With Debbie Yow’s move to NC State, an era has ended at the University of Maryland.  Obviously this is pretty big news and as such, I feel we here at Turtledroppings.com should have some sort of opinion on it.  I mean if you have a blog you have to be passionate one way or the other, right?  You either praise or bash, but to tell you the truth the word to best describe my disposition tonight is “apathetic”.

Kind of weird, our AD is leaving for NC State, that should pull some kind of emotion out of me, but I just can’t find it.  Should I feel betrayed?  I don’t know, I kind of understand where she is coming from.  If I were the AD at NC State and had a chance to come back to my native state of Maryland, I probably would too, so I can’t blame her for that. 

Debbie Yow has sort of been a polarizing figure here at Maryland.  There have been some great accomplishments under her reign.  I think it’s been…what …19 NCAA Championships since she has been here?  Including Men’s Basketball, Men’s Soccer, Woman’s Basketball, Field Hockey, and of course Woman’s Lacrosse.  That is certainly quite a haul for the old Trophy Case.

But there has also been some questionable moves.  First and foremost the selling of Football games.  This is a particular thorn in the side of this group of Maryland fans since this occurred during our time at Maryland.  Sure it may help to balance the budget, but selling games doesn’t just raise the white flag, it takes away memories that we never got to have as students. 

Also though I am not a big Lacrosse Fan, nor Lacrosse Expert, the whole Dave Cottle hiring seemed to be handled poorly.  That hire aggravated a lot of people and in the end turned out to be the wrong decision, so you can put that down as a black mark.  Finally there have been the feuds she has had with Gary Williams and Ralph Friedgen.  Though neither man is perfect, they are two people you want to be in sync with your AD.

So I guess all there is to do is wish Debbie Yow good luck.  It is often hard to tell from reading whether or not sarcasm is being used, but I assure you that wish is sincere.  The Terps now need to shift their focus to finding a new AD.  And that is the fun part.  I haven’t heard too many names mentioned and though the search is to begin immediately, I don’t see this wrapping up anytime soon.  And it shouldn’t.  This is a great job and we should hold out for as long as possible until we find our dream candidate.  After all, it is June, it’s not like we have Homecoming and Midnight Madness right around the corner. 

So with the loss of Yow, I’m kind of indifferent, but hopefully whoever ends up replacing her can generate a strong response from the fan base.  Preferably a strong POSITIVE response, but when you write a blog, as long as people are passionate with the reponse, business will be good!

Not to steal the thunder from Greivis after a great night but it has been reported by multiple news sources that Debbie Yow will be accepting the North Carolina State Athletic Director position today in Raleigh.   Yow is a native of North Carolina and a graduate of Elon University.  Her  sister was the head women’s basketball coach prior to her passing int 2009.  Yow had been the second longest tenured AD in the conference and when hired in 1994 was the first female AD in the history of the ACC. 

Because of President Mote’s upcoming retirement, the search for a new AD could take some time.  However, Connecticut’s current AD, Jeff Hathaway has been a rumored top choice.  He is a Maryland graduate and worked within the athletic department at Maryland from 1982 to 1990.

4 Maryland baseball recruits have been selected in the first two days of the MLB First Year Player Draft.  Their prize shorstop, Cito Culver, from NY was selected by the Yankees at the end of the first round.  3 other players including, Patrick Leyland, the son of Tigers Manager, Jim Leyland, have been selected within the first 5 rounds.  The rumors are that all will go pro.  MD also has commitments from the top two players in the state who have yet to be picked but might be in the later rounds.  Check out the story at Testudo Times.

http://www.testudotimes.com/2010/6/8/1508131/four-maryland-baseball-commitments

The Maryland Woman’s Lacrosse rallied today from a 6-0 hole to beat the defending Champion Northwestern Wildcats.  Not only is Northwestern the defending champs, but they have won 5 straight National Championships coming into today’s match up.

