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!