Rec’ing on…2006 NCAA ABQ Regional – Practice with the Terps

The Maryland Terrapin women’s basketball team practiced today at The Pit in preparation of their "sweet sixteen" match-up with the Baylor Lady Bears on Saturday, March 25.

It comes as no surprise to readers of this blog that if you cut me, I’ll bleed black & gold and red & white. I’ve been a huge terps fan since I was a student. Back then, if I wasn’t at games taking pictures, I’d be patrolling Cole Field House. I’d watch practices. I’d play b-ball with the ladies team. I’d share notes with players who were in my classes. Basically, I was about as immersed into Maryland women’s basketball as a person of the male persuasion could be and still keep things platonic. And it was with great reluctance that I left all that behind to move out west to be closer to relatives.

The Terps being in Albuquerque for this NCAA regional has been great so far. I’ve exchanged emails with Coach Brenda Frese a few times of the past few years, and in the latest she told me to come by and say hi. I have to say that Coach B is very friendly and engaging. She graciously took something like five minutes away from the team during practice to visit with me. ‘course, basketball being what it is, duties took precedence over distraction and she turned her attentions back to the team.

I enjoyed watching the team for the remainder of their allotted fifty-minutes of practice time. Though it was in a different venue, it was very reminiscent of those halcyon days back in Cole. I also spent some time with other Maryland fans, including Coach B’s mother. Lots of fun there (I mean, this is the first time in fifteen years I could say something like, "You know that hill next to the student union?" and actually have people know what I was talking about).

Surprisingly, I also had a brief interview with a reporter from the Albuquerque Tribune (the smaller of the city’s two daily papers). He’d been interviewing another Terp fan; when he learned that I had been the first student representative for the women’s basketball team, and thus had a history extending back to the early 80s, he singled me out and said, "I’m interviewing you, next."

It was a brief interview. Mostly about why I’m a fan of women’s sports and why I think they are better than the men’s flavor. I don’t know that any of it was usable (I’m thinking, not), but I’ll make sure to check and see if maybe there was some mention of my babblings.

So…looking forward to seeing my Terps play Baylor tomorrow. Though I’ve also been an emailer with Coach Mulkey-Robertson of Baylor for a few years, I’ve already apologized to her that alma mater roots run deep, and I definitely have to cast my allegiance with good ol’ UM. (No, I didn’t get to visit with her during Baylor’s practice session…I got there a little late, and she was deep into coaching mode.)