Caitlyn McFadden scored the 12th goal of the day for the Terps with just over 5 minutes left.  The 12-10 lead proved to be enough.  Northwestern got it to 12-11 with just under 3 minutes left, but an insurance goal by Sarah Mollison a minute later sealed the deal for the Terps.

For Maryland this is their 11th National Championship.  Congratulations to the Lady Terps, this is truly an achevievement to be proud of.  It is also another National Championship for the University of Maryland.  That certainly won’t hurt our Sears Cup Standing.

I was going to wait until the end of the Maryland and Syracuse Ladies Lacrosse Semi Final.  That was when the score was 8-4.  The Terps have since rolled off 6 more goals and currently lead 15-5 with just over 2:00 minutes remaining in the game.  With the win at Johnny Unitas Stadium, Maryland will face the winner of North Carolina and defending champion Norwestern on Sunday at 5:30 PM on CBS College Sports.  That is 613 for those of you with Directv.  Not that women’s lacrosse is a big story, it is none the less a story, and anytime a Maryland team gets to play for a National Championship, it is a good thing.

The Terps turned away a pesky Hofstra team 11-8 to move to the Elite 8.  The Terps, taking a cue from Gary Williams Basketball Team are now 12-3 in first round NCAA action.  They will travel up to New Jersy next Saturday to take on Notre Dame who knocked off Princeton.  This will be interesting for Will Yeatman who transfered from Notre Dame to Maryland. 

On the woman’s side, the Lady Terps left no one doubting who the better team was on Saturday crushing Marist 20-5.  Maryland unloaded 46 shots in this lopsided affair.  46 shots was the 4th most shots ever in a woman’s NCAA Lacrosse game.  In fact had Marist shot 100% on the day they still would have come up just over half of Maryland’s goal title (11 shots).  Maryland will play again next weekend at Ludwig field against Penn.

Extra Droppings:

Those Volkswagon commercials really annoy me.  The idea is that you punch someone for a “Punch Buggy”, not a volkswagon.  No one hits someone because they just saw a Jetta!

As the Terps move into the Post Season for Lacrosse, once again the story on the field is dwarfed by the events off of it.  The Murder of one UVA female Lacrosse player, by a member of the UVA Men’s team is a story that doesn’t appear to be going away anytime soon.  And it shouldn’t.  The story is a real tradegy that has left a young woman’s life cut short.  But regardless of the misfortune, the sport must move on. 

And that is exactly what is going to happen this weekend.  The Terps earned a #3 seed and will face Hofstra this Saturday at noon in College Park (ESPNU).  The Terps finished the season 11-3 and are looking to move deep into May.  The Terps are favored to make it to the Final Four on Memorial Day Weekend, much like previously mentioned UVA.  The Cav’s earned a #1 overall seed and will play Mount St. Mary’s.  Syracuse took the #2 seed, while the 4th seed went to UNC.  For those keeping score that is 3 of the top four spots going to ACC. 

Over on the woman’s side of the bracket, the Lady Terps took the number 1 overall seed.  The Terps will face Marist on Saturday at Ludwig field.  This is the Terps first overall #1 seed since 2001, when they last took home the title.  We here at Turtledroppings wish both the Men and Woman good luck going into this weekend, and hopefully beyond!

Extra Droppings:

Anyone else hear the story about Ken Griffey Jr. falling asleep in the Seattle Clubhouse during a game?  It sounds like the set up to a joke about the M’s struggling offense, but it is actually a true story.  Check it out on ESPN Here and try not to crack up while reading the article.  The funny thing is, if this was Barry Bond’s I would be completely offended, and probably be in the middle of a rant right now, but  because Griffey is so likeable, all you can do is smile!

Since it is raining this morning, I am not about to go out and jog, so I figured I would post some notes on all things Maryland.   There is not a lot of major news out there, but there are some things worth noting.

