Ncaa

Don't feel bad if you're conflicted about the Maryland basketball team's graduation rate. Or lack thereof. It's perfectly reasonable to buy what Gary Williams is selling us about that stretch of time - 1997 to 2000, encompassing players from the 2002 national championship team - when players came, played, left and didn't get degrees within six years. It's just as reasonable to buy what the critics are saying about the unique place this program holds among every Division I program in the nation, the only school in the NCAA's compilation of graduation rates with a big, stinkin' zero attached to it. Both sides are right.

Maryland forward Taylor Twellman, Freshman of the Year in men's college soccer, has decided to play for the Under-20 U.S. national team and did not enroll for the spring semester.However, Twellman is scheduled to return to College Park and play for the Terrapins this fall as a result of an "international competition" NCAA rules exemption.But the national team has forced him to forgo playing for the Terps baseball team, which had given him a full scholarship. So in accordance with the NCAA, Twellman will play in the fall under a soccer scholarship.

PHILADELPHIA -- The NCAA has regained at least temporarily the use of minimum test scores to determine whether freshmen are eligible to play intercollegiate sports.A federal appeals court yesterday issued a stay of a lower court ruling that had invalidated the NCAA's freshman-eligibility standards on the grounds that they are racially discriminatory.The stay, which will remain in effect until an appeal of the lower ruling can be heard, will leave the standards in place as NCAA member schools approach the April 7 national signing date for a number of sports, including basketball.

This weekend finds several local soccer teams still alive in postseason play, led by the men's team at UMBC, which takes a 20-game unbeaten string into an NCAA play-in game against Patriot League champion Lafayette at 12: 30 p.m. Sunday at Easton, Pa.The Retrievers (19-0-1) reached this juncture by beating Mount St. Mary's, 2-1, in the final of the Northeast Conference tournament. Led by several hometown products, including national scoring leader Giuliano Celenza (Archbishop Curley), UMBC is ranked No. 17. A win would give the program its first NCAA appearance.

In the latest in a series of stunning television rights negotiations, CBS yesterday agreed to an extension of the network's contract to carry the men's college basketball tournament that will pay the NCAA $6 billion over 11 years.The whopping contract will pay the NCAA more than $545 million annually, more than doubling CBS' current $247 million annual fee.CBS, which has held exclusive over-the-air rights to the tournament since 1982, beat back bids from Fox and Disney's ABC and ESPN to retain one of sports television's most valuable properties.

When Western Maryland coach John Lowe first heard news of a wrestler who barely spoke a word of English but had competed internationally, he and an assistant went after him."We literally left the phone swinging and went out the door," Lowe recalled. "Here was an opportunity We wanted to learn from him."That was in 1995, when Lowe was in his third season at Western Maryland but still a competitive wrestler. He wanted someone to train with him. Little did he imagine that the athlete he sought as a partner would one day become his best hope for an NCAA title.

For at least one athlete, a federal district judge's ruling in Philadelphia earlier this week is opening doors.Nickie Peters, a 21-year-old freshman, will compete for the Coppin State men's track team in two events today at a meet at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C.Two weeks ago, Peters was ineligible because of a combination of his SAT score and the U.S. equivalent of his grade-point average at a school in St. Vincent in the West Indies fell...

POST-TURKEY discussions this year could well turn to CBS and its 11-year contract with the NCAA. The $6 billion basketball tournament deal will almost certainly renew the call for putting college athletes on the payroll.Without the players, this argument goes, the universities, the networks, the shoe companies, coaches, agents and others don't make a cent. So let's be honest and fair and pay up.The argument is bogus and conceals a corrosive agenda. If the athletes became "hired Hessians," their attention to school work would end altogether.

PointsHarold Arceneaux, Weber St. 36Richard Hamilton, UConn 28Desmond Mason, Okla. State 28Shawnta Rogers, GW 28Michael Redd, Ohio State 27Kirk Haston, Indiana 27ReboundsDusty Rychart, Minnesota 17Fred Williams, UAB 14Mark Madsen, Stanford 13Albert White, Missouri 12Brent Wright, Florida 12Casey Calvary, Gonzaga 11Ron Artest, St. John's 10Vasco Evtimov, North Carolina 10Terence Morris, Maryland 10Mamadou N'Diaye, Auburn 10Kenny Thomas, New Mexico 10AssistsDoug Gottlieb,...

