Once back on the ship after our hair-raising experiences in Egypt, I gravitated to the basketball court on the top deck. . . hoping to enjoy a little pickup action at sea. The BCs and I are so in need of a b-ball fix. We miss the Terps!
A friendly asylum for a couple of crazy DC-area women's basketball fans, where we share some news, some opinions, as well as a little of almost anything else that our demented minds dredge up having to do with the Washington Mystics, the Maryland Terrapins or any other team, player or character associated with the world of women's hoops.

Petey @BasketCases I'll miss u guys but I have to leave town in a hurry!!!!
BasketCases @Petey Where are u going? When r u coming back?
Petey @BasketCases Im afraid to say here on the web but Im leavin on a jet plane dont know when I'll b back again
BasketCases @ Petey But why? We dont understand!
Petey @BasketCases I dont want to be deported to China like my friend Tai Shan!
BasketCases @Petey U didnt come from China. U are 100% American! They cant send you there.
Petey @BasketCases He's not Chinese either! He was born n bred in DC like me! But they're still deporting him!
Petey @BasketCases So I gotta leave NOW! But every place I go I'll b thinking of you BCs. Already Im so lonesome I could die.
BasketCases @Petey O Petey we cant let you go thru this alone. If we cant talk u out of it then...WE'RE GOING WITH YOU!
Petey @BasketCases But BCs youll miss the Miami game -- and DUKE!!! I cant let you do that.
BasketCases @Petey What are friends for? A friend in need trumps a few Bball games any day...even duke. It's decided. We're leavin with you on the jet plane!
Petey @BasketCases But what about your loyal blog readers?
BasketCases @Petey Dont worry they're cool. They'll understand if we cant post abt some games. We have to b there 4 u. We'll post a quick note along the way if we can.
Petey @BasketCases But who knows when youll b back again?!!
BasketCases @Petey Not 2 worry. we r makin some calls. we got Hillarys private #. u will get it in writing that u r NOT goin to China!
Petey @BasketCases BCs u r the best friends a panda could ever have!!!!
BasketCases @Petey It's nothin. lets the 3 of us just treat this like a lil vacation. it'll all get fixed soon. u have r word!
BasketCases @ Petey So, Petey, when dawn is breakin tmrw morn they'll b a taxi waitin blowin his horn and we'll all b on r way.
Petey @BasketCases BCs thanks to u I m dreamin, not dreading, the days to come. c u tomorrow for our "vacation!"
Not Enough

Go Terps! Beat the 'Heels!
Photo credit: DC BasketCases
ACC Home Opener
The Terps, who began their ACC season with two games on the road, return to Comcast this evening for their 2010 ACC home opener. At 7 PM, Maryland will face Boston College, currently 1-0 in ACC play . . . their victory a 17-point win at home over NC State.
Unlike the Terps, BC is a team of veterans. Their starters include the formidable frontcourt of 6'6" Junior Carolyn Swords and 6'4" Junior Stefanie Murhpy, Senior point guard Mickel Picco, plus another Junior and a Grad Student. The Eagles' line-up and that of the Terps are about as different as two line-ups can be.
But if you saw the Terps' game on national TV on Monday, then you know Maryland has plenty of young talent, and so we're expecting another exciting, competitive contest. And we're hoping that once again the Terps come out on top.
Go Maryland! Beat the Eagles!
The Big Debut
At long last, Maryland's ACC season debuts Thursday night, with a game on the road against NC State at 7 PM.
Tomorrow's game not only kicks off the ACC season for Maryland, but it's also the ACC coming out party for half of Maryland's coaching staff (new Assistant Coaches Adkins and Chin) and it's also the ACC coming out party for 6 of the 11 players on the Terps' roster . . . including 4 of the 5 players who started Maryland's last game! The one veteran among those 5? That would be sophomore Lynetta Kizer. To say that this team is young and untested in ACC play is beyond an understatement.
As fans, we have no delusions about the difficulty -- night in and night out -- that the young Terps will face playing in the Atlantic Coast Conference. We've witnessed it . . . year after year. Tomorrow will be the first day of on-the-job training for newbies Dara, T-Hawk, Diandra, Lori, Jackie and Essence. They came to UMd for an education and, now that the real season is about to get underway, they're about to get one! We can't wait to see how this youth movement responds to the upcoming challenges (beginning Thursday), and we're excited about following their progress through conference play as they're tested and as they grow.
