8/7/2019 CCT 03-10-2011 Sports: Terps' last shot

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BY RICH DUBROFFTIMES CORRESPONDENT

SARASOTA, Fla. Cal Ripken.Mike Bordick. Miguel Tejada. J.J.Hardy.

Offseason acquisition Hardy

hopes that he follows the traditionof outstanding Baltimore Oriolesshortstops.

Growing up, Cal Ripken Jr. wasmy favorite player. Its pretty neatto be playing shortstop on thesame team he played for, Hardysaid.

Hardy went 1-for-3 Wednesdayafternoon against his former team,the Minnesota Twins, and is bat-ting .294 this spring. Hardy is play-ing a smooth shortstop so far, buthe insists hes not going to try andbe like Ripken, Bordick or Tejada.

Im not going to go out and belike one of those guys, Hardysaid. Im going togo out there anddo what I can do. If Im ever in thesame category as those guys wheneverything is said and done, Illfeel good.

Hardy was acquired by the Ori-oles last December from Min-nesota along with non-rosterinfielder Brendan Harris in a tradefor two minor league relievers.

After the Twins re-signed Joe

BThursday,

March 10,

201SSPPOORRTTSSwww.carrollcountytimes.comCCoonnttaacc

tt uuss:: 410-857-7896 or sports@carrollcountytimes.com

NHL

Capitals routOilers /B3

BY JOSH LANDTIMES STAFF WRITER

The Maryland mensbasketball team has adaunting task ahead at thisweekends ACC tourna-

ment so daunting in factthat the Terrapins wouldneed to make history toearn the conferences auto-matic bid to the NCAAtournament.

For seniors AdrianBowie, Dino Gregory andCliff Tucker to go out withone last March Madnessappearance, seventh-seeded Maryland will needto win four games in fourdays in Greensboro, N.C.,starting tonight against10th-seeded N.C. State.

I think its a great op-portunity because no-bodys ever done it before,Terrapins coach GaryWilliams said. Its obvi-ously hard to win fourgames, but we won three ina row [in 2004]. Youve gotto feel that you can winfour in a row.

Maryland (18-13, 7-9ACC) has had difficulty atthe conference tournamentsince winning the leagueschampionship in 2004 be-hind a sublime weekendfrom guard John Gilchrist.

Over the six years since,the Terps have gone 3-6 inthe tourney.

They have advanced just

twice in 2006 and 2009 and were upset in theirfirst game four times, in-cluding a quarterfinals lossto seventh-seeded GeorgiaTech last year after sharingthe ACCs regular-seasonchampionship.

This years Terps go inneeding to win the title inorder to advance to theNCAAs for the third con-secutive season and for thefourth time in five years.

Its a big task, but wereall pretty confident in our-selves that we can do it,Gregory said Tuesday.

Were a good team. Were

still capable of doing bigthings this year and I thinkwe can do it.

The reason Maryland isin this dire position is be-cause it lacks a quality win,having suffered closelosses to No. 4 Pittsburgh,No. 13 Illinois, No. 1 Dukeand No. 7 Villanova.

The Terps also skiddeddown the stretch, dropping

their last three of the regu-

lar season and five of theirlast seven.

The problem during thatslide, especially over thelast week, was Marylandsinability to stop oppo-nents. The Terps allowedat least 74 points in six oftheir final seven games andlet Miami and Virginiacombine to shoot 20-for-40 from 3-point range over

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TERPS TODAY

Who: No. 7 Marylandvs. No. 10 N.C. StateWhat: ACC TournamentWhen: 7 tonightWhere: Greensboro, N.C.

TV: ESPN2

AP PHOTO

Marylands Jordan Williams passes the ball during practice for the AtlanticCoast Conference basketball tournament in Greensboro, N.C., Wednesday.

