Trifecta

3 games at Comcast today and, in an unequivocal admission of an absence of imagination, I went to all three.

There are worse things then spending the day watching collegiate basketball for six hours. Particularly if you live in College Park, where the first two games offered a chance to watch two top twenty women's basketball in action and the third welcomed Alex Len into the fold.

Let me pause on the men's game first and state what is obvious to everyone who is a true Terps fan: Pe'shon Howard is, on his own, worth the price of admission. His dime-dropping is performance art; geometric designs that befuddle and bedazzle. Howard drew Coach Turgeon's ire after foregoing a layup to flip the ball back to either a trailing Padgett or Pankey to set up a slam. The degree of difficulty of the dish surpassed that of the layup, but Howard clearly enjoys rewarding his teammates' hustle more than putting points on the board.

Len's debut is the story for the win over Albany and he is as advertised. Howard, however, is a very, very good point guard. So now, for the Maryland faithful, what was supposed to be a down year now features a ridiculous scoring machine in Terrell Stoglin, a fantastic assist man and floor leader in Pe'shon Howard, a dangerous, versatile seven footer in Alex Len, and a solid, steady perimeter force in Sean Mosley. Throw in three exceptionally athletic wild-cards (Nick Faust, Mychal Parker, and Ashton Pankey) and the indefatigable effort of James Padgett and there is some room for optimism heading in to conference play beginning with NC State.

But whatever else I saw today at Comcast, the thing that will stick is Elena Delle Donne. My eldest fell asleep shortly before tip-off and I settled in to watch the game knowing nothing about either team on the court. I spent the entire first half wondering what number 11 was doing on Delaware's roster.

I had to wait a few hours to learn the answer, provided in this terrific recent piece by Amy Farnum.

Just wow.