Young teams with talent tend to do some unpredictable things, good and bad. Towson State's men's basketball team, ** the youngest ever under coach Terry Truax, is a perfect example.
The Tigers (9-10, 3-7), who feature one senior in center Jason Crump, are the last-place team in the Big South, but are the only team to beat first-place UNC-Greensboro. They lost to Maryland and Virginia by a combined 75 points, but made it look easy while pulling away to an 81-69 victory over Louisville, the biggest victory in the program's history.
The only constant with the Tigers this season, besides the remarkable Ralph Blalock (19.1 ppg), has been their element of surprise. Four times -- each of them coming after a loss -- the Tigers have won in the final seconds.
Their defense has been atrocious at times. Two weeks ago, they gave up 57 second-half points in a 97-93 loss at Winthrop. Then again, they scored 55 after halftime on Monday to edge Liberty, 71-70, after trailing by seven points with 87 seconds to play.
What's more, the Tigers are shooting 76.4 percent at the free-throw line, fourth best in Division I. Young teams aren't supposed to be that poised.
Freshman Ralph Biggs, 6 feet 5, could be the power forward of the future, although he needs to add considerable weight to his 160-pound frame. In his past seven games, Biggs has averaged 11.1 points and 3.6 rebounds on 31-for-41 shooting (75.6 percent), while playing 22 minutes a game.
Sophomore guard DeRon Robinson has not been as consistent, but he has been sensational at times. He came off the bench to score a career-high 20 points against Louisville. At Liberty on Monday, Towson State trailed 67-60 with 1:27 to play. During the next 28 seconds, Robinson hit three three-point shots, which put Blalock in a position to win the game with two foul shots at the end.
Langville out for Mount
Mount St. Mary's sophomore point guard Amy Langville (Archbishop Spalding) is out for four weeks with mononucleosis.
How valuable is Langville?
Despite missing the past three games, she still leads the team in minutes. She is averaging 8.9 points, 4.9 rebounds, 4.9 assists and has committed only 22 turnovers in 15 games.
Then again, Langville's replacement, sophomore Keisha McCatty, has been pretty sharp. In three games, McCatty has averaged 9.3 points, 6.3 rebounds, 6.7 assists and has shot 62 percent from the field.
With McCatty running the offense last week, Mount St. Mary's (13-5, 10-1) whipped St. Francis (Pa.) to pull into a first-place tie with the Red Flash in the Northeast Conference.
Loyola goes for swim title
Loyola's men's swimming and diving team, which finished its dual meet season with a 10-3 record, goes after its first Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference title this weekend at Iona College. The team made great strides during the regular season, defeating Georgetown and Towson State for the first time in 15 years.
Freshman Mark Gallagher, senior Casey Brandt and freshman Jon Lang (Loyola) will dictate largely how far the Greyhounds go. Gallagher has set school records in the 50 freestyle, 100 breaststroke and 100 backstroke. He has qualified for next month's ECAC Championships in the 100 backstroke. Brandt owns the school record in the 200 individual medley, and Lang, the team's distance specialist, set a school record against Towson State in the 800 freestyle.
Et cetera
Frostburg State's women's basketball team gave coach Jim Crawley his 300th career victory last week with a 74-49 upset over Bethany, then the eighth-ranked team in Division III. . . . With three victories last week, the Johns Hopkins women's basketball team (15-5, 8-2) moved into the No. 6 ranking in the Mid-Atlantic Region. . . . UMBC's men's basketball team won its third straight road game last week, the first time the school has done that since it moved to Division I eight years ago. . . . Loyola forward Patty Stoffey needs 19 points to pass Jim Lacy and become the all-time leading scorer in school history. Stoffey has 2,181 points going into tomorrow's (7 p.m.) game against visiting Manhattan.