In honor of tonight’s NBA Draft, and since no Terps will figure into tonight’s proceedings (is Dave Neal eligible?), here’s a look back at some past Maryland draft moments:

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Just when I felt like I was starting to get a grasp on this Terrapin baseball coaching search thing stuff like this happens.

According to the post, Turtle Thomas, the head coach at Florida International, received contact from Maryland Athletic Director Debbie Yow.

Thomas, who has been FIU’s coach since the beginning of 2008 and most recently led the Golden Panthers to a 34-21 record in 2009, came out of the woodwork on this one and even admits as much saying:

”This sort of came from out of the blue,” Thomas said. “I didn’t apply for the job. The Maryland athletic director left me a message about bringing me in for an interview.”

Associate Athletic Director for Compliance/Baseball Supervisor Dan Trump told me last week the search committee had narrowed down the search to a “short list” and was happy with the candidates they had.

More on this once I get a hold of Trump.

lemairedbk@gmail.com

The losses of assistants Daron Park and Erica Floyd from the Terrapin women’s basketball team made it seem like the program was going through a transitional phase, but the way coach Brenda Frese is recruiting, it won’t matter.

Frese landed the Terps’ third recruit for the class of 2010 when New Jersey girls basketball Player of the Year Laurin Mincy of Newark committed to the program on Monday.

Mincy joins Alyssa Thomas and Natasha Cloud, both from Pennsylvania, in the Terps’ class of 2010.

Mincy will also be the highest-rated recruit according to ESPN, who rated her as a 95 and the third-best guard in the country. Despite the presence of incoming point guard Dara Taylor, Frese is loading up on guards, most likely thanks to the open scholarships due to the losses of Marah Strickland and Drey Mingo.

Clearly Frese is putting a little extra “oomph” into recruiting these days with the roster in a state of flux. Here is the quote Mincy gave The Sun’s recruiting beat writer Matt Bracken.

“I think with Coach Frese, she recruited me the hardest out of all the coaches,” Mincy said. “She made the phone calls when she needed to. The coaches e-mailed frequently to keep me informed on how the team was doing [on the court] and outside of basketball. … [Frese is] also close to my parents. Just the other day, she just wished my dad a happy birthday. My mom’s a newlywed, so she e-mailed my mom, asking her how she felt having my stepfather [experience] his first Father’s Day. A connection with my family is very important, so I took that into account in making my decision.”

That is going above and beyond right there. It is not everyday the Terps get to steal a New Jersey Player of the Year out of Rutgers’ backyard.

lemairedbk@gmail.com

That’s where the Maryland Terrapin football team is ranked heading into next fall according to Rivals.

They are sandwiched right in between perennial powerhouses, Northwestern (No. 60) and Western Michigan (No. 58). Every summer Rivals takes a comprehensive look at the college football landscape, and then ranks all 120 teams in Division 1 football. I have been waiting for the Terps to pop up in the recent weeks as I didn’t expect them much higher than 40.

Read on for a few things that caught my eye from the post. (more…)

I was surfing the web today and found this picture of what could be the Terrapin men’s basketball team’s new shoes as of next season.

The shoe looks pretty similar to many And1 models.

There are also many pictures on the web of the shoe being worn by Brandon Jennings, who is the first professional basketball player to be sponsored by Under Armour.

My opinion is the shoe looks great. What do you think?

engelkedbk@gmail.com

Just bask in that alliteration…beautiful stuff.

Anyways, Happy Father’s Day to everyone on this fine Sunday afternoon in Maryland. Most are probably out barbecuing to celebrate the holiday, but for those of you who are like me and are sitting in front of their computer refreshing this blog every 20 seconds, I decided to help you out.

Summer baseball is in full effect, and some current Terps are spread out all across the country.

Read for my exhaustive yet comprehensive look at where players are playing and how they are doing.

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Well that didn’t take too long. I had meant to post this news tidbit about two weeks ago but got caught up with other things, so here it is now.

On June 5, former Terrapin baseball coach Terry Rupp quickly landed a new gig as the athletic director of his alma mater, Jesuit High School in Tampa Bay. This came just six days after Rupp sent his resignation letter to the athletic department at Maryland.

As the post points out, Rupp starred on the Jesuit basketball and baseball teams before going on to play both sports at the University of Tampa. He then returned to coach the baseball team at Tampa before heading north to College Park.

I am not surprised by this news at all. From speaking to players throughout the season, even they admitted they heard rumors that Rupp wanted to go back down to Florida, where most of his family is from.

This is what Jesuit Principal Joseph Sabin said in the article in regards to the new hire.

“We are very pleased that Terry will take over the position of Director of Athletics,” Jesuit principal Joseph Sabin said in a release. “As a Jesuit alumnus, Coach Rupp understands the mission of the school and we are proud to welcome him back home.”

Kudos to Rupp for seamlessly transitioning jobs in a less-than-stellar economy. He almost always made himself available to talk to us, win or lose, and he delivered some priceless quotes over the course of the season.

Although I don’t agree with him on the merits of Lil’ Wayne hit “Stuntin’ Like My Daddy.”…I admit I might miss him…a little.

lemairedbk@gmail.com

…So said a source with detailed knowledge of the ongoing Terrapin baseball coaching search.

Rod Delmonico is currently the head coach for the Dutch national team and previously was the head coach at Tennessee. His name came out of the blue when about two weeks ago I got an e-mail from his attorney/agent Terry Adkins who expressed interest in the job on behalf of Delmonico.

But now it appears his short stay on the list for the vacant coaching job is over.

Read on to learn more about the search including who is emerging as a front-runner.

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It’s official. Marah Stickland is no longer a Terp and has moved south to become a Gamecock. But, because of NCAA eligibility rules, Strickland must sit the 2009-2010 season out – returning for the 2010-2011 season with two years of eligibility.

For the Terps last season, she averaged 28.4 minutes a game, 2.8 rebounds per game and 8.8 points per game. In just 2 seasons, she was able to put up 603 total points and started in 59 games.

The knowledge of her transfer has been known since mid-April, but now fans know exactly where she is headed.

engelkedbk@gmail.com