3/3/02 - Pastos the Punk

By ANDREW JOYNER
Daily Progress staff writer

Several times this season, Maryland coach Gary Williams has been asked about his emotions regarding coaching the final season in Cole Field House. Each time, the answers have shown a reflective and sentimental side rarely seen in the often fiery and blunt coach.
“I’ve put a lot of time in there. You look back at your lifetime and think about where you’ve spent a lot of your time and I’ve spent a lot of time there,” said Williams, who played in the building as a Terrapin player from 1965-68 and is now in his 13th year as the Maryland head coach. “It’s been a great building if you look what’s been played there and the players and the games,” Williams said. “It’s had as many big games with two Final Fours and a host of great players, as any building in college basketball. It’s going to be tough to leave for those reasons.”
While today’s final game at Cole will have certain importance for Virginia and its NCAA tournament hopes, it will not have the magnitude of the most important game played in the building, or for that matter perhaps the most important game in the history of college basketball.
That was the 1966 NCAA title game at Cole that featured Texas Western (now University of Texas-El Paso) against Kentucky. Texas Western featured an all-black starting five while Kentucky and its coach, Adolph Rupp, featured an all-white starting five. Texas Western won that evening, and in doing so likely impacted the racial barrier that existed in the sport at that point in time. Williams, a junior at the time, attended the game.
“I remember there was a buzz in the stands that night. You didn’t realize the impact of the game at the time, or at least I certainly didn’t as college student,” Williams said. “Quickly, people started talking about it.”
Such history makes the cavernous building unique. Basketball purists unceasingly lament the fact that buildings like Cole are dinosaurs, types of places that are just not built anymore. In fact, it can be argued that Maryland’s new building, the $80 million, 17,000-seat Comcast Center, is the antithesis of a building like Cole. It will have luxury suites and all the modern amenities and certainly will not resemble in any shape or form the character of the old airplane hanger appearance of Cole. The cliche is true: They really don’t build buildings like this one anymore.
“This is one of those real special places in college basketball. The enthusiasm of the student body, right on top of you, just makes it so unique,” said ABC/ESPN commentator Dick Vitale. “It’s been special coming in and doing games.”
Several pre-game and postgame ceremonies are planned for tonight’s game, as the game will also be the last home contest for Maryland seniors Juan Dixon, Lonny Baxter and Byron Mouton.
With such pomp and circumstance, perhaps Virginia is fortunate that all it has to do is play 40 minutes of basketball. A win today by the Cavaliers, who are coming off their 87-84 victory over No. 3 Duke on Thursday, would allow them to finish 8-8 in the ACC and almost assuredly would garner the Cavaliers an invitation to the NCAA tournament. Of course, given Virginia’s recent history at Cole — it has not won there since Feb. 2, 1993 — it likely is not all that unhappy to see the arena closing.
Maryland enters the game as perhaps the nation’s hottest team, having won 11 straight, and already has secured the ACC regular season title.
“I think this win [over Duke] gives us momentum. We need to carry these final seven minutes tonight over to that Maryland game on Sunday,” said freshman point guard Keith Jenifer after Thursday’s game.

