Shell Games wins Mobbie Award for Best Terps Blog!

YEAH BABY!  We did it!   Thanks to your votes, the Cinderella slipper fits, and Shell Games has won the Baltimore Sun’s Mobbie Award for best blog in the Terps category.  We also finished seventh overall.

A thousand sincere thank-yous to everyone who voted, be it once or be it every day.   Special thanks to those who put up with our regular e-mail and Facebook reminders. 

Also, much respect to our fellow Terps bloggers, especially Testudo Times (which won for best general sports blog), Turtle Soup, Terp Talk, and Maryland Basketball: Where Are They Now? (Michaelangelo:  Thanks for the bulletin board material heheh.)  I guess we’re technically “competitors,” but at the end of the day we’re all in the same gang.  Blogging can be hard work, and people don’t exactly do it for the fame and fortune.  We here at Shell Games do it because we love the Terps, and love making smart-ass comments about the Terps.  That is our mission.  Some might call it a calling.

In all honesty, Shell Games may not get hundreds of comments per post, and we may not be familiar with the long snapper class of 2019, but we’ve got our own thing going on here, and I think we do it pretty well.  Hopefully, those who found us over these past couple weeks will stick with us.  Thanks again to everyone who voted.  We’ll be at the awards reception tonight in Baltimore…paparazzi must keep at least 15 feet away.  You’ve been warned, you filthy parasites!

That girl from “I Love You Man” has sisters on the lacrosse team

Maybe.  But before I get to that…the lesser-known Maryland sports just keep on rolling. The latest trophy for the case comes from your 2009 ACC Champion women’s lacrosse team. Only one more regular season game (Saturday vs. Princeton) for the undefeated, #2 Terps before Selection Sunday May 3, which I assume airs on CBS.

A few quick observations:

• Freshman phenom goalie Brittany Dipper has a porn star name.  Just calling it as I see it.  Miss Dipper, you’ll always be welcome in “the industry,” as we like to call it here in the industry.
• What’s up with all these Maryland towns named after larger, more famous places? ACC MVP Caitlyn McFadden hails from Phoenix, Md. Amanda Spinnenweber, who does NOT have a porn star name, is from Pasadena, Md.  Grace “I can’t believe I’m not Asian” Gaeng is from Bel Air, Md. There is also a California, Md. and a Hollywood, Md.  I’m telling you right now — there is no Maryland, California.
• Lady Terps Brittany and Brandi Jones are sisters.  But more interestingly, both bear a strong resemblance to actress Rashida Jones, who is perhaps best known for playing Jim’s other girlfriend on The Office a while back or the fiance in “I Love You, Man,” which was a really good movie by the way.   Same last name…all from California…

Judge for yourself:

Brandi

Brittany

Rashida

See? Freakin uncanny right?  Now this is the kind of hard-hitting news I like to provide. You are so welcome. Goterps.

Maryland Wrestling Team Just Doesn’t Want You to Hate It

Slim chance of that, after the Terps wrestlers won the 2009 ACC Championship over the weekend. Woo-hoo! Duke finished last, by the way. Those ninnies are lucky they have basketball to save their athletic department from total ignominy. 

Brendan Byrne, Steven Bell, and Alex Krom all won individual conference titles for the Terps as well. I didn’t see any of the matches, and know nothing about college wrestling, but I’m going to go out on a limb and say that they won with a sunset flip, a big splash off the top rope, and a chair to the opponent’s head after the referee got knocked out. Respectively. And you know what else? These guys are all juniors. I hope they don’t leave early for the pros.

One last shot...at redemption. I'm just going to assume the championships went down like this. I'm comfortable with that assumption.

On a serious note, given the exploding popularity of MMA leagues like the UFC, I wonder if any of these guys are interested in pursuing a career in that area. Lots of top UFC guys wrestled in college — Brock Lesnar, Chuck Liddell, Randy Couture, Shane Carwin, Josh Koshchek, just to name a few — so it seems to be a prime entry point into the sport. Someone who is less lazy (and, you know, employed) than me should look into that.