First of all, we all know this site was started for Terps Football and Basketball, but there are two defending National Champions from the University of Maryland that deserve a mention as there seasons get started.  First Missy Meharg and her Field Hockey team opened the season ranked #1 and won 3-0 vs. Ohio in the Wildcat Classic on Northwestern’s campus.  Then on the soccer pitch, (wanted to make it sound like I really know futbol instead of football) the Men’s soccer will open its season against UCLA Friday at 8:30 PM vs UCLA.  This should be a good match up of two top ranked teams at Ludwig Field.  Sasho Cirovski has brought in another highly rated class to help restock the team after last years graduating class and early defections to pro ball.

I just thought I would throw a little support to two of the Terps more successful programs, but on to the other football.  There is mention in a couple of the local papers that Davin Meggett has really improved this year, and is going to be running back 1A on the depth chart.  Look for this to be similar to Ball and Lattimore from a few years ago, only Da’ Rel Scott really has that home run speed to bust a big play.  Also it is being reported by Jeff Barker that true Freshman Danny O’Brien is the third string QB.  Ralph Friedgen told Patrick Stevens of the Times, that Nick Ferrara will be handling the long FG attempts, and he may not make a decision on the other kicks until game time.

One final note is regarding basketball recruiting.  Matt Bracken has post on his blog stating Scout.com currently has Maryland as the #7 overall incoming recruiting class.  And here is the real kicker.  If they can land Tobias Harris out of New York, they could go as high as #2.  It has been a while since the Terps have been in the upper echelon of any kind of basketball recruiting rankings so that is great to see.  Though keep in mind none of these kids have actually signed yet, so I will hold the euphoria until signing day!

So there are some quick notes for you, if the weather stays this bad, I might see if there is any other news worthy info.

It was only a matter of time when you think about it.  The economy is in a tough spot and when stuff like this happens, the first things to get cut are the non essentials.  Of course the term “Non Essential” is a relative term.  For example for the University of Maryland, non essentials are sports.  For me, I think it would be salary’s for the TA’s who don’t speak English.  But that’s just me and I don’t make the decisions at College Park….yet!

But however we got here, the Baltimore Sun is reporting that the chickens have came home to roost at old UMD (hopefully I got that saying correct).  For the big three some changes are going to be made.  For example to reach the 3.1% reduction in spending the Terps Football team is going to be driving instead of flying to Durham when they take on the Blue Devils.  The Football Program will also not be printing out media guides, but providing them on CD which will save an additional 100 K.  I had no idea they were so expensive! 

The cuts for the Men’s Basketball Team will be 3.1% as well (for $137,000) and for Woman’s basketball the cuts will be 2.4% (for $61,000).  How those programs arrive at those reductions will be up to them and they won’t be determined until later this fall.  For the “Olympic” sports, the cuts will be made at 9%.

It is our hope that these cuts will be temporary, and the funds will be restored and thensome once the economy eventually turns around.  But we’ll see, in the mean time the Terps Athletic Department has to tighten their belts just like the rest of us.  Hopefully the results on the field won’t be affected, though look for a particularly nasty post on td.com if we were to show up slugish when we take on Duke this season.

The Maryland Baseball Team named Vanderbilt Assistant Erik Bakich as it’s replacement for Terry Rupp today.  What is impressive (considering the mediocre records) is this is only the Terps sixth head coach in 116 years.  What does Bakich bring to the table?  It appears he has done very well recruiting for Vanderbilt over the last seven years.  While there he added top 25 classes all seven years, had the top rated class in 2005, and the second rated class in 2009. 

I wish Mr. Bakich lots of luck.  He was comparing his early days at Vanderbilt to Maryland’s current situation.  I am not sure how many scholarships the Commodores have, but it appears they give out their full allotment of 11.7.  If Maryland wants to compete in the ACC, they have to be fully funded. 

Bakich is young, has a little knowledge of the ACC (was a volunteer assistant for Clemson before going to Vanderbilt), and has a track record for recruiting.   He says he wants to concentrate on in state players and really lock down the state.  To me that sounds like Debbie Yow is saying your recruiting budget is next to nothing.  Only time will tell, and if history is any indication, Bakich is going to be around for a while to try and turn around the program.