Tomorrow's game is also the ACC debut for new Wolfpack Head Coach (and former Lady Vols star) Kellie Jolly Harper. It's never an easy task to follow a legend. It's a difficult assignment to assume the head coaching duties of a team led and inspired, for so many years, by the dearly-loved and now departed Kay Yow. But that's the job facing Coach Harper. And though we wish Coach Harper well in her coaching career, we obviously won't be rooting for her in her ACC home opener. Obviously what we're hoping to see tomorrow is the young Terps come out on top at their 2010 ACC debutante ball in Raleigh.
For those fans hoping to watch the game online, don't bother looking for ACC Select. This season, instead, any live webcasts will be left to the individual host school. Fortunately, NC State is webcasting tomorrow's game live, at a single game price of $5.95. The web link to sign up (and pay!) for the webcast is here. (BTW, if you need a refresher course on how to connect your computer to your TV so you don't have to watch the game on a little itty bitty screen, check out our how-to post, here.) If we look under the sofa cushions, the BCs might just find the $5.95 we need to follow the Terps' ACC debut!
7 PM Thursday . . . Let the games begin! Go Terps! Beat the Wolfpack!
Most teams these days don't bring their mascots on the road; indeed, the BasketCases can't recall the last time we saw an opponent's mascot at the Comcast Center for a non-tournament game. So we were pleasantly surprised this afternoon when the St. Joe's Hawk fluttered out onto the court during warmups. Why? Because the Hawk's appearance gave us the chance to do an empirical study of something we'd heard . . . that the St. Joe's Hawk flaps (at least one wing, in most cases, both) during the ENTIRE game! That includes warm-ups, introductions, time outs -- every moment of the game, whether the clock is running or not. Could this really be true? Well, as excited as we were about the game, the BCs were also excited to see this for ourselves!
So for the duration of today's match-up of the Terps against St. Joe's, one of us had her eyes glued to the Hawk at all times! We don't recommend this as an ideal way of following a game, but for the sake of science -- and accurate blogging -- one of the BCs had eyes like a on the Hawk. And thus, we are able to report to our readers with 100% confidence that, indeed, the Hawk flapped away the entire time. (We've even supplied a little video above as evidence to support our claim.)
We have to hand it to the Hawk . . . neither rain, nor snow, nor extreme cold -- nor ushers -- kept her from her appointed flapping. As you might guess, having a Hawk flapping away in the stands (or in front of you) during the game was pretty distracting to people actually interested in watching the game. So, not surprisingly, the Terps Hosts were constantly telling the Hawk to move her flapping elsewhere. Which she did, without so much as a squawk of complaint, while never missing a beat and flapping away all the while. In short, the Hawk was unflappable! And today, as it turned out, so were the Terps.
After a first half in which Maryland took a 12-point lead into the locker room (36-24), the Hawks came flying back, closing the gap to 3 about halfway through the final period. But the Terps remained unflappable, getting stops and big baskets when they needed to, finishing with a 10-point win, 79-69.
Diandra T had a huge game (except from the foul line), putting up 25 points to lead all scorers and adding 5 (clean) monster blocks. Anjale Barrett, coming off the bench, scored 20 points, and deserves an enormous shout out for nailing key buckets and hitting big FTs in the second half to stop the Hawks' runs . . . more than once. Lynetta Kizer, who struggled a bit today offensively, still nearly finished with a double double (10 board and 8 points), while Lori Bjork again hit the double figures, rounding out the Terps's double-digit scoring with 11.
And so now the Terps' home win streak -- an AMAZING 47 games long -- has been extended into a 4th calendar year. It began in 2007, and today's win means it's made it into another decade, 2010! Unbelievable.
Also with today's win, Maryland has completed its non-conference schedule this season. The toughest and most important games of the year -- ACC conference play -- begin on Thursday when Maryland faces NC State on the road in Raleigh. After that, Maryland plays a nationally televised road game in Charlottesville against the Cavs (on Jan. 11), before returning to Comcast to host the BC Eagles on the 14th. We wish the Terps the best on Thursday in this important opening stretch of the ACC season.
Go Terps! Beat the Wolfpack!
* * * * * * * * *
Injury report: as our readers know, Kim Rodgers injured her left hand during last week's game against UNC-Wilmington. We learned today that Kim fractured a bone in her hand, and it's expected to take about 4 weeks to heal. Kim was suited up, wearing a hard cast (with a color-coordinated Maryland red wrapping) and, we've heard, could play if she needed to. But we were also told (unofficially) that playing might be painful for her, so let's just wish Kim a speedy recovery and hope that she will not need to volunteer to play in pain.
Video Credit: DC BasketCases
Farewell to a Sports Section . . . and a Sportswriter.
