len bias

Nearly a quarter-century after he finished his Maryland career starring for a team not permitted to play in the NCAA tournament, Walt Williams will make his March Madness debut Friday in Spokane, Wash.

For the second time since he retired from coaching in 2003, former Maryland men¿s basketball coach Lefty Driesell is a finalist for the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame.

We'll find out Friday whether former Maryland basketball coach Lefty Driesell will be a finalist for induction in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame this year, but former Terps star Len Elmore doesn't want to leave anything to chance.

When No. 8 Maryland hosts No. 3 Iowa at Xfinity Center on Thursday, it will mark the 15th time two top 10 men¿s teams have faced off in College Park since Lefty Driesell arrived in 1969. Interestingly, it will be the first time that has happened on the College Park campus since the No. 3 Terps beat top-ranked Duke, 86-73, at Cole Field House during the 2001-02 season.

As big recruits from Baltimore steered clear of Maryland over the years, observers say the rift between city and university grew. Some deny any feud at all.

Maryland's 77-72 victory on Feb. 20, 1986 was the first in program history over a No. 1-ranked team, and North Carolina's first loss in a building that had already been nicknamed, "The Dean Dome."

Like most of the players and coaches on the 1993-94 Maryland men's basketball team, Keith Booth has vivid memories of the 84-83 overtime upset of 15th-ranked Georgetown at USAir Arena.

One of the common threads that ties together the 17 seasons Mark Turgeon has been a Division I college basketball coach are the transfers who have helped transform his respective teams, particularly those at Wichita State and Maryland.

Bino Ranson and Stan Spirou will have something of a mini-reunion Friday when Southern New Hampshire, which reached the Division II Elite Eight last season before losing to eventual champion Florida Southern, play the No. 3 Terps in a preseason game at Xfinity Center.

Mount Saint Joseph sophomore Jalen Smith, a five-star prospect already ranked as the No. 1 player in the state and No. 17 overall by ESPN, was offered a scholarship on what was his third unofficial visit to College Park.

It's back-to-school time, and that means lots of think pieces from professors full of gentle chiding at students, reminding them to read the syllabus and the books, put their phones away, and do their homework. I'm always struck by the harsh tone of that writing, as if professors have completely forgotten what it's like to be a college student.

Fanatical fans

Susan Reimer signs off, joining her husband in retirement, after 36 years at The Sun

In what should be the marquee matchup of the ACC-Big Ten Challenge, Maryland will play North Carolina Dec. 1 in Chapel Hill, ESPN announced Wednesday.

Maryland basketball's return to March Madness has students, fans, boosters ready to celebrate like they did at the height of the Gary Williams era.

In recognition of 70 years of dunking in college basketball, Maryland's athletic website put up a poll earlier this month asking fans to vote on the best dunk in Terps history.

Driving up to Penn State on Saturday dredged up some nasty memories of my last trip to Happy Valley for a Maryland men's basketball game. It wasn¿t much fun for the Terps, either.

Anthony Cowan Jr.'s roots at Maryland run deep. Growing up in Bowie, he attended Gary Williams' summer camp in College Park several times. His father, Anthony Sr., received his master's from the school. His grandmother works in the university's African-American Studies program.

As Maryland's current freshman class has gotten off to a strong start in 2014, it's a good time to look back at some of the best recruiting periods in the program's history.

Former Terp Keith Gatlin will accompany his star player Harry Giles on a visit to College Park for Maryland Madness.

It took nearly two decades but Len Bias, a two-time Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Year and likely the most talented player in Maryland basketball history, was inducted into Maryland's athletics Hall of Fame Saturday along with seven others.

If Len Bias could attend his own Hall of Fame ceremony on Friday, he'd do so as a 50-year-old man. That's a heck of a thing to wrap your head around if you grew up as an obsessed ACC basketball fan in the 1980s.

Here are five questions to ponder as the Terps get ready for their Nov. 14 season opener against Wagner.

Cheers to the University of Maryland for voluntarily embracing reform of athletic scholarships

Len Bias' Hall of Fame induction sends the wrong message

Inclusion in hall of fame is fitting tribute to Maryland basketball great

A powerful judicial panel voted Friday to slash sentences for thousands of prison inmates — hundreds of them from Maryland — a significant move toward softening severe punishments for federal drug crimes.

Nearly three decades after he died from a cocaine overdose, Len Bias will be formally recognized by the University of Maryland as a member of its Athletics Hall of Fame.

Maryland baseball coach John Szefc paused and looked forward, trying to articulate just how special it was to be part of the Terps' first NCAA tournament team in 43 years. Szefc was just 4 years old when Maryland lost its first two games in Gastonia, N.C., in the 1971 national tourney

University System of Maryland Chancellor William E. Kirwan, who in 12 years on the job helped oversee the rise of some of the state's public universities to national prominence, announced Tuesday he will step down from his position as soon as a successor is found.

You could pen a thick book about the traditions and history of the Maryland and Johns Hopkins men's lacrosse teams, including colorful characters like Henry Ciccarone and Frank Urso, hard-fought games, respect, mutual disdain and a nasty bench-clearing brawl in 1977.

Gary Williams has officially received his hall pass, being named one of the 2014 inductees for the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on Monday afternoon.

Welcome to a second season of Morning Shootaround. We will follow the Terps throughout the 2013-14 season, but this year in this space we will provide a look ahead rather than looking back.

Maryland (16-14, 8-9 ACC) will be looking for a signature win while Virginia (25-5, 16-1) comes in as hot as the then No. 2 Terps were in 2002, when they won their first national championship. The Cavaliers have won 13 straight.

Don Markus recalls his favorite memories from Duke's venerable basketball arena.

In its prime, Maryland-Duke was a series that emanated heat. While Duke fans professed indifference, the rivalry didn't fade away quietly at Maryland, not even after the school announced it would join the financially lucrative Big Ten beginning this July.

Seth Allen's return to the lineup Sunday night after sitting out two months with a broken foot showed just how much the struggling Terps missed their sophomore point guard.

Raul de Pablo, Lefty Driesell and Lou Michaels are part of The Sun Remembers This Week in Sports for Nov. 24-30

Jamal Lewis, Rob Ryerson and Gus Johnson are part of The Sun Remembers This Week in Sports for Nov. 17-23

Ernest Graham's son Jonathan will suit up in the same jersey as his father -- if the NCAA grants a waiver for him to play for Terps this season.

On a night when the current men's and women's teams were introduced to a raucous crowd of more than 12,000, the two legendary coaches and more than two dozen of their former players were the stars of an event that celebrated the past while getting ready for what fans expect to be a breakthrough season under third-year coach Mark Turgeon.

Should Maryland rename Cole Field House the Driesell-Cole Field House, after its former coach?