Here is a verbatim transcript of Willard's pregame presser in Birmingham for those that are interested. For some reason the NCAA posted some pregame presser videos and not others. Makes zero sense, but about what you'd expect.

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Everything you need to know ahead of the Terps' first-round game versus West Virginia, including a preview story with quotes.

STORY

Final Four

Alabama vs. Purdue

Houston vs. Kansas

Final

Kansas vs. Alabama

Kansas

Came across this article earlier about college basketball 'kill shots,' which are basically 10-0 or better runs that teams go on. This guy looks at the number of 10-0 runs a team goes on in a season as well as the number of 10-0 runs a team allows their opponents to go on throughout the season. I was a bit surprised to see that Maryland was one of the top 8 teams in the country in adjusted kill shot margin, along with Alabama, Houston, UCLA, UConn, Gonzaga, Tennessee and Oral Roberts. Six of those teams are in the top 10 in basically all rankings. He also found that of the last 4 national champs, all had adjusted kill shot per game of .65 or higher and adjusted kill shots against per game of .30 or lower. Maryland is one of just 7 teams that fits that criteria.

I personally find this stuff fascinating and I've found a similar trend for picking national champs myself, as you can go back, I believe almost 25 years now and every national champ except one has had adjusted offensive AND defensive efficiency of 30 or higher. Most are ranked inside the top 10 of at least one and the top 20 of the other. But that eliminates about 90% of the field before the tournament even starts. For those wondering, when the Terps won it all in 02, they were 4th in offense and 7th in defense. The lone exception was that Kevin Ollie UConn team in 2014. They were 39th in offense and 10th in defense.

This is an excellent read for anyone interested. LINK

Maryland is set to hire ECU TE coach Latrell Scott according to FootballScoop. This is an interesting one. Had heard Latrell Scott was in the mix for the TE position right before it came out that Sumlin was coming on board. Then this morning I noticed that Northwestern hired ECU's RB coach. Had me wondering again if Scott might be in the mix but he has no experience coaching RBs and was a tight end himself in his playing days.

But again, this is another hire with strong head coaching experience and with deep ties to the state of Virginia. Spent a year as the head coach at Richmond and several years as head coach at Norfolk State. Locks has a long standing relationship with Scott and has come close to hiring him several times now and I guess this was finally the time it all worked out.

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – Senior Diamond Miller of the seventh-ranked Maryland women's basketball team (25-6 B1G) earned Second Team All-America honors from the Associated Press and the U.S. Basketball Writers Association Wednesday.

These are Miller’s second and third All-America honors this season, as she earned second team honors from The Athletic last week.

Miller, a unanimous First Team All-Big Ten honoree, leads the Terrapins with 19.7 points and 6.5 rebounds per game. Her 19.7 scoring average is the most by a Terrapin since Brionna Jones averaged 19.9 in 2016-17. Miller is third in the Big Ten and 22nd in the country in scoring.

The three-time All-Big Ten honoree has scored in double figures in 28 of 29 games played this season and the last 21 straight. Miller has led the Terps to seven wins over top-25 teams, four over top 10 teams.

Miller has four three double-doubles on the year, including in wins at No. 17 Baylor, at No. 7 Notre Dame and vs. No. 10 Ohio State. Against ranked teams, Miller is averaging 23.3 points and 6.9 rebounds in eight games. She scored a career-high 32 points over Baylor and hit a buzzer-beating jumper to clinch the win over the Irish.

Miller is currently No. 12 on the Terrapins’ all-time scoring list with 1,627 points. She needs just four points to pass Marcia Richardson (1979-84) at No. 11 with 1,630 points.

Miller and the Terrapins earned a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Women's Basketball Championship and will host the First and Second Rounds this weekend at the XFINITY Center.

The Terrapins, will face Patriot League Champion 15th-seeded Holy Cross (24-8) on Friday, March 17 at approximately 2:30 p.m. ET on ESPNEWS. The winner of the Maryland/Holy Cross game will advance to face the winner of a matchup between No. 7-seeded Arizona (21-9) and No. 10-seeded West Virginia (19-11), who will play at noon Friday in College Park. The top four seeds in the bracket in Greenville 1 Region are No. 1 South Carolina, No. 2 Maryland, No. 3 Notre Dame and No. 4 UCLA.

Only 5 ACC teams from the greatest conference this side of Mars. All you ACC whores can kiss my ass.

Jahmir Young added to his postseason honors this afternoon after being named to USBWA and NABC all-district teams. More at the link.

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I am trying to find a site where I can make a sports jersey for my grandson who is 3 months old. Both his mom and dad graduated from R.I.T., so I want the colors to be orange and black. Any suggestions.

Did not see this one coming. Elijah Brooks has announced this morning that he is moving on. He is set to become the new running backs coach at Virginia Tech. Spent 4 years here at Maryland after leading DeMatha to 4 straight WCAC titles as head coach.

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Returning next season! Will be using final year of eligibility. Expectation is that Briggs will do the same as well…but not official

Thursday's Terps-WVU game will tip at 12:15 pm ET and be broadcast on CBS. Your broadcast crew is Jim Nantz (play-by-play), Bill Raftery (color), Grant Hill (color) and Tracy Wolfson (sideline). That's also your Final Four broadcast crew as Nantz will hang it up after this tournament and be replaced by Ian Eagle.

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There's a clear consensus among the experts as to where the Terps will be seeded, in which region and who they would face in the 2nd round should they get through the opener. More at the link.

STORY

Only care about Terps, but man Rutgers got hosed. They had decent season, Minnesota lost crushed them.

At home Friday vs Holy Cross
Win and in 2nd round would play either WVU or Arizona then a win could be rematch with Notre Dame but ultimately in same region (Greenville 1) with overall #1 seed SC.

Story on the Terps seed and opening opponent, as well as a possible second-round rematch with Bama.

STORY

-WVU favored by 2
-Over/under of 140.5

-Terps have won 14 of their last 15 opening round NCAA Tournament games dating to 1997

-Willard is making his 6th Tournament appearance, his 3rd time as a #8 seed.
Has an overall record of 1-5 in NCAA Tournament

So, don't know anything about him except he would look great in a terps uniform next year.

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It's bad enough the B1G didn't get the matchup they wanted but little old psu could really upset the old men of the B1G. I normally would never root for pedofile U., but man alive pissing off the B1G elites is fun to watch.

Takes the lead in the 8th



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Survives 9th
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Just watching the State Penn and Indiana game. At about the 12:20 mark of second half, an Indiana player was called for the slightest push against a PSU dribbling to the left of the basket. Hell, pur players got pushed so much harder with no calls at all last night. Seems now they ant PSU to win. I hate those bastards. May they rot in basketball hell.