March 27, 2000

Overall Record: 16-15
ACC Record: 5-11 (7th)

Women's NIT:

• Defeated Georgetown 63-46
• defeated Virgina Tech 68-60 (ot)
• lost 77-57 to Florida

ACC Tournament:

• Lost 65-60 to Florida State

All-ACC:

• Tiffany Brown (3rd team)
• Marché Strickland (3rd team)
• Deedee Warley (honorable mention)

Terps' Turnaround Among Best In ACC History

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - Advancing to the Women's National Invitation Tournament quarterfinals and finishing with the 21st winning season in Maryland history, theTerrapins' 2000 women's basketball team became the first in Atlantic Coast Conference history to qualify for postseason play after winning as few as just six games the previous season.

Maryland, 16-15 after its woeful 6-21 campaign in 1998-99, became the ninth team in ACC history to stage a 10-win improvement in one season. It was the best single-season turnaround in the ACC since 1990, by a team with fewer than 10 wins.

March Madness

Actualy, the Terps experienced the madness beginning in February.

Maryland's turnaround story included a 22-game run into its schedule without ever suffering consecutive losses. After a 63-62 win at No. 10 Duke on Feb. 2, Maryland was 13-8 and indeed one of the nation's most noted surprise teams. From out of nowhere, though, Maryland was dealt four straight losses and its 76-71 win over ACC champ and No. 16 Virginia on Feb. 24 would become its lone win the rest of the regular season.

Maryland finished the 2000 regular season with a 14-13 mark and a No. 7 seed in the ACC Tournament. Thoughts of a tournament run vanished at the same time the Terps lost a 13-point lead and were ousted in a first round game by Florida State. Then there was practice for a week without another confirmed game to play.

Then, after accepting a postseason bid and two WNIT wins later, March continued with the Lady Terps beating Georgetown and Virginia Tech, and battling Florida in the quarterfinals of the WNIT - only three wins shy of a national postseason title.

Reaching the Elite Eight

Whether NIT, NCAA or AIAW, Maryland's visit to Gainesville, Fla., on March 21 marked its first trip to a national postseason tournament's Elite Eight since 1992, and its ninth overall.

The Terps were No. 1 ranked for nearly a month in 1992 before ending their season in the NCAA Elite Eight, the same as they did four seasons earlier in 1988.

Maryland has advanced to a pair of NCAA Final Fours (1982 and 1989), the AIAW national title game in 1978 and three consecutive AIAW quarterfinal rounds.

Three Wins from a National Postseason Title

Many might rather it be the NCAA national championship, but considering a 6-21 campaign in 1999, and nine freshmen and sophomores which dominated the Terps' roster, an NIT national title would do just fine.

Maryland fell three wins shy of a national postseason title - at Florida, a semifinal date with Arkansas, and a potential championship matchup with either Wisconsin or Colorado State.

Road Warriors

Three of Maryland's four biggest wins in 2000 have come on the road - at Clemson, Duke and Virginia Tech. The Terps defeated No. 16 Virginia in their final regular season home game.

Nearly Tripled

Maryland's 16 victories nearly tripled its six wins in 1999. Maryland guaranteed a 21st winning season while rasing the season's win total to 16 - its best since 1997 (18-10) and the school's second-best since 1993 (22-8) - in an emotional road win at Virginia Tech in the WNIT second round.

Here is a look at Maryland's best win totals since 1991-92 when the Terps boasted a No. 1 ranking and finished in the NCAA Elite Eight:

 1991-92 - 25-6    1999-00 - 16-15
 1992-93 - 22-8    1997-98 - 15-13
 1996-97 - 18-10   1993-94 - 15-13

Winning In Ohhh-vertime

Maryland's WNIT overtime win at Virginia Tech was the Terps' biggest win of the season. The upstart Terrapins battled wire-to-wire and staged a late comeback to force the extra session after leading by as many as 15 points in the first half.

The win over the 1999 NCAA Sweet Sixteen participants marked the first overtime session by a Maryland team since Feb. 12, 1998 against Clemson. It was the Terps' first overtime win since Feb. 4, 1998 against Wake Forest - two games earlier.

Coming From Behind

Part of what made the Terps' win at Virginia Tech the most satisfying of the season was that it was Maryland's first and only win in 2000 after trailing with 5:00 left in regulation.

The Terps lost a large lead as it had on several occasions late in the year, but on the road and when it counted most, the Terps stayed close, came back and scored 12 of the game's final 14 points in OT.

ACC Has Best Percentage

The Atlantic Coast Conference successfully placed 78 percent of its members into this year's women's NCAA and NIT tournaments - a mark higher than any other conference.

Five ACC members - Clemson, Duke, North Carolina, NC State and Virginia - were selected to the NCAA Tournament, with Georgia Tech and Maryland earning bids in the WNIT. Only Florida State and Wake Forest were left out.

The Southeastern Conference was the only league to send more schools to postseason play, though out of 12 institutions, its nine teams in postseason play were a lower percentage - 75% - than the ACC.

The Big 12 and SEC both received six bids to the NCAA Tournament. The ACC was next with five.

Youthful Terps

The Terps routinely played seven freshmen and sophomores among their top eight players.

- Freshmen and sophomores accounted for 110 starting assignments (71.0%) in 31 games so far. In 20 of its last 24 games, four out of five starters were freshmen or sophomores.

- Freshmen and sophomores at Maryland accounted for more starting assignments than at any other ACC school.

- Terp freshmen and sophomores accounted for 68.8% of Maryland minutes per game.

- Looking ahead ahead to next season, the Terps will miss just one starter, Tiffany Brown, and will not have a single senior in the 2000-2001 lineup.

Weller Contract Extended

Orchestrating her team's 10-win turnaround in 2000 and following a single-digit win season with a postseason bid for the second time in her career, Chris Weller was rewarded with a contract extension following the Terrapins' performance in the Women's NIT. Weller will guide the Terps for a 26th season in 2001.

Weller's Record

Maryland's Chris Weller (Maryland Ô66) has guided her alma mater to a national championship game and three Final Four appearances. Concluding her 25th season at the Terrapins' helm, she has engineered an unprecedented eight ACC championships while compiling a 469-257 (.646) overall record. She is 169-134 (.558) in the ACC.

In ACC Tournament play, Weller is 34-15 (.694) with eight titles and ten trips to the championship game. Maryland teams under Weller have advanced to at least the ACC semifinals in 17 of 22 previous tournaments.

Finishing play in her 16th national postseason tournament, Weller is 19-16 (.543) as a head coach. She guided Maryland to national Final Four appearances in 1978, 1982 and 1989.

In 1995, she became just the fifth coach in women's college basketball history to earn at least 400 victories at the same school. Three years earlier, her Terps were No. 1-ranked for a month which led to her naming as the 1992 Naismith and USBWA national coach of the year.

Rankings

The Terps played seven games against teams ranked in national top 25 polls at gametime. Maryland faced nine foes which were ranked during the 1999-2000 season. The Terps played 18 games this season against teams at least receiving votes.