Obinna

COLLEGE PARK -- The chalk flits across the blackboard, leaving a trail of mind-boggling ciphers and diagrams."OK, now, does everyone understand?" asks the man up front.From his seat, Obinna Ekezie stares and nods. Yes, the squiggles and arrows and X's and O's make sense to Ekezie, the 6-foot-10 senior center on Maryland's basketball team last season.In fact, this might have been a pre-game pep talk, except that the man at the chalkboard isn't a basketball coach but a college professor -- and the symbols aren't game-winning plays but mathematic equations that would dumbfound Dick Vitale.

There were no tantalizing bicycle kicks like last year, and the "beautiful game" was a little ragged at times, but Baltimore's exposure to international soccer still produced its share of memorable moments Saturday night. Much of the meaningful action unfolded in the first half at M&T Bank Stadium, where a modest crowd announced at 36,569 saw two early scuffles, one suspect red card and one spectacular goal. Throw in an own goal by Manchester City in the second half, and European champion Inter Milan dominated for a 3-0 victory in the preseason friendly.

It has been 34 days since they put an extension on the operating table at Kernan Hospital in Baltimore. The patient: Obinna Ekezie, the 6-foot-10 basketball center for the University of Maryland.Upright, Ekezie engaged opponents on the court. Prone, he challenged surgeons who repaired the ruptured Achilles' tendon that ended the 23-year-old's college career last month.How bad was Ekezie's injury?"It looked like a rope that had been pulled apart in a tug-of-war," said Dr. Leigh Ann Curl, the Terrapins' team physician, who performed the operation.

Three days after sending him packing, the Washington Wizards yesterday reacquired former Maryland player Obinna Ekezie. Ekezie, a 6-foot-9 forward, was traded by the Wizards just before Tuesday's loss to the Atlanta Hawks, along with center Cherokee Parks to the Los Angeles Clippers for forward Tyrone Nesby. However, the Clippers almost immediately cut Ekezie, who came to Washington in August from Vancouver. The Wizards, who never filled the open roster spot after the deal for Nesby, immediately claimed him off waivers yesterday.

COLLEGE PARK -- Obinna Ekezie jumped. He pivoted. He jammed. He threw his weight around in a pickup basketball game against the Terps at Cole Field House. And his heel held up.Seven months after tearing his right Achilles' tendon, Ekezie returned to his old haunt, going full tilt last week for the first time since the injury that cut short his senior season. His return lacked hoopla -- no crowd, cameras or cheerleaders. Just a bunch of Maryland players and Ekezie, Vancouver's No. 2 pick in the NBA draft.

COLLEGE PARK -- The sound is etched in his mind.One month later, Obinna Ekezie can still hear the surreal pop in his heel that leveled him during practice at Cole Field House -- his Achilles' tendon ruptured."

COLLEGE PARK -- Obinna Ekezie wants to make a splash in the NBA draft in June.First, he must jump in the pool. For Ekezie, who was Maryland's center, the swim he takes three or four times a week in the Campus Recreation Center is far more than a dip. It's therapy to strengthen his right foot and the Achilles' tendon he ruptured at practice Feb. 11.The injury abruptly ended the senior's college basketball career and assured that he'd spend the months preceding...

The phone rings at all hours at the Ekezie home in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. Friends from the United States shout across the Atlantic, speaking in rushed, excited tones about Obinna's progress at Maryland.Not the academic progress his father so closely monitors.His progress in basketball."Someone called from Houston today," Ekezie's father, Obi, said Tuesday. "He woke himself up at 6 a.m. I get calls from people almost every day."This isn't the way it was supposed to turn out, was it?Obinna, the Terps' 6-foot-10 sophomore center, chose Maryland because it was only one of nine U.S. institutions to offer a double major in business and engineering.

Three days after sending him packing, the Washington Wizards yesterday reacquired former Maryland player Obinna Ekezie. Ekezie, a 6-foot-9 forward, was traded by the Wizards just before Tuesday's loss to the Atlanta Hawks, along with center Cherokee Parks to the Los Angeles Clippers for forward Tyrone Nesby. However, the Clippers almost immediately cut Ekezie, who came to Washington in August from Vancouver. The Wizards, who never filled the open roster spot after the deal for Nesby, immediately claimed him off waivers yesterday.

