Terps

Ask Melo Trimble when he started following Maryland basketball and why he developed such an affinity for the Terps and you're likely to get a lengthy list of reasons from the four-star combo guard. “I've been watching Maryland most of my life,” said Trimble, an Upper Marlboro native. “Of course [I remember] when they won [the national] championship with Juan Dixon and Steve Blake . … I always watched them as a kid. I heard about Len Bias and the other players.

We live in an era where tradition and loyalty have been blown off the table and have been supplanted by unadulterated greed. A perfect example is the University of Maryland jettisoning the ACC Conference and joining the Big Ten ("UM to leave ACC for Big Ten in '14," Nov. 20). To University of Maryland President Wallace Loh and Athletic Director Kevin Anderson: Thanks for trashing what was a wonderful relationship with the ACC for 60 years. Patrick R. Lynch, Nottingham

T he Maryland Terrapins men's basketball team is on such a competitive high going into today's game at Clemson that it's almost hard to imagine the sagging Tigers laying a paw on them, but that's why God made ACC road games. The hot-shooting Terps have won four straight and will arrive at Littlejohn Coliseum on top of the Atlantic Coast Conference standings. Their only conference loss was an overtime defeat at Wake Forest, so fans could certainly be forgiven for starting to think about the Big Dance, but we'll know a lot more about the Terps and their postseason aspirations after Clemson and Thursday's road game against Florida State.

The unseeded Notre Dame men's lacrosse team is coming to Baltimore next weekend for the Final Four. The Fighting Irish knocked off No. 3 overall seed Maryland 7-5 today in the NCAA men's lacrosse tournament quarterfinals in Princeton, N.J. Notre Dame (9-6) took down No. 6 seed Princeton last weekend in the first round. The Fighting Irish grabbed a 5-1 first-half lead on the Terps (12-4) and never looked back in reaching its first Final Four since 2001. Sean Rogers scored three goals for the Fighting Irish and goaltender Scott Rodgers shut down Maryland's offense today in securing the victory.

Three Maryland targets made Signing Day announcements, but none ended up pledging to the Terps. The first decision came this morning from Korren Kirven , a four-star defensive tackle who made an official visit to Maryland last month. The Lynchburg, Va., native signed with Alabama . Next came Friendship Collegiate (D.C.) defensive tackle Eddie Goldman , who had recently eliminated the Terps from consideration. The five-star prospect signed with Florida State . Finally, three-star offensive guard D.J. Reader , who some thought might be trending toward Maryland , announced that he would attend Clemson . Maryland remains in the mix for Good Counsel five-star wide receiver Stefon Diggs , who will take an official visit to College Park and announce his decision Feb. 10 .

Maryland pulled a uniform switch prior to Monday night's game - apparently to heighten the impact of its final choice of colors. The Terps came out for warm-ups wearing red pants. But just before the game began, the players raced out of the tunnel in white pants and white jerseys. The biggest surprise may have been the new gold, black, red and white helmets. The team had staged a fashion show last month to unveil the uniforms. At that time, there were only two helmets displayed.

One day after the Maryland women earned the No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament, the Terps made a clean sweep of the major Atlantic Coast Conference awards. Katie Schwarzmann and Iliana Sanza repeated as the Offensive Player of the Year and the Defensive Player of the Year, respectively. Taylor Cummings was the Freshman of the Year and Cathy Reese earned Coach of the Year honors for a record sixth time, when the ACC individual awards were announced Monday. All four are Baltimore-area natives and former All-Metro players.

Until the Terps tied it up at 7 on a 31-yard pass from C.J. Brown to Justus Pickett with 12 seconds left in the first half, the Maryland offense had been mostly three-and-outs and a bad afternoon for Nick Ferrara. The late score prevented Maryland from being shut out in the first half for the first time since the 38-7 loss to Temple earlier in the season. Ferrara's first two punts combined traveled nearly as far (47 yards) as his third (42) to go along with a missed 31-yard field goal.

Unless they are dominating, faceoff specialists get no publicity. In the case of Maryland's Curtis Holmes , he has been so spectacular that he is getting everyone's attention. On a team where there is no legitimate superstar and whose play is defined by a physical, grind-it-out style, it seems only fitting that Maryland's Most Valuable Player in the postseason is a 5-foot-9, 170-pound faceoff specialist. The Terps have a good shooter in Grant Catalino, a strong feeder in Ryan Young and a physical defense paced by seniors Max Schmidt, Ryder Bohlander and Brett Schmidt, but most of the conversation after unseeded Maryland's stunning 6-5 win over No. 1 Syracuse Sunday centered around Holmes.