"Shake Off the Rust and Play." That was the advice ESPN commentator Stacey ("I love you Kristi Toliver") Dales had yesterday for the top teams on how to handle their first round NCAA Tournament games. It turned out to be particularly good advice for the Terps today, as Maryland came out against Harvard looking like a team that hadn't played in two weeks. But the Champs soon shook off the rust, and let the Crimson know that they'd be heading back to Cambridge with a lot more free time to study for their finals. Shay Doron once again led the team by example, playing as though the game could be her last . . . as indeed every game from here on out could be. Shay scored a game-high 21 points as the Terps cruised to an 89-65 victory.

The only surprise today was Brenda Frese's decision to start Sa'de Wiley-Gatewood instead of Kristi Toliver. For those of you who saw the game in person, Nancy Lieberman explained that Coach B had this in the works for a few weeks as a way to take some pressure off Kristi, and that she'd discussed it with Kristi, who was fine with the decision. As for KT's off-the-bench performance? 13 points and 9 assists! Not too shabby!

The BasketCases have only one question about today's game: how come Coach Walz was not wearing a suit? Did the airlines lose his luggage or, with Jim Foster out of the tourney, is Jeff now trying to lay solo claim to the sweater guy look?

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Next up for Maryland: a Tuesday night rematch against Ole Miss, which defeated another Maryland opponent, TCU, today 88-74. Although the Terps beat Ole Miss 110-79 in the Junkanoo Jam, the Rebels are playing better ball than they were in November, and so we look forward to a more interesting game on Tuesday.