Posted by Graham Hays
The Maryland Terrapins waited nearly a decade to get back on the winning side of the scoreboard in a home game against Duke. But even after ending that drought with an 85-70 win Monday night in College Park, a more important historical connection remains.
Is this Maryland team better than the one that beat Duke on a neutral court in Boston two years ago to win the national championship?
Marissa Coleman certainly looked better scoring 30 points to go along with six rebounds and four assists Monday than she did as an impressive freshman during the title run. When Kristi Toliver picked up her fourth foul with just more than seven minutes to play and the Blue Devils within three points, Coleman slid over and stepped up as the primary ball handler. She scored six of the team's next nine points as Maryland escaped a 68-68 tie and closed the game on a 17-2 run.
Connecticut freshman Maya Moore has an argument, but Coleman might be the best in the country at blending consistent 3-point range with a physical presence driving to the basket.
But Coleman's performance, especially her go-to play down the stretch, came in part as a result of mistakes that provided Duke the oxygen to spark a rally despite being outscored 17-4 to open the game and 12-4 in the final four minutes of the opening half.
Toliver is clearly a better player than the freshman who hit the most memorable 3-pointer in school history to force overtime in the title game. She deserves to be near the top of anyone's list in the race for second place behind Candace Parker for player-of-the-year honors, averaging 17.5 points and 7.8 assists while shooting 44.8 percent from behind the arc after Monday's performance. But her fourth foul, where she cut off Jasmine Thomas in the backcourt with little hope of making a play, offered a reminder that the flip side of an almost unlimited ceiling is perpetual room for growth.
In Maryland's four biggest tests to date this season -- against Oklahoma, LSU, Rutgers and Duke -- Toliver averaged 18.8 points and 7.5 assists, but also 6.5 turnovers and 36.5 percent shooting. In the team's other 17 games, a list that also includes some quality opponents, she averaged 2.8 turnovers and 49.5 percent shooting.
A pure scorer who has turned herself into a top point guard through a willingness to learn the position, she nonetheless sets an occasionally tumultuous tone for the Terrapins.
When they're good, they're championship good. When they're off, they're way off. More often than not this season, she and they have been the former, but they usually control their own fate.
It's something Laura Harper talked about after last week's game at Boston College.
"We definitely changed our mentality this year, as far as we're not playing opponents; we're playing ourselves," Harper said. "Every game is like we want to get better today, because if we don't, with our main goal in mind, we're not taking steps toward that."
Even through the perspective of a television screen, the reaction of Maryland's players suggested Monday's win meant something extra. Perhaps that's why they played in spurts like the team they want to be and at other times like a team playing both the Blue Devils and the ghosts of last season.
As long as they move on without the baggage, the outcome seems like a good indication that this team is still on track to make the most of the lessons of both 2006 and 2007.
Women's Basketball
