Nba

Josh Selby emerges from the Stevenson University locker room, his hot pink sneakers with silver trim sparkling as he takes the floor. The Lake Clifton graduate's eye-catching shoes - which he says he wears to raise breast cancer awareness - quickly become an afterthought once play begins and his flashy game is on display. In the first quarter of Ravens wide receiver LaQuan Williams' charity basketball game late last month, Selby finds himself stuck in a corner beyond the arc, tightly guarded.

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. Maryland finalized the elimination of seven athletic teams, but managed to preserve men's outdoor track through private fundraising . Any chance that some of these sports will return in the future? Jeff Barker: Schools do occasionally bring back sports as budget numbers or other circumstances change. Villanova once eliminated - then restored - football.

Just a guess: Henson Brian Schmitz Orlando Sentinel You're asking me? I got Jay Bilas on speed-dial for you. Here's the best-kept secret when NBA writers talk about college players: They have no idea. They can only tell you who their coaches are. And only at Duke, North Carolina and Kentucky. Actually, funnier than asking NBA writers about college kids are asking NBA coaches, past or present. Jeff Van Gundy looked like a guy who didn't have answers to a pop quiz Thursday night.

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. The Maryland football staff held a “get to know us better” event this week with the media. Does the school and its PR firm want us to see a new Randy Edsall? Jeff Barker: Not new. A little repackaged, maybe. The Maroon firm isn't trying to reinvent the coach. Good public relations firms know you don't try to make clients anything that they are not. You don't want them to appear forced or phony.

Will Barton has done the research. He's pored over the numbers, he's tracked the stocks and he's talked with the experts. Something just doesn't add up. How could the most efficient swingman in college basketball not be considered a lottery pick in Thursday's NBA Draft? "The numbers don't lie," Barton said last week. "I mean, if you look at my production, it'll show you that there's no way I'm not the best or at least up there in the top range of the draft." He's right.

Former Maryland guard Terrell Stoglin thinks he was wrongly portrayed, on and off the court, in College Park, and seems confident he will get a chance to change his image in the NBA. Displaying the same bravado that helped the barely 6-foot guard lead the Atlantic Coast Conference in scoring as a sophomore - not to mention exhibit the candor that sometimes got him into trouble - Stoglin said he would be surprised if he is not picked in...

Depends on D-Wade Brian Schmitz Orlando Sentinel The only team standing in the way of a Heat repeat is the Thunder, the team they just ousted in five games. The Thunder should be the obstacle again next June and for a few more Junes after that. Here's the thing: Dwyane Wade's window is now the Heat's window. He'll turn 31 in January, but he's an old 31 after a career of hitting the floor. A lot depends on D-Wade's health. Battered Mike Miller might retire.

Kim English isn't going to kick the NBA's door off its hinges. He'll have to gently open it up, even if the door creaks a little bit along the way. "I think he's a kid that will be great in a role where he has a year or two to learn under a veteran in the twilight of their career," said Ryan Hurd, English's coach at Notre Dame Prep in Fitchburg, Mass. "He'll run with that. With Kim, you'll find a guy that would take advantage of the opportunity. " English, a Missouri product and Baltimore native, is preparing for June 28th's NBA draft after capping a four-year college career with a strong senior season.

Here's what I wish most of all for these NBA Finals, which begin tonight in Oklahoma City: can we please stop fixating on the officials? Can we give that whole tired issue a rest? Can we just enjoy this compelling matchup between the Miami Heat and Oklahoma City Thunder without whining about all the flopping, traveling, elbowing and offensive fouls the refs are supposedly missing? Don't people ever get sick of blaming the refs whenever their team loses? Sure, there have been a number of controversial calls in the NBA playoffs so far. But you want to know something?

Are you from here? That freshly painted mural at The Dome at the Madison Square Recreation Center, it wants to know, and it wants to know in big block letters. Everyone wants to know, it seems. After all, it is an advertising slogan for Under Armour, the Locust Point-based apparel company that teamed up with the NBA to renovate The Dome, a facility on East Biddle Street that carries those words on its wall, on the baselines and on the shirts of about 100 kids that were seated on and around the court Monday.