All in all, four Maryland wrestlers qualified for the NCAA Wrestling Championships, which happen March 19-21 in St. Louis. And not St. Louis, Missouri, either. Wrestling hotbed St. Louis. Congratulations guys, good luck, and Go Terps!

Lady Terps win ACC Tourney, Men hopefully taking some kind of notes

 

HUGE congratulations to the Maryland female hoop squad, who won the program’s first ACC tournament in 20 years last night with a monstrous overtime win against Duke.

No one can say they got a weak draw, either. They beat Duke and Carolina along the way, plus a squeaker over Wake. As usual, the team was led by ACC Player of the Year Kristi “I am the Female Juan Dixon” Tolliver (24 points and overcoming an illness to play) and ACC Tournament MVP and overall attractive woman Marissa Coleman (28 points, 15 rebounds). This almost certainly locks up a #1 seed for them in the Big Dance. Other than UConn — which seems like an unstoppable juggernaut this year — I don’t see anyone playing better ball right now than Maryland.

If only the same thing could be said for the guys, who finished seventh in the ACC regular season standings. After yet another choke in a game they had to win, Maryland is yet again hoping for some kind of crazy ACC tournament run that they haven’t given anyone any reason to hope is a realistic possibility. But I’m a fan, so hope I do. If I have a rant in me somewhere, I’ll wait until after I watch another Selection Sunday go by with no mention of my beloved Terrapins.

In the meantime, I just took a look at their tournament draw and it’s actually pretty decent. According to the latest bracketology (Bracketologist comment on the Viriginia loss: “Who didn’t see [it] coming from a mile away? Over the past few seasons, these are the kind of games the Terrapins have been unable to win.” But I digress.), Maryland needs at least two more wins for a decent shot at an at-large bid. They’ve got N.C. State in the first round (Thursday, 7 p.m., Raycom) — much better than Virginia, Ga. Tech or Miami. If you’ll follow me into Theoretical Town for just a moment, you will see that a victory there gets them to Wake in the second round, who they played pretty close just a few days ago. A possible Duke semifinal showdown is too crazy to consider at this point. Let’s see if we can pull it together for N.C. State — who was no pushover — and go from there.

My prediction: beat N.C. State, lose a close one to Wake, NIT here we come. Hope they prove me wrong. In the meantime, congrats again to Brenda Frese and her team this season, who continue to beat every team that gets put in front of them. Go (lady) Terps!

(Photo credits: Top: Chuck Burton, Associated Press; Bottom: Greg Fiume)

Lady Terps win regular season ACC title

The Lady Terps are ACC champions.  The Maryland women’s basketball team beat Miami today to lock up the regular season ACC title — the team’s first in 20 years — as well as the #1 seed in the ACC tournament, and probably the Big Dance as well.

You know the drill by now. Tolliver and Coleman led the way with an 11-6 and a 17-16, respectively. But some of the younger players were big in this one, too, as sophomore Marah Strickland (17 pts, 5 ast, 3 reb) and freshman force of nature Lynetta Kizer (10 pts, 10 reb) also made contributions.

The Terps will play the winner of N.C. State-Wake Forest in the second round of the conference tournament, which happens March 6-9 in Greensboro. UNC has won the tourney four straight times…knock em off the throne, ladies.

Huzzah! Soccer team captures the championship

Well, it wasn’t pretty, but the Maryland men’s soccer team got a goal midway through the second half and held on to grind out a 1-0 victory over North Carolina to win the national championship. GO TERPS!

Graham Zusi scored the game’s only goal after Jeremy Hall’s shot bounced off the UNC goalkeeper and went right to him. He collected the carom and rolled it into the corner of the net. Sweet. Zusi has to be the tourney MVP — he scored the only goal against St. John’s, too.

