COLLEGE PARK -- The Orioles made for a sleepy summer, bowl bids are out of the question and there is no NBA to provide a distraction from the travails of the region's NFL franchises.

"It's amazing how that's all worked," Gary Williams said. "The Ravens were supposed to be better. The Redskins thought they had a playoff team. This year, when we're supposed to be good, other people are struggling. Well, if you want to have a chance to be as good as anyone else, then you have to deal with that fan attention.

"It's great. You wear that. You take it all in. 'Here we are. A lot of people are behind us. Let's go out and show how good we are.' That's got to be our thing this year, to use all of this interest as a positive force. Kentucky, Duke, Carolina, UCLA, they accept that same kind of intense inspection every year, and handle it fine. So we're going to handle it."

Williams wants you to bring your tired, huddled mass down to Cole Field House this winter -- if you've got a ticket. There is keen interest in the Maryland basketball team he coaches, because the Terps are talented and talking like Captain Kirk.

Can they boldly go where no Maryland team has gone before?

Since the NCAA tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985, seven programs that had never been there previously have reached the Final Four. Terps fans searching for omens will note the last three all started with the letter M.

Maryland has never visited college basketball's mecca. None of these Terps was alive in March 1975, the last time Maryland got as far as a regional final.

"Someone has to do it, why not us?" said Laron Profit, the wing who's Maryland's most decorated veteran. "The school has never been to the Final Four, but eventually it's going to happen. The same schools usually get there because they have stability. Players have seen that Coach Williams isn't going anywhere, so we're getting better players."

Williams' 10th team at Maryland is his deepest. In a season that opens tomorrow (8 p.m.) against Western Carolina at Cole, what might keep the Terps, No. 6 in the AP preseason poll, from all of their goals?

"Egos," Profit said. "Guys start listening to what they hear and read, and think that talent wins games alone. It's talent and hard work and chemistry that wins games."

Williams is adding four ingredients to five holdovers who got to the NCAA's West Regional semifinals last season, and he doesn't think the mixture will blow up in his face.

He could have a hard choice at the point. In senior Terrell Stokes, Maryland has a survivor whose Atlantic Coast Conference experience is crucial. In junior Steve Francis, however, the Terps have a junior college All-American who might be their most talented option at the position.

A solution is that Francis can also play on the wing. The transfer from Takoma Park and Allegany College in Cumberland has deferred to the seniors and said he'll play anywhere, even if his quickness has been compared to Allen Iverson's and his ability to direct a team to John Lucas'.

A highly regarded national preview, the 384-page "Blue Ribbon Yearbook," tabbed Francis as its national Newcomer of the Year.

"A lot of people have said things about Steve without seeing him play," Williams said. "I don't want Steve to think he has to score 25 points and get 10 assists a game for people to think he's good. He's coming into a pretty good team. It's not like when Joe Smith and Keith Booth came in and they had to deliver. There are already some pretty good players here."

The Terps lost two starters and three players total from the team that was eliminated by 1997 champion Arizona in the Sweet 16. While Francis needs to acclimate himself quickly to the rigors of No. 1 Duke, the rest of the ACC and one of the nation's toughest nonconference schedules, the returnees also have to get better.

Profit has 1,072 career points, but as his average has increased, his shooting percentage has decreased. Williams said: "Whether Laron is a good outside shooter, that's still to be proven."

Stokes' shooting percentage has similarly worsened, but the bigger the game, the better he has been at the free-throw line, a requirement for a ballhandler. He had a career-best 2.2-1 assist-to-turnover ratio last season.

Center Obinna Ekezie came through against Illinois in the second round of the NCAA tournament, converting all six free-throw attempts on three bonus situations in the final two minutes. He was shut out in the first 33 minutes, however, and the 6-foot-10 senior has to use his 262 pounds more consistently.

At the other baseline spot, Terence Morris is ready to come out of his shell. The sophomore from Thomas Johnson High in Frederick is 6-9 and growing, and concerns about his frame are misguided. Morris could emerge at the power forward position as strongly as Rodney Elliott did last season.

If he'll become more assertive.

"Every time Terence passes up a shot in practice, I get on him," Williams said. "He might be the best shooter we have, even beyond the three-point line."

Mike Mardesich, the 7-foot sophomore, was pushed around on occasion last season, so he got stronger. Among the three freshmen, Calvert Hall grad Juan Dixon can score, but he must improve off the dribble. Parade All-American Danny Miller and forward Lonny Baxter don't have the three months of practice Dixon got as a redshirt last season.

Williams needs something to worry about, and it's perimeter shooting. Sarunas Jasikevicius and Elliott were Maryland's best three-point options last season. With Francis and Dixon replacing Jasikevicius and Matt Kovarik in the backcourt, however, this team is much quicker.

The Terps were fast to grasp the opportunity they have. Profit said he played pickup this summer with all of his teammates except Miller, who was back home in Mount Holly, N.J. Profit hung with Stokes in Philadelphia, and went out of his way to play with Francis in the Jabbo Kenner League.

"The first thing I noticed is that he can pass the ball," Profit said of Francis. "Maybe that's because I was at the other end screaming at him. Seriously, it will be interesting to see how we blend together. We've got a lot of guys with the ability to make plays. We can throw the ball anywhere on the court, to any guy, and know he can make the play."

It's an eclectic group, a few children of privilege and more for whom basketball was a way up and out. All understand the weight of expectations in a state where athletic success has been slim recently and in a program that has never been to the Final Four.

"They know the history," Williams said. "A lot of teams need to break through that ceiling. If you start worrying about the Final Four, though, you don't make the NCAA tournament. That's not even in the back of my mind."

It is in many others.

Final Four first-timers

Maryland is attempting to become the eighth team to reach the Final Four for the first time since the NCAA expanded the field to 64 teams in 1985.

Year .. .. .. Team

1997 .. .. .. Minnesota

1996 .. .. .. Massachusetts

1996 .. .. .. Mississippi State

1994 .. .. .. Florida

1990 .. .. .. Georgia Tech

1989 .. .. .. Seton Hall

1988 .. .. .. Arizona

Pub Date: 11/13/98