By ANDREW JOYNER
Daily Progress staff writer

After the Virginia men’s lacrosse team’s 15-13 loss to Syracuse on Saturday at Klockner Stadium, the terms “disappointing” or “frustrating” were not used with the abundance one might suspect after a loss. Instead, phrases like “learning experience” and even “moral victory” seeped into both UVa coach Dom Starsia and his players’ postgame vocabulary.
“There was nothing in the preseason that could have simulated the pressure they put on us today,” said Starsia, whose lineup is peppered with several underclassmen. “I was pleased with how hard our kids fought. ... If we continue to improve as a team, we have a chance to be very good. Today, we probably played the most talented team in the country. To play in a Syracuse-Virginia game and do these kind of things, that’s how you get better.”
That said, Starsia was not claiming he was content with the result, either.
“It was a lost opportunity because we had a chance to beat one of the best teams in the country and we didn’t finish the job,” Starsia said. “You can’t not take advantage of too many of those and still expect to be playing at the end of the year.”
Syracuse (2-0), which has now won six of the last eight games in the series, was led by four goals and two assists from sophomore attackman Mike Powell. Senior Josh Coffman also finished with four goals for the Orangemen, while Mike Springer added three goals.
Virginia (1-1) received four goals from freshman attackman Jason Yevoli and two goals and an assist from A.J. Shannon. Senior attackman Conor Gill finished with one goal and three assists as six Cavaliers each registered a goal.
The Cavaliers opened a 5-2 advantage after the game’s first seven minutes after an unassisted goal by midfielder Nick Russo. Syracuse, however, scored four of the quarter’s final five goals to tie the game at 6 entering the second quarter.
The Orangemen vaulted to an 11-8 halftime advantage as they managed to repeatedly beat Virginia sophomore goaltender Tillman Johnson. Starsia, however, did not attribute his team’s defensive deficiencies in the quarter to Johnson’s play alone.
“We didn’t give him [Johnson] a lot of help. I didn’t think there were a lot of balls that he might have gotten to,” Starsia said. “I watch Tillman every day and you sort of expect him to get everything. Those are my expectations. We let them get right on top of him for the beginning of the game and didn’t give him much of a chance.”
Virginia cut into the Syracuse lead ever so slightly by outscoring the Orangemen 2-1 in the third quarter as Syracuse entered the final 15 minutes with a 12-10 advantage.
The Cavaliers scored three of the final quarters first four goals, and when Yevoli scored his fourth and final goal, he tied the game at 13 with 6:23 remaining.
Syracuse, however, responded quickly with a tally by Spencer Wright just 39 seconds later to take the lead for good.
“It was a good shot but I should have had it,” Johnson said.
The Cavaliers struggled over the final five-and-a-half minutes to find quality scoring opportunities to tie the game and the ones they did get they were unable to convert. The worsening field conditions might have had some effect on that as the slick field resulted in several errant passes by both teams in the final minutes.
“I think the conditions affected things a little bit. I didn’t have my footing at all today but that’s something you have to deal with,” said Yevoli, who had a couple of his team’s best chances down the stretch.
Virginia’s final attempt to tie the game came with 10 seconds remaining but freshman attackman John Christmas’ shot sailed wide of the goal. Powell then added an empty net goal with three seconds remaining to account for the final margin.
“We had a couple chances but also had a couple of turnovers. We were in the game the whole time so we can walk away with that. I don’t believe in moral victories but we got a lot of experience in this game, both good and bad, and that will help us,” Gill said.

