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DANCE REVIEW

 
Published March 25, 2002|Updated Sept. 2, 2005

Indiana's dethroning of Duke in a gritty, grinding 17-point comeback Thursday was the top news of the weekend but just one of an abundance of NCAA Tournament story lines.

BEST GAME: For start-to-finish tension and top-notch quality, the final game of the weekend between No. 1 seed Maryland and No. 2 Connecticut was tops. There were 21 ties and 24 lead changes, the last coming with two minutes to go when Maryland's Lonny Baxter put the Terps up for good with a short bank shot in the 90-82 win.

BEST FINISH: Trailing 74-70 in the waning seconds after two clutch free throws by Indiana's A.J. Moye, Duke's Jason Williams drilled a 3-pointer and got fouled. The nation's best player, whose poor free-throw shooting cost the Blue Devils in two of their three regular-season losses, stepped to the line with 4.2 seconds to go. He missed, but that was just the beginning of the drama.

Duke's Carlos Boozer uprooted Indiana's Jared Jeffries, who had inside position, and corralled the rebound. As he began to shoot the easy putback, Jeffries got a hand on the ball, getting Boozer off-balance slightly. He missed, the ball was tipped toward the basket and Indiana's Jeff Newton outfought Duke's Mike Dunleavy for it as time expired.

A FEW GOOD SENIORS: With many top players declaring for the NBA draft long before their eligibility expires, it has been said that the college game lacks quality seniors. Baxter and teammate Juan Dixon, both four-year players, struck a blow for the old guys, combining for 56 points.

A STAR ISN'T BORN: Oregon's 7-foot-2 Chris Christoffersen and his teammates were dominated on the backboard by Kansas, which registered a 63-34 rebounding edge in Sunday's 104-86 win.

A STAR IS BORN: You might next be seeing Connecticut sophomore Caron Butler in the NBA All-Star Game. He had 26 of his 32 points against Maryland in the second half.

HUSTLE AWARD: Indiana's Kyle Hornsby made a headlong, lunging save of a wayward pass headed out of bounds, redirecting it to teammate Dane Fife for a layup moments before the shot clock expired for a key basket late in Saturday's 81-69 win over Kent State.

MORE THAN WE NEEDED TO KNOW: Kansas forward Drew Gooden on the breakneck pace of the Jayhawks' game against Oregon: "I got my callouses shaved and I clipped my toenails last night because I knew I was going to need some wheels to run with."

GOOD TIMING: Maryland point guard Steve Blake, coming off a self-proclaimed bad game in Friday's 78-68 win over Kentucky, went 39{ minutes without putting the ball in the basket against UConn. The Huskies left him open with 26.4 seconds left, and Blake rattled in a 3-pointer to put the Terps up 86-80.

NEAR MISS: The cold, desolate upper peninsula of Michigan nearly made it four straight years with a high-profile Final Four representative. The past three it was Michigan State coach Tom Izzo, and this season Kent State star guard Trevor Huffman, a native of Petosky, Mich., pop. 6,056, came within a game of putting in another "Yooper."

IN CASE YOU WERE WONDERING: The Maryland mascot is Testudo the Terrapin. Explains the Baltimore Sun: "The name Testudo, scholars say, most likely comes from testudines, the scientific designation for turtles. (The diamondback terrapin, however, is officially known as Malaclemys terrapin; it was designated the state reptile and the official UM mascot in 1944.) Or the name could have come from a dictionary definition that says the word testudo was derived from the Latin and meant a shelter held over the head of Roman soldiers _ like a tortoise shell."

ONE POWERFUL TURTLE: Maryland sophomore Chris Wilcox is arguably the quickest-leaping, most forceful dunking big man in college basketball since Michigan's Chris Webber.

LUKE MADNESS: Want your son to grow up to be a shaggy-haired Pac-10 star? Name him Luke. Mop-topped Oregon sophomores Luke Ridnour and Luke Jackson were off target against Kansas (7-for-29) but played starring roles in a surprising season. Junior forward Luke Walton emerged as one of the nation's top players for Arizona.

_ PETE YOUNG