For NCAA bid,Maryland wouldneed four winsin four days

Terps last shot

Please see Terps, B4

BY BOB BLUBAUGHTIMES STAFF WRITER

COLUMBIA The out-come of Friday nightsClass 2A state boys basket-ball semifinal betweenSouth Carroll and Eastonat the University of Mary-lands Comcast Centermight simply come downo which team is best ableo establish style and

tempo.The Cavaliers (24-1), in

the state tournament forthe second time in threeyears, like to play a half-court game, with pointguard Dan Mullen passingto Ryan McTavish on theperimeter or Gavin Mc-

avish down low, takingtheir time to get goodshots on every possession

hile also relying on aough defense that limitedpponents to 41 points perame.The Warriors (23-3),

ack at states for the sec-nd year in a row, want toet into a transition game,unning the floor for fast-reak layups off outletasses or steals by 6-footuards JahSheme Ring-old and Capree Greenend ultra-quick 5-7 pointuard Andre Gibson as

hey try to turn defensento offense.Both coaches, SCs Dougoff and Eastons Martyailey, stress defense first.If you cant get the ball,

you cant run, Bailey saiduesday at a state tourna-

ment luncheon. We wouldlike to get up and down thefloor. Its up to us to try todictate. Whoever playstheir game the best isprobably going to win.

Goff agreed, to a point.

Tempo plays a big partof it [but] I think evenmore important is the 3-pointer, the fifth-yearCavs coach said. Whosgoing to make them? Andthen, can you rebound offthem? Both teams willprobably try to control thetempo, but itll come downto who makes shots.

We just try to play ourgame, take good, highquality shots and hopefullyhold the other team downto a little less than we get.

Ryan McTavish, whoscores 20.7 points pergame, averages two 3-pointers per game, hittingon 34 percent of his at-tempts. Gavin McTavish,Mullen, and Eric Huns-berger also shoot at least32 percent from longrange.

Statistically, Easton iseven better. Ringgold, who

leads the Warriors with19.6 points per game, hits41 percent of his 3-point-ers, and Greene (14.2points per game) hits 40percent.

Bailey said his team iswell-rounded and can ad-just to a halfcourt game they learned that out ofnecessity after playingback-to-back-to-back gam-es last month because of

DAVE MUNCH/STAFF PHOTO

South Carrolls Dan Mullen fights past WintersMills Robby Jenkins, left, and Evan Horn duringthe Class 2A West championship game at SouthCarroll March 4.

Who: South Carroll(24-1) vs. Easton (23-3)What: 2A state

semifinalWhen: 9 p.m. FridayWhere: Comcast

Center in College Park

IF YOU GO

Please see Semifinal, B4

empo key

at Class 2Asemifinal

Union seeking more data from NFLASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON Play-ers union leader DeMau-rice Smith indicatedWednesday that NFL own-ers have lowered from$1 billion to $800 millionthe amount of additionalrevenues they want to takeoff the top of their $9 billionbusiness.

He also was clear he con-siders that lower figure stilltoo high, because the leagueis not offering to turn over

enough financial informa-tion.

Leaving the 14th day ofmediated talks and withthe labor contract set to ex-pire Friday Smith calledthe information the NFLproposed to provide utterlymeaningless. The union re-jected what the league of-fered to give; that financialinformation doesnt include

data requested nearly twoyears ago by Smith in a let-ter to Commissioner RogerGoodell.

Has it gotten everythingit wants? Evidently not.Have we offered to providemore? Absolutely, NFL leadnegotiator Jeff Pash said.And is it a subject thatwere prepared to discuss?Absolutely.

At the outset of talks, theNFL sought an additional $1billion before splitting re-maining revenues with the

players; the NFL alreadygets an immediate $1 billionfor operating expensesunder the old collective

bargaining agreement.The NFL Players Associa-

tion, meanwhile, insists itwants full financial disclo-sure.

Just to be absolutely clear,the information that was of-fered wasnt what we askedfor, Smith said, and, ac-cording to our investmentbankers and advisers, theytold us that informationwould be meaningless in de-termining whether to writean $800 million check to the

National Football League ineach year of a new CBA.

AP PHOTO

DeMaurice Smith, executive director of the NFLPlayers Association, removes his hat as he arrivesfor negotiations with the NFL involving a federalmediator in Washington Wednesday.

AP PHOTO

Baltimore Orioles shortstopJ.J. Hardy takes ground ballsbefore a spring training gamein Sarasota, Fla., Wednesday.

Cavaliers, Warriors look to endmilestone seasons on high note

New shortstop looking forward to AL East

Financial information given called meaningless

Please see Hardy, B3

Hardy ready for challenge

Please see Oriole, B