Tonight will mark the end of an era in ACC and college basketball history when Maryland’s Cole Field House has its final curtain call. After hosting college games for the past 47 years, Cole will host its last game when Virginia plays at Maryland.
If you think it’s a tough ticket, you’re right.
“You get people calling and asking for tickets, people you haven’t heard from in an awfully long time, and they don’t understand when you tell them there aren’t any,” said Maryland coach Gary Williams on Friday.
Just for emphasis, Williams said, “There are NO tickets.” Then, the coach turned and looked toward a couple of Maryland athletic department officials and jokingly said, “Unless we can print some more.”
Just in case anyone has thought about an illegal duplication, which the university suspects may have happened on a small scale for the Duke game at Cole on Feb. 17, the school has security measures in place to identify any fake tickets.
Cole has essentially been sold out all season long, with tickets available only when the students fail to pick up their allotted 4,000. Students did camp out for the right to pick up tickets for the Virginia game, more so because it was the last game ever in the building more than the fact the Cavaliers were the final opponent. Still, tickets to the UVa game went sooner than those for the Duke game.
While there wasn’t any real public sale of tickets to this game, Maryland’s ticket office has still been flooded with requests. Wendy Brown, the school’s ticket manager, said she could have easily sold triple the capacity of the 14,500 building.
“Some guy called me from Spain on Thursday wanting a ticket,” said Brown. “Everyone in our department has taken a stance since the opening of the season ... NO, don’t even ask for this game. It is such a hot ticket with our students and such an emotional thing for them. The students who didn’t get tickets for this game are very upset.”
If you’re desperate to get inside the building tonight, it will cost you. Scalpers are expected to be asking for prices through the roof. Some tickets were selling through various services for $1,000 apiece late last month. Ebay had a few up for auction on Friday, ranging from one ticket on the second row for $600 to four tickets for $1,062.
Ironically, Virginia was Maryland’s first opponent in Cole and is now the last. The Cavaliers, fighting for a bid to the NCAA Tournament, haven’t fared so well of late in the historic building, dropping the last eight in a row there. UVa hasn’t won at College Park since 1993.
“The atmosphere around here has been crazy for weeks now, starting with the Duke game and carrying over to today, then the NCAAs,” said Kevin Messenger, of the school’s sports information department. “The Duke game was more crowded from the media standpoint but this game with Virginia has more local appeal.”
Maryland has already locked up the ACC regular season title and is hoping to make it back to the NCAA’s Final Four again this season. The Terps had anticipated clinching the ACC’s top seed for this week’s tournament tonight but unexpectedly had it handed to them Thursday night when Virginia stunned Duke, ending any chance the Blue Devils had for a first-place tie.
Among tonight’s festivities will be 102 special guests, including Senior Night prior to the game and a halftime ceremony honoring the 1955-56 team, the first to play in the building, and the 1957-58 team, the first Maryland team to make it to the NCAA Tournament. Starters from both those teams will be in attendance.
The postgame celebration will feature a collection of participants including five original season ticket holders, who have held season tickets from the first game until today, 47 straight seasons. Also, 30 past All-ACC players will be recognized, including such familiar names as Tom McMillen, Len Elmore, Mo Howard, Albert King, Adrian Branch, Keith Gatlin, Keith Booth, Buck Williams and more.
And, oh yeah, in between there will be a basketball game as the Cavaliers attempt to build on the momentum built from the Duke upset. It could be a heated battle for more than one reason.
Bad blood developed between the two teams in their first meeting in Charlottesville, when the Cavs blew a big lead and let the Terps off the hook. In that game, there was a near altercation when a Maryland player elbowed UVa’s Travis Watson twice in the face, with Watson and freshman guard Keith Jenifer exchanging words with Maryland players and coaches.
Jenifer was cursed by Maryland coaches, according to Gillen, and pushed away from the Terrapins’ bench.
In a recent story featured on the CNN/Sports Illustrated web site, an unidentified assistant coach in the ACC accused Virginia of recruiting players of low character. Maryland assistant Jimmy Patsos was quoted in the next paragraph of the story, leading many Virginia followers to believe that it was Patsos who made the derogatory statements.
Tonight’s game gives Virginia’s players a perfect opportunity to show Patsos and the rest of the Terps just what kind of character the Cavaliers are made of.

CHARLOTTESVILLE - Lacrosse royalty came to town yesterday, in the form of the Syracuse Orangemen. A young Virginia team had practiced hard to prepare, but it couldn't simulate the 'Cuse's speed and talent. Cavaliers coach Dom Starsia knew that would be the case, and he was upbeat after his team fell 15-13 on a cold, wet, gray afternoon at Klockner Stadium.

"Hopefully we'll learn from this," said Starsia, who started four freshmen. "If we continue to improve as a team, we have a chance to be very good. That's the most talented team in the country we played today."

After falling behind 13-10 early in the fourth quarter, the Cavaliers (1-1) rallied for three straight goals, two by freshman attackman Joe Yevoli, to tie the game with 6:23 left. But Syracuse (2-0) answered almost immediately, getting an unassisted goal from midfielder Spencer Wright.

"I was a little disappointed in the way I played," said U.Va. goalie Tillman Johnson, who made only four saves.

The Cavaliers' inability to get high-percentage shots hurt them in the final five minutes, but they never let the Orangemen blow the game open. With 18 seconds left, it was still 14-13, and Virginia called a timeout to set up a final shot.

Freshman attackman John Christmas took it, but his shot went wide of the cage, and Syracuse took possession. All-America attackman Michael Powell closed out the scoring with an empty-net goal at the :03 mark.

Yevoli led Virginia with four goals. Christmas didn't fare as well - his only points came on a goal early in the second quarter - but the third member of U.Va.'s starting attack, two-time All-American Conor Gill, said the freshmen will benefit from the experience.

"A lot of these young guys, especially Joe and John, haven't seen defenders" like Syracuse has, Gill said. "I think they learned today they could play with them."

Virginia's next game is against defending national champion Princeton. The Cavaliers play host to the Tigers next Saturday at 1 p.m.

Desperation motivates Cavs
U.Va. hoping victory tonight seals NCAA bid

Even if Cole Field House were not closing, tonight's game would be compelling. The teams' first meeting, Jan. 31 in Charlottesville, guaranteed that.

