Ladies Headed to the ACC Tournament

Hey guys, time to talk about the women - they've earned the attention.

The Women's ACC tournament is this weekend, and the No. 2-seeded Terps get a bye until Friday when they play the winner of Boston College/VaTech. After that, the Ladies are likely to face Duke AGAIN on Saturday, before they likely face UNC again on Sunday (if they keep winning).

The accolades are already showering down on the Terrapins: An unprecedented FOUR Maryland players earned all-ACC accolades, and Crystal Langhorne was announced as the ACC Player of the Year this afternoon. Not too shabby ... right?

- Langhorne and Kristi Toliver to the 1st team
- Marissa Coleman to the 2nd team (next year, this will improve)
- Laura Harper to the 3rd team (first-timer)

Overall, Maryland led the conference in FG percentage and 3FG percentage, rebounding margin, and assist-to-turnover ratio. They missed a share of the conference title by one game to North Carolina (the only conference opponent they lost to). Toliver, Langhorne and Coleman all finished in the top 10 in scoring. Langhorne and Harper both finished in the top 5 in rebounding. Toliver was 4th IN THE NATION in assists per game.

Very cool stuff for the women. But they have a lot of fighting ahead.

Boston College wasn't a sweat for the Terps this year, but Virginia Tech was. Even though the Hokies have played poorly in the ACC, they gave Maryland a serious run for their money back in February (a 74-71 OT win).

After that, Duke is the next probable opponent. So far, the Terps lead this series 2-0, but the Blue Devils are always a threat: In both games, Duke closed the lead to single digits in the last three minutes.

Then we're talking about the Tar Heels, who have been a machine this season and squeezed out a double-overtime win in the previous matchup. However, I think that you can't discount the possible presence of Brenda Frese. She was still knocked up during that game, and if she comes out for the tournament (a maybe at best), I think that Maryland will win a close battle.

Yes, it's a long way to go to predict a final matchup of UMD and UNC, but they are the only two teams in the conference that have been overwhelmingly dominant this year, so I don't think it's very risky to guess.

Even if we do lose, Maryland fans can look forward to the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament at home. At this point, Maryland is either a first or second seed no matter what happens, so we can hopefully enjoy some warmup throttles of mid-major teams. I already bought tickets for my dad - I think you should get some too. It's really not that much to see a team that might win another national championship this season.

Well best of luck to the Lady Terps - go get 'em.