Terrapins' talent shines through

Posted at 3:57 PM, April 6, 2006

Talented but young. That was the label hung on the Maryland women's basketball team all season -- all the way to the program's first-ever national championship.

After Tuesday's night's stunning 78-75 overtime upset of archrival Duke  in the title game, the Terrapins ended any speculation that they might be a year away from true greatness.

"They have nothing to say anymore," said junior Shay Doron, who serves as the elder statesman because there are no seniors in the starting lineup.

In the Terps' case, talent overcame inexperience and carried the program to a school-record 34 victories - with the biggest of all coming against the Blue Devils.

And yet, in retrospect, it's no stretch to say that the Terps were an unlikely champion.

Doron and post player Crystal Langhorne, the team's top two scorers in 2004-05, returned at the start of the season to anchor the team. Highly-regarded freshmen Marissa Coleman and Kristi Toliver joined that duo and immediately had an impact, providing ballhandling, shooting and versatility. Laura Harper, limited to nine games last season because of a torn Achilles' tendon, worked her way back into the starting lineup and provided another post presence in addition to Langhorne.

Nobody doubted that Maryland would be good; they were 14th in the preseason rankings.

But with three virtually new players coming on board, no one beyond the Comcast Center could have foreseen the season that would follow.

"Surreal" was one word that Frese used to describe it yesterday, following a raucous celebratory pep rally that drew more than 1,000 true believers.

The talent was certainly there; no team wins without it. All five starters were high school superstars coveted by virtually every program in the country. All wound up at Maryland in large part because of Frese's energy and enthusiasm. She sought players interested in winning a first championship at Maryland, rather than another one at an established power such as Tennessee or Connecticut. That common sense of purpose and shared goal helped carry the team through some tight situations.

The Terps were 6-0 in overtime games, including the championship game and an upset of then top-ranked North Carolina in Chapel Hill. In the final against Duke, the Terps rallied from a 13-point second-half deficit. In the Terps' victory over the Tar Heels (their only loss of the regular season), they came from 14 points down with 12 minutes to play.

Great chemistry was the reason Frese cited most often for the team's surprising success.

"I've not witnessed a team like I had this season," she said. "They were each others' best friends. They were hungry, they listened, they wanted to get better."

All five starters averaged in double figures, meaning that the team was virtually immune to long scoring droughts if one player struggled. Doron labored through much of the NCAA Tournament, but tied for team honors with 16 points in the final, including the Terps' first four in overtime. In the narrow 81-74 victory over St. John's in the NCAA's second round, Langhorne scored a game-high 30 points on 11-for-16 shooting on a night when her teammates combined to hit just 15-of-43 shots. In the regional final against Utah, the Utes sagged inside to prevent Langhorne from another big scoring night. So Toliver fired away from the outside, finishing with a career-high 28 points as the Terps earned a spot in the Final Four for the first time in 17 years.

"On any given night," Frese said. "Someone's gonna step up."

Experience also played a role in Maryland's success this season - despite the team's overall youth. Doron, Langhorne and Coleman all gained international experience last summer. Toliver and Harper, meanwhile, practically grew up with the game. Harper's father was a standout player at George Washington in the 1970s, while Toliver's dad played at James Madison and in the old American Basketball Association before becoming an NBA referee.

Though just a freshman, Toliver has been around the game since she was a toddler and possesses a confidence that belies her youth. Frese wanted her to take the potential game-trying shot near the end of regulation, although Toliver improvised on the play. She was supposed to receive a pass, come around a screen, pass off and then get the ball again behind another screen. But Toliver, despite a 1-for-9 first half, took matters into her own hands, and simply kept the ball herself. She managed to create some space between herself and Duke's 6-foot-7 Alison Bales, and popped in the 3-pointer that ultimately forced the overtime.

"If I'd given it up, who knows what might have happened?" she said. "I just felt like I wanted the ball in my hands. I've always kind of had that swagger. I've always wanted to be better than anybody I played against."

Thanks to her heroics, now the Terps can justifiably say they are better than anyone.

Of all the players on this year's team, probably none can appreciate what the Terps have accomplished collectively more than Doron. Though still just a junior, she's got the most perspective on what has happened and how far the program has come. She was Frese's first top-of-the-line recruit and one of the few who still around from the difficult days of that first 10-18 season. Since then, she has watched the talent around her improve and the expectations grow. In her mind, there's no one thing that keyed the run to the championship. On the court or in the locker room, it was the mixture that created the success.

"It's the balance, it's the experience, it's the bond we have with each other," she said.