4. Maryland
Three top-flight starters are back for the Terps, but it may be a well-traveled newcomer who carries them to St. Petersburg
Posted: Wednesday November 18, 1998 12:21 PM
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A tutorial from Olajuwon
this summer elevated
Ekezie's
game.
John W. McDonough |
In
the championship game of Washington, D.C.'s renowned Nike
"Jabbo" Kenner League on
Aug. 9, Steve Francis scored
32 points to lead his team to the title. Francis drained
acrobatic layups, three-pointers and, in one especially
memorable flurry, dunked on four straight possessions. Late
in the game the 2,000 fans at Georgetown's McDonough Arena
began to chant "Steve,
Steve, Steve" and booed lustily whenever another player
touched the ball. At this point an obvious question arises:
Who the heck is Steve
Francis?
A native of Silver Spring, Md., the 20-year-old Francis
played only one year of high school basketball—as a
5'3" third-string sophomore point guard—because of
injuries and academic woes. He has since grown a foot, and
last season he averaged
25.3 points and 8.7 assists at
Allegany (Md.) Community College, which earned him a ticket to
Maryland, the latest stop on a hoops odyssey that has
included two high schools, a prep
school and two junior colleges in the last five years.
"After all I've been through, I have no doubts I'm
ready for the ACC," says
Francis.
He'll get little argument. According to Francis, former
Clemson coach Rick Barnes, who lit out for the Texas job in
April, phoned the junior guard this summer to say he would
not have left if Francis had chosen the Tigers over the
Terps.
And during a pickup game at Maryland's North Gym in August,
Francis dazzled several of his new teammates when he
outleaped veteran Sacramento Kings forward Chris Webber to
complete an alley-oop
jam.
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| STARTING LINEUP |
| POS. | HT. | CLASS | KEY STAT |
| SF Laron Profit* | 6'5" | Sr. | 15.8 ppg |
| PF Terence Morris | 6'9" | So. | 52.3 FG% |
| C Obinna Ekezie* | 6'10" | Sr. | 12.8 ppg |
| SG Steve Francis | 6'3" | Jr. | 25.3 ppg** |
| PG Terrell Stokes* | 6'0" | Sr. | 4.7 apg |
'97-98 record: 21-11
Final rank (coaches' poll): No. 15
*Returning starter
**ppg as junior college sophomore
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Francis joins the most talented Maryland lineup in more
than a decade, one with justifiable designs on the Final
Four. Senior swingman Laron Profit, the ACC's quickest
player, had a league-best 87 steals last season. Sophomore
forward Terence Morris,
who hit
52% of his field goal attempts (including 35% from beyond the
arc) in '97-98, appears primed for a breakout season. If
Francis and the other perimeter players hit their outside
shots, that will open up more elbow room down low for
senior center
Obinna Ekezie, who was impressive at the world championships in
Greece, where he played for Nigeria and received two days
of tutoring on post play from his countryman, Hakeem
Olajuwon.
Only the Terps' history of postseason failure gives one
pause—Maryland last advanced past the
Sweet 16 in 1975 and has never been to a Final Four. Profit,
however, is determined to prove the Terps can win big
games. As a counselor at Michael Jordan's basketball camp
in Chicago during the summer, he listened to Jordan tell
the story of how he missed
five straight jumpers
toward the end of
Game 6 of the '98 NBA Finals before launching the game-winner.
Later Profit showed similar self-assurance during a staff
pickup game when he nailed the winning jumper over Jordan.
"Mike exudes confidence, and it can't help but rub off
on you," Profit says.
"If our team can develop that kind of attitude, we have a
chance to make
history."
—Tim Crothers
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