Just the Right Mix. Don't miss the article in today's Baltimore Sun in which Milton Kent discusses the "lighter recipe" that Coach Brenda Frese has chosen to follow in cooking up the Terps' non-conference schedule.

"To be quite honest, we feel, with the [Atlantic Coast] conference we have, you're playing the No. 2 and No. 3 teams in the country [North Carolina and Duke] ," Frese said. "You really have to balance the scale. It's a long season. You're playing 25-, 30-plus games. You can't have every game with the hype of 1 vs. 2 or 1 vs. 3. You have to balance it from both ends. It's really a fine line, too, to be able to work on a lot of different things and a lot of different combinations."

Meanwhile, legendary Coach Pat Summitt employs a different mix, loading up the Lady Vols' early season schedule with more ranked teams than does any other team in the nation. The Sun's article tells us:

"In all, the Lady Vols, by season's end, will have played 15 games against teams receiving votes in this week's Associated Press poll, eight of them on the road. 'When you play quality opponents . . . I think it gives us an opportunity to learn more about ourselves and identify where we need to get better,' Tennessee coach Pat Summitt told the Raleigh News & Observer. 'That is why we play the tough opponents that we face.'"

Milton Kent also reports . . .

"Next season's schedule, Frese said, will include a West Coast swing to UCLA and UC Santa Barbara, a visit to James Madison to honor guard Kristi Toliver and a home game against Ohio State as part of the ACC-Big Ten Challenge."

. . . "a West Coast swing?" The BasketCases may just be feeling a "roadtrip" coming on!