Keith Booth

LANDOVER -- Baltimore basketball bragging rights are up for grabs tonight at USAir Arena.When Maryland tips off against George Washington at 8: 30 in the final of the Franklin National Bank Classic, local basketball standouts will be playing with their reputations on the line.George Washington's diminutive sophomore point guard, Shawnta Rogers, has played with and against Maryland forwards Keith Booth and Rodney Elliott for years. The rivalry began when Rogers, The Sun's 1995 Player of the Year, was at Lake Clifton High School, and Booth, now a senior, and Elliott, a junior, were at Dunbar.

Chicago St. (0-2) at Maryland (2-0)Site: Cole Field House, College ParkTime: 8 p.m.Radio: WBAL (1090 AM), WTOP (1500 AM)Outlook: This is the first meeting between these schools. Maryland has won its first two games by an average margin of 27 1/2 points. Four Terps are averaging in double figures, led by senior forward Keith Booth (19.5). Chicago State lost to Missouri by 30 points and Bradley by 22. The Cougars, 2-25 last season, are led by 6-foot-7 senior forward Kory Billups, who averaged 16.1 ppg and 9.0 rpg last season.

Coach: Gary Williams (329-218), eighth seasonAffiliation: Atlantic Coast Conference1995-96 record: 17-13 overall, 8-8 in ACC (lost to Santa Clara in first round of NCAA tournament)Radio: WBAL (1090 AM), WTOP (1500 AM)Arena: Cole Field House, College Park (14,500)Starters lost: ThreeTickets: A limited number are available for selected home games. Call (800) 462-TERP.Best home game: North Carolina, Feb. 22. Terps will look to avenge last year's last-second defeat.Best visiting player: Tim Duncan, Wake Forest, Feb. 1. Demon Deacons center is preseason national Player of the Year.

COLLEGE PARK -- There are new uniforms, fewer expectations and a lot less hype.Maryland was to start men's basketball practice with a 7 a.m. walk-through at a deserted Cole Field House today. Keith Booth, the forward from Dunbar High, is the only recognizable senior on a team that is picked to finish as low as eighth in the Atlantic Coast Conference.It was a little noisier last year, when Maryland opened with four senior starters, the ACC media made the Terps the conference's preseason No. 1, and ESPN was interested enough to highlight coach Gary Williams' program during its Midnight Madness special.

When former Overlea High basketball star Bernard Hopkins goes to his internship at a home for troubled boys in Richmond, Va., he sees kids trying to escape the violence on the streets. It's the same kind of violence that Hopkins saw growing up in East Baltimore, the same kind that took the life of David Brown, a basketball standout at Baltimore City Community College and a good friend of Hopkins'."Something has to be done," Hopkins said. "Too many young kids are dying."Hopkins and other local basketball stars, including Sam Cassell of the Houston Rockets and Keith Booth of the University of Maryland, are hoping that tomorrow's second annual David Brown Memorial All-Star Game will help the fight against violence.

College basketball, don't you love it? Here's Maryland coach Gary Williams, defending two recruits who could have been Ivy Leaguers. That means they're smart. And, in the view of some disgruntled Terps fans, it means Williams is dumb.His latest recruiting class is not as good as it could have been, and probably not as good as it should have been. But not long ago, Maryland was a symbol of all that was wrong with college sports. You want to blast Williams for recruiting good kids, then be our hypocritical guest.

What: First round, NCAA West RegionalWhere: Arizona State University Activity Center, Tempe, Ariz.When: Today, 2: 38 p.m.TV/Radio: Chs. 13, 9/WBAL (1090 AM)How they got here: Maryland got an at-large bid with an RPI power rating of 30. The Terps are coming off a semifinal loss to Georgia Tech in the ACC tournament. Santa Clara got an at-large bid with an RPI rating of 31, despite getting upset at home in the West Coast Conference tourney opener by Pepperdine.Conference record: Maryland went 8-8 in the ACC to tie Duke for fourth place.

COLLEGE PARK The ultimate team player never complained when asked to guard a man 5 inches taller or 40 pounds heavier.The ultimate team player never balked when his job assignment was defense and rebounding, the unheralded jobs of college basketball.Keith Booth, Maryland's ultimate team player, does the dirty work and the odd jobs for the Terps, and he does them happily.But in the past month, a curious thing happened.The ultimate team player became a significant offensive weapon.Now, with the Terps on the threshold of their third straight NCAA tournament appearance, Booth, a junior, has become a big scorer and the dominating player Maryland, Duke and Kentucky all thought him to be when they recruited him at Dunbar High three years ago.Three times since the beginning of February, the 6-foot-6 power forward has scored career highs.

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- For Maryland, the transition is nearly complete. From senior-dominated to freshman-inspired. From seasoned experience to raw potential.From end-of-the-line to starting fresh.The Terps leaned heavily on their young bench to beat a decimated Duke team, 82-69, yesterday at Greensboro Coliseum and advance to the semifinal round of the Atlantic Coast Conference.Maryland (17-11) will face regular-season champion Georgia -Z Tech at 1: 30 today with a chance to go to its first ACC final in a dozen years.

COLLEGE PARK -- For one afternoon, at least, it was like old times at Cole Field House.Joe Smith was the object of the roaring crowd's affections, Duane Simpkins actually smiled, and Maryland went inside to its power game to win a critical Atlantic Coast Conference contest.Only this time it was Keith Booth's power game -- not Smith's -- that spirited Maryland to an 83-71 victory over Virginia to keep alive its NCAA tournament hopes.Booth scored a career-high 29 points, hitting 10 of 14 shots, and took 10 rebounds to polish off the Cavaliers for the second time this season.