Maryland, down nine points with 3:22 left, rallied to stun then-No. 8 Virginia 91-87, a collapse from which the Cavaliers - now unranked - didn't fully recover until Thursday night, when they upset No. 3 Duke at University Hall.

That Jan. 31 game was notable not only for the Terrapins' remarkable comeback but for the harsh words exchanged by coaches from each team - the ACC later reprimanded U.Va. assistant Walt Fuller for leaving the bench - after a second-half incident halted play for several minutes.

Maryland's coaches were angry that Virginia players Keith Jenifer and Travis Watson lingered in front of the visitors' bench after a timeout was called. The Cavaliers' coaches were upset by elbows Maryland forward Byron Mouton threw at Watson and incensed that Terrapins coach Gary Williams and Jimmy Patsos, one of his assistants, cursed at Jenifer, who responsed in kind.

Jenifer, who's from nearby Baltimore, can count on the warm and fuzzy reception that Maryland fans are renowned for giving visiting players. But that's only one story line in tonight's game between second-ranked Maryland (14-1, 24-3), which has won 11 straight, and Virginia (7-8, 17-9), which has lost 7 of 10 and is battling to make the NCAA tournament.

To wit:

This is the final home game for Maryland's seniors, a stellar group that includes guard Juan Dixon, center Lonny Baxter. Chris Wilcox, a 6-10 sophomore who figures to be an NBA lottery pick if he leaves school this year, might also be playing for the last time in College Park, Md.

The Terrapins, who have clinched the ACC's regular-season title, want to make sure they're awarded a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. They're probably OK no matter what happens tonight, but a victory would only strengthen their position.

Scores of former Maryland players will be on hand for ceremonies honoring 14,500-seat Cole, which was dedicated Dec. 2, 1955, with a game against Virginia, coincidentally. The Terrapins will move into the 17,100-seat Comcast Center next season.

The new arena will have every modern touch, but "Cole Field House has been one of the great venues in sport, and college basketball in particular," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "I have always considered it an honor to go up there and play not just against Maryland, but in that grand old building."

Finally, of course, tonight's game is an opportunity for Virginia to seal its postseason fate. If the Cavaliers beat the Terps three nights after upsetting the nation's third-ranked team, they'll be assured a spot in the NCAAs. If they lose, they'll probably have to win at least one game in next weekend's ACC tourney to secure an at-large bid.

"This is a game that we need desperately," said junior guard Roger Mason Jr., who grew up in Silver Spring, Md.

The Cavaliers were desperate Thursday night, too, and fought back after trailing 76-61 with 7:35 left. In a span of about seven minutes, U.Va. outscored Duke 21-1.

"During that stretch, that's how we're capable of playing," said Mason, who led Virginia with 22 points. "We haven't lived up to it, we haven't played the way we can, but that stretch we did."

No one needs to remind the Cavs that had they not lost to Maryland on Jan. 31 - or to Florida State on Feb. 20 or to Georgia Tech on Feb. 23 - they wouldn't be worrying about making the NCAAs. Still, Mason noted, "we can't get those games back. We just have to look to the future."

The victory over Duke, Mason said, "is one step for us. Nobody cares about us right now, whether we lose or win. Duke didn't care that we were on a slide, Maryland's not going to care. . . . We just have to take whatever momentum we have and go with it."

Maryland has wrapped up the ACC regular season title and almost certainly will be a top seed in the upcoming NCAA tournament. Virginia appears to have much more at stake tonight during the final game at Cole Field House. Yet, the second-ranked Terrapins say they still have plenty to play for.

With a victory, Maryland (24-3, 14-1 ACC) would have the best regular season in school history and would finish the season unbeaten at home for the fourth time since Cole opened its doors in 1955.

Throw in that tonight also is the final home game for four seniors – including three-year starters Juan Dixon and Lonny Baxter – and that Virginia probably needs another victory to secure an NCAA tournament bid, and the atmosphere promises to be charged.

"It's going to be electrifying," Dixon said. "The fans are going to go crazy. Last game at Cole. I don't think we're going to have a problem getting up for this game."

