric Lewis scored 11 each to lead Morgan State. Matt Harpring scored 21 points for Georgia Tech.

COLLEGE PARK -- If you thought Maryland's Atlantic Coast Conference opener at Clemson was fast-moving and full of shooting highlights, consider the possibilities today, when the 17th-ranked Terrapins play their ACC home opener against Georgia Tech at Cole Field House. Like Clemson, which bombarded the Terps with a run-and-gun attack before fading in the late minutes of a 104-92 Maryland victory on Tuesday night, Georgia Tech has been picked to finish in the second tier of the ACC. The Yellow Jackets (8-4, 0-1)

Fashion flirted with hemlines, toyed with dresses and re-established pants as major players of the season. But the strongest message from the fall shows in Paris, London, New York and Milan, Italy, was an affirmation of the jacket as the heavy hitter in the current fashion scene.Sure, there are changes. Shoulder pads are no longer as formidable as the ones football players wear. Jackets are not so oversized that they could accommodate a couple of sweaters and a wool shirt underneath. Some have pronounced curves, as waistlines nip snugly above jutting or gently flared peplums.

By winning the Preseason National Invitation Tournament and getting off to the best start in school history with a 12-0 record, Georgia Tech carved out an early spot as an up-and-coming, Atlantic Coast Conference power destined to get out and stay out of the league's second division. And by defeating No. 10 Wake Forest, 73-66, in Winston-Salem, N.C., on Tuesday night, the 11th-ranked Yellow Jackets served further notice that their emergence is quite real. Georgia Tech (15-2, 3-1 ACC) needed that victory to traverse one more obstacle.