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- Add another frustrating chapter to the University of Maryland's history in the NCAA men's basketball tournament.The winningest Terrapins team ever had its season stopped by St. John's, 76-62, in the semifinals of the South Regional at Thompson-Boling Arena last night. The Red Storm, and not the Terps, will meet Auburn or Ohio State in the South final tomorrow, with the winner moving on to the Final Four next week at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Fla.The site of the national championship became the stated goal of Maryland last summer, when junior-college transfer Steve Francis arrived on campus to complement several returning starters and expectations soared.

NCAA men's final 9 p.m. [chs. 13, 9] Regardless of how the Michigan State-North Carolina game plays out, you must be there for the end of the telecast, just to see "One Shining Moment." And if the brief glimpse of Greivis Vasquez doesn't move you to tears, then you just have no heart.

Fla. St. to appeal NCAA's punishment colleges Florida State will appeal part of an NCAA punishment that would strip the school of victories in 10 sports, including as many as 14 in football. The university president called the penalty "excessive and inappropriate." Football coach Bobby Bowden has 382 career wins - one fewer than Penn State's Joe Paterno, the major college leader. "The coaches had no involvement," Florida State president T.K. Wetherell said yesterday. "To hold them responsible in this case is simply wrong."

Maybe Connecticut will find some competition in the NCAA tournament, because the Big East tournament was a breeze for the top-ranked Huskies. Maya Moore scored 28 points and Connecticut cruised to its 15th Big East tournament championship with a 75-36 victory over No. 5 Louisville last night in Hartford. When the sensational sophomore walked off the floor with eight minutes left, she had single-handedly outscored Louisville 28-27. Moore was selected the tournament's most outstanding performer.

COLLEGE PARK - Maryland forward Jin Soo Kim, declared academically ineligible before Tuesday night's loss to Boston College, has been reinstated by the NCAA, the university said yesterday. After a Maryland appeal, the NCAA approved a waiver making the 6-foot-8 freshman from South Korea eligible. Kim will be permitted to play in tonight's game against Miami. "I am proud of how hard Jin Soo has worked academically while trying to become more proficient in a second language," coach Gary Williams said.

Sampson restricted until '13; IU on probation col. basketball The NCAA placed Indiana University on three years of probation yesterday and made it nearly impossible for former coach Kelvin Sampson to return to college coaching anytime soon for a telephone recruiting scandal that set back the once-storied men's basketball program. The NCAA gave Sampson five years of potential penalties for his role in more than 100 impermissible phone calls to recruits made while he was still on probation for a similar phone-call scandal at Oklahoma.

Mount St. Mary's, a tiny Catholic university in Emmitsburg, won its first NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament game ever last night, beating Coppin State, 69-60, to continue an improbable postseason run for its 2,100 students. For schools like Mount, Coppin and the University of Maryland Baltimore County, just making the 65-team tournament already has generated headlines, excitement - and money. Several Mount St. Mary's administrators described the benefits that a smaller school gets from participating as "priceless."

Men's college basketball Hartford@UMBC NOON [ESPN2] No. 1 seed UMBC (23-9) plays for the America East Conference championship as well as a spot in the NCAA tournament against No. 2 seed Hartford (18-15). With Maryland out of the NCAA picture, local fans have to jump on the Cinderella bandwagons of UMBC and Mount St. Mary's, which qualified for the NCAAs by winning the Northeast Conference title Wednesday night.

1Can Johns Hopkins repeat? With many programs fielding stronger and faster squads, capturing back-to-back national championships is becoming as rare as a quality singer on American Idol. It has been almost 10 years since Princeton ruled the lacrosse world, winning its third straight NCAA crown in 1998. But don't sleep on the Blue Jays, who return five of last year's top six scorers, including senior midfielder Paul Rabil. Junior Michael Evans anchors a defense that limited opponents to 7.8 goals a game.

INDIANAPOLIS -- The NCAA plans to ease restrictions on educational expenses for athletes while setting aside $10 million to reimburse former athletes as part of a tentative settlement in a class-action lawsuit. The agreement, which a judge must approve and both sides review before becoming final, stems from a federal antitrust lawsuit filed in February 2006 by two former football players and a former basketball player from California. Initially, NCAA officials said the case had no merit.

Don't feel bad if you're conflicted about the Maryland basketball team's graduation rate. Or lack thereof. It's perfectly reasonable to buy what Gary Williams is selling us about that stretch of time - 1997 to 2000, encompassing players from the 2002 national championship team - when players came, played, left and didn't get degrees within six years. It's just as reasonable to buy what the critics are saying about the unique place this program holds among every Division I program in the nation, the only school in the NCAA's compilation of graduation rates with a big, stinkin' zero attached to it. Both sides are right.