Generally speaking, the Basketcases are not big fans of the Washington Times. However, when it comes to its Sports Section, we've always thought that the Times has done a very good job. Indeed, our loyal readers know that we've regularly linked to Times stories.
And so it was with great sadness that we heard the reports over the past few days that the Times, suffering from the same economic problems that have beset so many employers -- newspapers in particular -- was about to eliminate its Sports Section and lay off its sportwriters. Indeed today, January 1, 2010, the Times published its last Sports Section, and we here in our nation's capital are the worse for it.
There's a great deal being written right now about what a loss this is for coverage of the Redskins and the other "big" (read: men's) sports. But that's not what the BasketCases will miss. What we'll miss the most is Mike Fratto's writing about the Mystics and about Maryland women's basketball.
The BasketCases read a lot of sports stories. All too often, particularly when it comes to "minor" (read: women's) sports, the journalists assigned to write about teams don't have a very good grasp of or respect for the sport or the team they are covering. Mike Fratto was not one of those writers . . . he absolutely "got" the Mystics. His coverage of women's basketball for the Times, and particularly his coverage of the Mystics, definitely enriched the scope of women's basketball reporting here in the Washington, DC area. The coming WNBA season simply will not be the same without him.
When we first starting reading Mike's reports, we were impressed enough with his writing and his knowledge that we assumed he was an older, seasoned sports reporter. What did we know! Someone pointed him out to us at a game last summer and it turns out that Mike doesn't look old enough to have had a Bar Mitzvah. In other words, Mike is talented . . . and young.
We don't know what's in store for Mike; however, we hope his considerable talent will work to his advantage and help him land on his feet in a job doing what he wants to do. But no matter what the future holds for Mike, the BasketCases want to express our personal thanks for his reporting, wish him all the best, and just say how very sorry we are to lose his coverage.
It's not like they weren't tested; they were. But tonight, in their closest home game this season, the Terps managed to beat back the attack of the UNC-Wilmington Seahawks and surface as the winners of the 2009 Sea World Terrapin Classic, 67-61.
In the first half, some good perimeter shooting by Maryland, including a flurry of threes by Kim Rodgers and Lori Bjork, gave the Terps a 7-point lead at the break. In fact, Kim put up 9 points in the first five minutes, but unfortunately sustained an injury to her left hand and never returned to the game. In the second half, with their 3-point shooting going from hot to cold frozen (0-8), the Terps were forced to go inside more, taking advantage of their superior frontcourt presence of Lynetta Kizer, Diandra T, and Tianna Hawkins. T-Hawk once again led the team in rebounds (11), while Diandra and Netta put up double figures in points (14 and 10, respectively). Lori (thanks to blistering 1st half shooting) also finished in double figures (12) . . . all of her points coming from beyond the arc.As the winners of the Sea World Classic, the Terps were awarded a BIG trophy, while Lynetta, quite deservedly, was named MVP of the Tourney. Netta had a double-double on Sunday and was two rebounds shy of another one tonight. We have little doubt that Netta would have had an even more impressive offensive performance tonight had she gotten more touches in the first half.
While there were moments tonight when the game was a little too close for comfort, the BasketCases must admit that, as fans, we found it way more fun to watch a game that was competitive (as long as the Terps won in the end, of course), and so we're grateful to the Seahawks for giving Maryland one of their few competitive home games of the season.
But the Seahawks not only gave the fans an exciting game, they went a step further -- they also made it the most visually interesting game so far. After seeing so many contests against red-clad and blue-clad opponents, it was thoroughly refreshing to see a team take the court dressed in seafoam green! In fact, the BasketCases are hard pressed to think of any other team we've seen, ever (college or pro), with seafoam green as their primary color. Cool.
As the runners-up of the Tourney, the Seahawks, unlike the Terps, did not get to take home the BIG trophy. But the BCs think they deserve something for their effort and especially for those creatively colorful uniforms. So the BasketCases have decided to declare UNC-Wilmington the winners of the first-ever Jacques Cousteau Award for best sea-themed uniforms in the Sea World Classic.
We know we should be thinking about Sunday's game (2 PM at Comcast) against St. Joseph's from the Atlantic-10 Conference. But truthfully, we loved the water-world theme of this year's holiday tourney so much that we can't help but wonder what the theme of the 2010 Terrapin Classic might be. We were thinking maybe Vegetables. Vegans are an under-represented demographic in sports fandom . . . there could be an opportunity here. Think about it. See you Sunday.
Photo Credits (excluding Neptune): DC BasketCases