University of Virginia Library

Touted Terps Face Hooter's Best

BY JOHN MARKON

At this early date in the
season it might be too early to
speak of "monster" games, key
conference contests and games
that "make or break" a team's
season. These terms, however,
have been creeping into sports
pages throughout the ACC in
reference to tomorrow night's
Maryland-Virginia encounter at
University Hall.

By this time everyone
concerned with ACC basketball
has noticed the deluge of
publicity given Coach Lefty
Driesell and his College Park
powerhouse. Before the
majority of his starters had
ever seen a minute of varsity
action Lefty's team entered the
nation's Top Ten and was
recognized as a strong title
contender.

So far the Terps have done
little to tarnish their new
reputation. They opened with
a 100-83 win over Brown and
followed that with a 119-90
stomping of George
Washington. GW has a pretty
fair country basketball team
this year but Maryland literally
destroyed them.

While their regulars were in
there the Terps acted like a
group of biology honors
students let loose on a batch of
pickled frogs, playing excellent
defense and using their
intimidating inside game on
both ends of the floor. Only
the eventual appearance of
Lefty's rinkydinks saved the
Colonials from major
embarrassment.

"Mr. Everything" at
Maryland this year is one Tom
McMillen, a 6-11 sophomore
forward. Perhaps you read
about him in Playboy. Against
GW he made 14 of 16 shots,
scored 35 points and generally
looked good.

His full-page color likeness
has graced more roundball
periodicals than Kareem Abdul
Whatshisname's ever did as a
sophomore and young Tom
plays out of the Washington,
D.C. area, never really
considered a hotbed of athletic
activity.

Along with McMillen on this
"best team that money can
buy" are several other
publicized sophomores, Len
Elmore, a 6-9 center, is as
muscular and graceful a pivot
as there is in the ACC and
Japeth Trimble, a 6-3 wingman,
is possessed of a multitude of
sweet shots. The other top
soph is Mark Cartwright, a 6-11
forward who plays well inside
despite his beanpole
appearance.

Returning Maryland starters
are good but hardly in the class
of the sophs. Jim "Bozo"
O'Brien will be Driesell's third
starting forward and Howard
"Hot Dog" White will begin as
the lone guard and pointman.

O'Brien is a good shooter
and rebounder and an adequate
defender whose extremely
awkward style of play (despite
a slight facial resemblance he
wasn't nicknamed Bozo for
nothing) sometimes obscures
his skills. Bozo is the butt of
some bitter fan humor around
the ACC but the league's
coaches don't consider him a
laughing matter.

If White ever alters the
flamboyant style that
doubtless made him a big man
on the asphalt courts in
Hampton, Va. It's not obvious.
His shooting is good but
inconsistent and no one has
ever accused him, or Trimble
for that matter, of being able
to play defense.

Aside from all this the Terps
play a zone defense, usually
the 1-2-2, like to run on
offense and rely heavily on the
ability of their smaller
members to get the ball inside.
The bench is weak, excepting
guard Rich Porac, another
sophomore and White's
backup.

Before Driesell's arrival
Maryland basketball games
consisted of teams of marginal
talent playing before fans of
marginal numbers. All that's
changed now and Cole Field
House will sell out this year for
every game. Students at
Maryland, normally a pretty
docile bunch not prone to
overt emotionalizing, just love
Lefty and the boys but wish
they could get more tickets.

Maryland's Tom McMillen Absorbs Drive Of Cavalier Bob McCurdy

They Led Their Respective First-Year Teams In Scoring Last Year