Both teams were clearly gassed after having just played on Friday, and stiff winds hampered the ball movement. So it was definitely a, uh, defensive struggle. But that seemed to play into the Terps’ hands…they were on the Tar Heels like glue. UNC didn’t even get a shot off in the first half and never really threatened. The crowd was overwhelmingly pro-Terps, with the “let’s go Maryland” chants raining down from the opening seconds. It was awesome to see our fans out in force like that.

No comment yet from Maryland head coach Joseph Tribbiani, but I imagine it will be something regarding Italian food and sexual conquests, in keeping with his unique brand of happy-go-lucky misogynism. In the meantime, HUGE congratulations to the entire team. Football may not have gone the way we wanted, and the basketball team is anybody’s guess, but between this and field hockey, the Terps have two titles so far this year. Not too shabby. GO TERPS!!!

(Photo credit: UMTerps.com)

terps field hockey wins the ncaa championship!

The 2008 Marlyand Field Hockey NCAA Champhionship Team!

Congratulations are in order for the Maryland field hockey squad!  The team won its sixth NCAA Chamionship on Sunday with a win over #2 Wake Forest.  Maryland entered the tournament as the #1 ranked team, and this weekend they proved they were the best in the country.

I began following this team in August through news updates, and early on I had the feeling the Terps were good enough to win it all.  The ACC is the best field hockey conference in the country, and the Terps had arguably the toughest schedule there was, so this was no cake walk.  Coach Missy Meharg did a great job of keeping this team focused on the ultimate goal.  Senior Sarah Scholl demonstrated the team’s high level of dedication when she wrote this statement in her blog after winning the ACC Championship:

That is what led us to the title; a determined commitment to doing all the small things in practice, in life, in games.

Senior Susie Rowe and sophomore Katie O’Donnell led the offense throughout the year. Rowe tied the team record for goals in a season during the championship game. We should all be proud that the University of Maryland produced this team of young leaders. I look forward to following another run at the title in 2009!

Best wishes to the seniors, and GO TERPS!

Men’s soccer team, hilarious coach capture ACC tourney, ladies, ratings in key ad demographic

Doth my senses deceive me? Or is there actually reason to be happy about the Terps?

In the past few days, the men’s hoops team won its opener over Bucknell (although apparently it was closer than the 81-52 score suggests), the lady ballers crushed Delware State after a horrendous opening loss, the football team beat Carolina, and the field hockey team made the Final Four.

But perhaps the biggest accomplishment of the weekend was the men’s soccer team, led by head coach Joseph Tribbiani, winning the ACC Tournament yesterday, outlasting Virginia 1-0 in the soccer hotbed of Cary, North Carolina.

Hats off, coach. Who’s up for Central Perk???

After the game, the team’s head coach, who is known for his, shall we say, appetites, had this to say:

“We knew the best defense would win this tournament. I challenged this team to define their identity and we made this a program goal.”

Brilliant…it works on so many levels.  How that show is no longer on the air I have no idea. 

Next up for the team is the big tournament — the seedings will be announced this evening on ESPNews. Go Terps!

terps field hockey continues dominance, wins acc championship

Maryland field hockey celebrates its ACC Championship.

Congratulations to the Maryland field hockey team for winning the ACC Championship this weekend. The Terps did it with impressive wins over #9 UVA and #2 Wake Forest, further justifying their #1 RPI ranking.   Once again the Terps were led Susie Rowe, who earned tournament MVP honors. Their first NCAA Tournament games will be this Saturday and Sunday in College Park.

There is no secret formula or magic trick.  Each person has to look at themselves and at each one of their teammates and make the commitment to find it, whether tangible or not.

The Terps accomplished their first goal for this season, but at this point this team will not be satisfied with anything less than a National Championship. If Sarah Scholl’s blog post from November 8th is any indication, this team is as serious as a heart attack about winning it all this year. I’ve been feeling the mojo all year with this squad, and I can’t wait to see how this story ends.