COLLEGE PARK -- Keith Booth scored 31 points and Rodney Elliott added 22 to power the White team past the Red, 94-68, in a Maryland intrasquad basketball scrimmage at Cole Field House yesterday.Coach Gary Williams placed an emphasis on conditioning, and got the dividends he sought in the 40-minute, five-on-five workout that was ragged at times."Conditioning- and effort-wise, we were good," Williams said. "Like everybody else, we're looking to get better execution."Exree Hipp and Terrell Stokes were held out of the scrimmage with injuries, leaving the Terps with just one extra player for the scrimmage.

COLLEGE PARK -- Obinna Ekezie jumped. He pivoted. He jammed. He threw his weight around in a pickup basketball game against the Terps at Cole Field House. And his heel held up.Seven months after tearing his right Achilles' tendon, Ekezie returned to his old haunt, going full tilt last week for the first time since the injury that cut short his senior season. His return lacked hoopla -- no crowd, cameras or cheerleaders. Just a bunch of Maryland players and Ekezie, Vancouver's No. 2 pick in the NBA draft.

COLLEGE PARK -- The scar curls down his right heel, a raised trail mindful of a lizard's scaly tail or a stretch of the Appalachians on a topographical map.Obinna Ekezie runs his finger over the six-inch scar, a keepsake of the injury to his Achilles' tendon that cut short his senior season at the University of Maryland and threatened his hopes for a professional basketball career.Now, with his torn tendon repaired and the NBA draft four days away, Ekezie itches to play. Forced to pace himself during his gradual recovery, he has yet to return to the court, save on a casual basis.

COLLEGE PARK -- The chalk flits across the blackboard, leaving a trail of mind-boggling ciphers and diagrams."OK, now, does everyone understand?" asks the man up front.From his seat, Obinna Ekezie stares and nods. Yes, the squiggles and arrows and X's and O's make sense to Ekezie, the 6-foot-10 senior center on Maryland's basketball team last season.In fact, this might have been a pre-game pep talk, except that the man at the chalkboard isn't a basketball coach but a college professor -- and the symbols aren't game-winning plays but mathematic equations that would dumbfound Dick Vitale.

COLLEGE PARK -- Obinna Ekezie wants to make a splash in the NBA draft in June.First, he must jump in the pool. For Ekezie, who was Maryland's center, the swim he takes three or four times a week in the Campus Recreation Center is far more than a dip. It's therapy to strengthen his right foot and the Achilles' tendon he ruptured at practice Feb. 11.The injury abruptly ended the senior's college basketball career and assured that he'd spend the months preceding...

It has been 34 days since they put an extension on the operating table at Kernan Hospital in Baltimore. The patient: Obinna Ekezie, the 6-foot-10 basketball center for the University of Maryland.Upright, Ekezie engaged opponents on the court. Prone, he challenged surgeons who repaired the ruptured Achilles' tendon that ended the 23-year-old's college career last month.How bad was Ekezie's injury?"It looked like a rope that had been pulled apart in a tug-of-war," said Dr. Leigh Ann Curl, the Terrapins' team physician, who performed the operation.

COLLEGE PARK -- At the start of a crucial year in his basketball development, Maryland's accidental center faced some weighty issues.When Lonny Baxter showed up at Hargrave Military Academy in a remote part of southwestern Virginia in the summer of 1997, he packed a variety of post-up moves and 276 pounds. He carried too much for his 6-foot-8 frame, and not enough in the weight room."Lonny wanted to get up and down the court, but he was carrying an extra 30-40 pounds," Hargrave coach Scott Shepherd said.

COLLEGE PARK -- It's going a little too far to suggest the Maryland Terrapins are better with Lonny Baxter and Mike Mardesich playing center instead of injured senior Obinna Ekezie."

No basketball player deserves to have his college career end as Maryland center Obinna Ekezie's did earlier this week, with a ruptured Achilles' tendon suffered in practice.But Ekezie was particularly undeserving of such a harsh fate just weeks before his ultimate payoff, a trip to March Madness as a senior on a Top 10 team.Ekezie, from Port Harcourt, Nigeria, has given the Maryland program four good years on the court and four even better years off the court, a contribution worth framing.