Loyola women?s basketball coach Joe Logan called Maryland?s roster “the best offensive team he?s ever seen in women?s basketball after the Terps trounced his Greyhounds, 110-55, Thursday night at Reitz Arena.
Along with the 55-point victory, Maryland (13-0) has a number of ways of proving that Logan?s comments are not necessarily that far off the mark. This includes boasting a roster that averages nearly 85 points a game, with five players averaging at least 10 points a night while holding the opposition to about 54 points a contest.
This balance and domination by Maryland led to having five Terps ? Shay Doron, Marissa Coleman, Kristi Toliver, Laura Harper and Crystal Langhorne ? to be named among the 50 candidates for the Naismith Award, presented annually to the national player of the year. This year marks the first time in the history of the award to have that many candidates from one team.
“It?s a tremendous honor and recognition for the program,” Maryland head coach Brenda Frese said. “But, I think the bigger story of that is how unselfish we are. You look down at the box score and see that every player scored. A lot of people want to see All-Americans not be able to blend and mesh together and this team has been able to accomplish that.”
Next month, the list will be narrowed down to the 30 players eligible for the award when it is handed out in March. Fan voting will also take place via text messaging and will account for 25 percent of the final ballot.
While fans may get a say in the selection process, highlighting which Maryland player is most deserving won?t be an easy task.
Langhorne, who is on three different player of the year watch lists, said that balance is what makes the Terps such a dangerous team to play as they try to defend their national championship. She currently leads the team with 15.2 points and 8.1 rebounds a game.
“It is a real honor,” said Langhorne on the award nominations. “It makes it so hard for teams to guard us. People coming off the bench are scoring 15 points so you never know who can score.”