Maryland had thought it would need a victory tonight to wrap up the ACC regular season title and the top seed in next week's conference tournament. But Virginia's 87-84 upset of third-ranked Duke this past Thursday night allowed the Terrapins to clinch the title; they will play Clemson or Florida State in a quarterfinal game Friday.

"It was a funny feeling," Maryland Coach Gary Williams said. "In my mind, we're going to have to win a game Sunday to win it outright, and then all of a sudden, it changed pretty quickly."

Still, Williams and his players have other goals that can be achieved tonight. A victory would allow Maryland to eclipse the best regular season record in school history, 25-4 in the 1998-99 season. Williams has spoken to his players about accomplishing as much as possible, not wanting them to look back and not be satisfied with the season.

"This is the first stage," senior forward Byron Mouton said. "Winning the ACC tournament is the next stage. We're trying to get as many championships as we can."

Williams's "goal is to win 30 games, that's the main thing. This is the type of team that is so talented, there are so many options.

"We've got the ability to win the national championship. . . . Twenty-five [wins] is good. But to win the national championship, you need 30-plus."

Several events are scheduled for tonight. The team's seniors will be honored before the game. The 1955-56 team, the first to play at Cole, and the 1957-58, the first to play in the NCAA tournament, will be recognized at halftime. After the game, several former all-American and all-ACC players will be acknowledged. If the Terrapins win, it seems likely they will cut down the nets to celebrate.

With all of those activities, it would seem possible Maryland would be distracted. But Williams remembered his team's ability to focus in a similar situation two weeks ago, when it beat Duke, 87-73.

"There might have been more [going on] with that game," Williams said. "Locally, there is a lot of hoopla [this week], but nationally there was more [for Duke]. We did a pretty good job with that game. Any experience is good if you learn from it. I thought our guys handled it well."

While Maryland has surged over the past two months, Virginia (17-9, 7-8 ACC) had been in a lengthy free fall, losing seven of nine games before stunning Duke. While that victory seemed to rejuvenate the Cavaliers' NCAA tournament chances, the consensus among observers is that they need at least one more victory to secure an at-large invitation. Winning today would give Virginia a .500 record in ACC play and almost certainly would make it worthy of a bid.

"I think if they did, they would have a pretty good argument for the NCAA tournament," Williams said. "I think it's a game they really want to win. But you don't know. It's been an amazing year in college basketball, trying to predict how a team would play. All we can do is get ourselves ready to play."

Maryland's players remember their first meeting this season against Virginia, when the Terrapins erased a nine-point deficit in the final three minutes and won 91-87. That was near the beginning of an 11-game winning streak, during which Maryland has raised its play to a high level.

"It was a tough game down there," Dixon said. "We have a lot of confidence, but we're not cocky at all. We know where to draw the line. Each time we step on the court, we believe we can win the game. You've got to have that confidence."

Cole Field House today slips into the past tense, a thought difficult to fathom for far more than the 14,500 fortunate enough to attend the official goodbye. Even now, 47 years after opening its doors and welcoming the best in sports, entertainment, politics and academia as well as anyone who simply wanted to drift in for some laps around its upper-level walkway, old Cole has a unique aura.

"One of those magical institutions," said Jim Kehoe, who coached track and served as Maryland's athletic director during times of turmoil and triumph. "Right up there with Yankee Stadium, Wrigley Field and Fenway Park."

Cole gained icon status in basketball long ago. John Wooden won a national championship there, in 1970; and Adolph Rupp lost one there, in 1966, a game made more memorable because Texas Western won after starting an all-black lineup for the first time in such an important game.

"That's the game that sparked my interest in basketball," said Len Elmore, one of the half-dozen greatest players at Maryland. "I'd started my growth spurt [that would end at 6 feet 11], but still was mostly playing baseball. There were the cultural implications, of course, and kids in my [New York] neighborhood who'd never played suddenly wanted to be Bobby Joe Hill and David Lattin."

Later at Cole, Dean Smith earned three trips to the Final Four. Lefty Driesell used Cole to lift Maryland to the highest level of college basketball.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar played at Cole, when he still was known as Lew Alcindor, and that game, a monumental upset by one of the earliest of Morgan Wootten's great DeMatha teams, might well be the most famous in the history of high school basketball.

