HUGE Terp Round-Up

Oh the things that are going on right now! It is a wonderful time to love sports at the University of Maryland! Being a Terp is not all about men's basketball. Let's look at what I mean ...

WOMEN'S BASKETBALL

The girls have quietly assembled one of the best seasons this year. They are the only team in the country so far with 16 wins, and they are showing that their record means something. They beat Wake Forest last night, 83-49, and led by 34 at the half. Wake Forest was previously 12-2. That's serious business.

Maryland is ranked No. 5 in the country, but they're about to be No. 4 at least after a Standford loss to UCLA. Their ranking also reflects their statistics in the entire country:

- No. 8 in scoring
- No. 9 in scoring margin
- No. 2 in field goal percentage
- No. 7 in rebound margin
- No. 1 in three-point FG percentage (a spicy 45.3%)

Kristi Toliver is one of the best players on the team (now that I think about it, the whole starting five is dominant) and has really kicked up her game. She is No. 3 nationally in assists, has better than a 2-to-1 assist-to-turnrover ratio, and is jacking up threes at over 47% accuracy, so I guess I should use a more graceful verb than "jacking."

This is a team of she-beasts (metaphorically and spiritually more than physically) that is looking to romp teams, not just beat 'em. If we tighten up defense, we have a good shot at the title. Beware, UConn, Tennessee and Rutgers will all be waiting for us in the NCAAs, and division foe UNC lurks in March as well.

Plus they work in the community and their coach is having twins! What's not to like about this team?

WRESTLING

Yes, I'm surprised they are making an appearance as well.

People who pay attention to wrestling noticed the program was coming around after the hire of much-ballyhoed Pat Santoro. Last season, the squad went undefeated in ACC play and set a school record for wins at 17-5. Now they're ranked No. 22 in the country and have two wrestlers in the top-10 of their weight classes.

The Terps currently sit at 7-3, with all their losses at the hands of ranked teams, with two now sitting in the top five. Out of their remaining matches, only one more team is ranked (No. 21 Navy) and the ACC championships are at College Park - sounds like another good season in the works.

Watch out for Mike Letts (174), Hudson Taylor(197) and Josh Haines(184) who are all ranked in their weight classes. They're young, too: two sophomores and a junior, respectively. Maryland is a wrestling power in the making. They compete in the same building as basketball. That should make it easy for you to remember.

RECRUITS

Terp recruits are doin' it up big this season in bball.

As Recruiting Report reports, Sean Mosley is having an excellent senior year at St. Francis, most recently dropping 34 points in a 70-54 beating of John Carroll. For those of you who aren't very good at math, that's almost half the team's points.

High school statistics are spotty, but two games ago, it was reported that he averaged 25.3 points per game, and with added totals of 30 and 34 since then, that puts Sugar Sean a little over 26 ppg with an extra 8 boards per game. Nasty. For reference, Cliff Tucker averaged 21.4 ppg his senior year and Adrian Bowie had 14.6 ppg. Former Terp Mike Jones averaged 24.6 ppg his senior year, and he was a Parade All-American. And Mosley is not just a potent scorer - he's earned a reputation as a hustler and a perfectionist. He's got a lot of promise and I don't think he'll be as disappointing as Jones was (in terms of potential).

Also, I've noticed that more than a few people out there have been looking for info on Terp 2009 prospect Jin Soo Kim, the Korean American coming to Maryland. Let me tell you, it isn't easy to find stuff about him. There doesn't appear to be a Connecticut newspaper that covers the games and no recruiting site has game-by-game stats.

After a good half-hour of searching, I finally examined South Kent's athletic page more carefully and they have summaries of most of their games with the leading scorers and contributers. All you do is click on the schedule sidebar for each game's summary. The good news is Jin Soo Kim is on most of them. His point totals in the last couple games: 24 against Bridgton, 11 against Patterson, 8 against Thomas More, 25 against Findley, 16 against Vanier. Inconsistent, yes, but he plays on an all-star team, so numbers will vary if you aren't the No. 1 guy. Also, in the Findley summary, the site says, "Jin Soo played an all-around great game, playing very good defense and rebounding the ball as well."

Also, in case you haven't heard, watch the U.S. Army All-American Game at 12 noon on NBC to get a glimpse of wide receiver and UMD target Kenny Tate. Matt Bracken talked about him in his feature on our site and there was some good chatter about him in practice sessions for the game.

See, there's always reasons to be optimistic about being a Terp. Sometimes you just have to look really, really, really hard.

Go Terps!

Photo Credits: Baltimore Sun, UMTerps.com