ACC/Big Ten Challenge Vol. II: The Ladies Get Down

Tomorrow night, the Terp women are up against No. 17 Ohio State for the inaugural ACC/Big Ten Challenge.

To which I say: Big whoop.

Maryland will win this game, just like they beat No. 6 Oklahoma and No. 4 LSU. Here's what Ohio State seems to bring to the table:

- A great freshman center in Jantel Lavender, who, besides having a nice picture in her bio, is playing some great ball and averaging 16.7 points and 93. rebounds per game, good for No. 6 and No. 3 in the conference respectively.

- A great scoring guard Marscilla Packer, who is averaging 17.7 ppg (good for No. 3 in the conference) and 2.67 apg as well.

- A team that is tops in scoring, defense, assists, steals and margin of victory in the Big Ten.

Now, here's what will happen.

- Maryland will contain Lavender like the bigs they contained before. They successfully held big-time frontcourt players Sylvia Fowles and Courtney Paris in check in their routs of LSU and Oklahoma. Where have you heard those names before? Oh right, the preseason first team All-America list.

- The Terps average 3 more rebounds a game than Ohio State and score 5 more points per game. Ok, maybe not a huge difference... until you consider that Maryland has beaten two top-10 teams (convincingly) and a No. 25 team. Ohio State has played one ranked team: No. 24 Auburn ... and lost ... at home. Yikes.

- The Lady Terps have Kristi Toliver, Marissa Coleman and Laura Harper all in the top 12 in ACC scoring. And the team's best player has just returned from injury!!! Plus Toliver is leading the ACC with 7.78 assists per game (two better than the next closest player and three better than the top Big Ten player).

- The Terps are lights-out shooters right now. They lead the ACC in FG% with 49.9% of shots going in. And it's not just the post game. The team is shooting an unreal 46.5% from 3-point range! They've had 12 treys in two different games this season. Maybe the boys should take a lesson in shooting threes from them (28.2% from beyond the arc).

So tomorrow night, I'm going to go to Comcast Center, sit back in the mostly empty student section (See 5,500 fans per game in a 17,950 person arena) and watch the Terps become the first team in the country to rack up 10 wins. I'm looking forward to it and maybe some of you other "fans" should show up.

See you there and go Terps!