Jerry West slept at Cole, in a small dorm-like area even higher than the walk-around level, when he and another West Virginia high school hotshot made a recruiting visit in 1956. At 2 a.m., they left their beds, turned on the lights at Cole and shot baskets.

"If you played high school ball in [the Washington/Baltimore area], your dream was to play [in the various city and state tournaments] in Cole," said Billy Jones, whose Towson High teams won the state title his junior year and lost in the final as a senior. "I wanted to play at Maryland, and Cole had a lot to do with it."

Jones had a modest three-year career at Maryland starting in 1966. But he holds an important distinction in college basketball, as the first black player in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Julius (Pete) Johnson arrived at Maryland, from Fairmont Heights High, at the same time Jones did but sat out his first season of eligibility.

"I was too naive, so [breaking racial barriers] was not on my mind," Jones said, "until Coach [Bud] Millikan mentioned that's what would be going on. It still was the right thing to do. The basketball court was sort of a safe haven, although I remember a ball going out of bounds [during warm-ups] at South Carolina and getting called one of those names.

"I knew there were some limitations in some other places, like Miami and New Orleans. Some of the guys once were going to shoot pool [to kill time hours before a game]. I was going to join them, but I thought that wasn't the right place to be so I stayed in the hotel."

Also, Cole in 1975 was where the first women's college basketball was televised nationally. Maryland lost to then-powerful Immaculata.

As famous as Cole became in college basketball, hosting two NCAA finals and six regional tournaments, it was so much more. And a proper appreciation of history by school officials would have had banners devoted to international track as well as college wrestling and swimming joining the ones for basketball.

For 11 years starting in 1970, Cole was the site of an indoor track meet topped by only those held at Madison Square Garden. Dick Buerkle of Villanova set a world record for the indoor mile at Cole. So did Lee Evans in the 500 meters.

Kip Keino of Kenya ran in Cole, as did Marty Liquori and Steve Prefontaine. A Terrapin, Renaldo (Skeets) Nehemiah, was as good as any of them in his event, the high hurdles. Had the U.S. not boycotted the 1980 Olympics in Moscow and Nehemiah won as expected, he would have been as celebrated as any Maryland athlete: Bias and Elmore, Tom McMillen, John Lucas, Joe Smith and Steve Francis in basketball and Randy White in football.

Cole hosted five NCAA wrestling championships. In 1990, the NCAA held both its wrestling and women's volleyball tournaments at Cole.

Yet there was much more. Cole was packed in 1972 for a Ping-Pong match, the first sporting event between the U.S. and China. Elvis performed at Cole. At one of his shows there, Bob Hope asked the crowd if it would be all right for his son to join him on the stage. No one much minded until Hope fibbed that his son was a student at Maryland's great rival at the time, Georgetown.

Parade after parade of Maryland students each year have marched inside Cole and gotten their degrees during graduation. Speakers have included Hillary Clinton and Kermit the Frog.

Cole also was quiet respite for basic exercise. In the five winters since his liver transplant, Wootten and wife, Kathy, have gone into Cole four times a week for two-mile constitutionals.

It's not going anywhere yet. The school has not determined Cole's fate, but it is known that, by next fall, the Terps will be playing in the new $124 million on-campus Comcast Center.

Its official name is the "William P. Cole Jr. Student Activities Building." It honors a former federal judge who served as the chairman of the school's board of regents. The lack of pretension – no arena, no coliseum, no Fabulous Forum – might have been part of a ploy by the farsighted fellow who got it built into a hillside near the football field for $3.3 million, Harry Clifton (Curley) Byrd.

All the literature about Cole says it was built with student funds. That's true, but with a twist according to Jack Heise, who has been deeply involved with Maryland athletics for well more than half a century. As school president, Byrd had a plan for Cole and other campus buildings, and its cornerstone was the government-funded G.I. Bill after World War II.

According to Heise, Byrd billed the government out-of-state fees for Maryland students, instead of the smaller in-state fees. He put the difference in an escrow account and, over the years, had enough to fund this Student Activities Building that only later included Cole's name.

The General Accounting Office gave its approval, Heise said. But wasn't Cole actually built by government funds?

Byrd envisioned Cole also being used for boxing and ice hockey, according to former Maryland sports information director Jack Zane. But the NCAA dropped boxing before Cole opened – and plans for hockey never developed.

