Maryland wins

Kristi Toliver missed her calling. She should have been an assassin.

The three-pointer the Maryland freshman took to send Tuesday night’s NCAA championship game into overtime was cold-blooded. With Alison Bales – all 6-foot-7 of her – in Toliver’s face, the freshman drained the shot.

Then in overtime Maryland twice came from a bucket down to win the title 78-75 over Duke.

A lot had been made of Maryland’s youth – the Terps start two freshman, two sophomores and a junior – and they played like a young team early on. In fact, even when things started going their way in the second half, Maryland looked up and found that it still trailed by double digits.

But in overtime – understand that Maryland had to rally from 13 points down just to get to overtime - freshmen Toliver and Marissa Coleman both hit a pair of foul shots, as did the old timer, junior Shay Doron, and the Terps remained perfect in overtime this year.

Still, I couldn’t help feeling bad for Duke. Gail Goestenkors will have to live with people asking why she can’t win it all. It’s the same questions Roy Williams heard for so long at Kansas before finally winning the title with North Carolina last season.

It’s not fair. Let’s be honest – if Goestenkors wasn’t a great coach she wouldn’t be hearing that question in the first place. And yet, until she wins it all, she’ll hear it.

- Patrick Hite