From Ritchie Coliseum, completed in 1931, Cole was an upgrade almost beyond belief.

"Like going from a good high school gym to state of the art," said Tom Young, a former player and assistant coach at Maryland.

For Young and hundreds of other Terrapin basketball players, one of the thrills of their lives was trotting out of that tunnel at the north end of Cole and onto the court for an important game such as tonight's against Virginia.

"All of us going out there together," said Perry Moore, who as a sophomore played in the first game at Cole, against Virginia Dec. 2, 1955, "each of us wearing a towel around our neck – that was part of our ritual back then. Quite a feeling, really got the adrenaline going."

Millikan has no specific memories of that opening game at Cole. That might well be because Maryland won. Almost all coaches remember losses more vividly – and Millikan knew that the Terrapins' first defeat at Cole was in the fourth game, to Rupp-coached Kentucky.

While Millikan, who coached at Maryland for 17 seasons starting in 1950-51, appreciated Cole for all the obvious reasons, he said it never had the home-court advantage he had hoped for. That's because there were no seats from the bottom of the permanent structure to the court.

That and nearly everything else about Maryland basketball changed with the arrival in 1969 of Charles Grice (Lefty) Driesell. Cole became energized as never before, and although failing to achieve Driesell's boast that it could become the "UCLA of the East," Maryland flew back into the national rankings and finished in the top 20 eight of his 17 seasons.

As far as memories of Cole, dozens of Maryland fans will agree with Zane's top three: "Lefty, Lefty and Lefty."

Not that Millikan was a poor coach. Most longtime observers agree that he had few peers as a teacher. And his 1958 team, which won the ACC tournament and was third in the NCAA tournament's East Region, finished No. 6 in the country. He won as many ACC titles as Driesell, one.

But Millikan never achieved the success that seemed possible with Cole as the premier college arena in the country, and he was let go in 1967 and replaced by assistant Frank Fellows. When Fellows could only manage a 16-34 record in two seasons, Kehoe in one of his first major moves as athletic director swept him and his staff out and hired Driesell.

Who knows what might have happened if Fellows had been given another year. His top assistant, Young, went on to win more than 500 games at the Division I level as did his second assistant, Tom Davis. One of his graduate assistants, Gary Williams, has won more than 450 games at the Division I level and, after stops at American, Boston College and Ohio State, led Maryland to even greater heights than Driesell did.

Then and now, few would disagree with Kehoe hiring Driesell. He did it not long after the last of Driesell's great Davidson teams lost to one of Smith's early great North Carolina teams in the NCAA East Region finals at Cole on a last-second shot by Charlie Scott.

In his rec room, Kehoe sold Maryland to one of basketball's premier salesmen. He had as allies two famous hires that year by the Washington Redskins and Washington Senators.

"He said the area would have Vince Lombardi in the fall, me in the winter and Ted Williams in the summer," Driesell said. "That kinda impressed me."

Early on, Driesell would charge out of that tunnel and, as the band played "Hail to the Chief," strut across the court, throw up his arms and wave V-for-victory salutes to adoring fans. When the White House objected, "Hail to the Chief" ceased.

Right away, chairs filled the space between the Cole bowl and the court, and Driesell had the home-court advantage Millikan and Fellows did not. Fans also frequently formed six-deep rows around the walkway up top – and crowds of up to 16,000 inspired the Terrapins and angered fire marshals.

Driesell's memory album of Cole includes beating UCLA in double overtime in 1982, a North Carolina team with Michael Jordan and, naturally, knocking off then-No. 1 South Carolina in the famous 1971 stall-ball game, 31-30, in overtime. Like thousands of Maryland fans, Driesell plays what-if, as in what if Moses Malone had played for Maryland instead of jumping from high school to the pros?

"I'd probably be retired by now with a couple of national championships," he said during a break from preparations for trying to lead Georgia State into the NCAA tournament for the second straight season.

Driesell also thought about that memorial service for Bias and one other touching moment at Cole:

"When I retired, when I left, retired, whatever [during the fallout from the Bias tragedy]. Walked off the court [with his family after a news conference]. Two kind of sad memories."

Everyone on hand tonight, several of whom kept their season tickets after moving across the country so they could attend, will recall why the attachment with Cole became so strong – and wonder how soon, if ever, one will form with the new Comcast Center.