Sports Talk: Don't Forget the Champs

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THAT TROPHY BELONGS to the Maryland Terrapins, and they don't want you to forget it.

As far as they're concerned, when the NCAA tournament starts this weekend, there will be 63 teams trying to break into their house and steal what's rightfully theirs.

Sophomore Kristi Toliver, the hero of the 2006 championship game, promises that they won't give it up without a fight.

"We have to play like the defending national champions that we are," the Virginia native said. "We have to enter the tournament with that swagger and that confidence. Everybody's trying to get what we already have, and we're just trying to keep them from getting it."

A No. 2 seed for the second year in a row, Maryland opens on Sunday against No. 15 Harvard in Hartford, Conn. The Terrapins can thank their 0-4 record against Atlantic Coast Conference rivals Duke (No. 1 seed in the Greensboro region) and North Carolina (No. 1 seed in the Dallas region) for missing out on a top seed. But coach Brenda Frese sees those losses as part of the regimen that gets her team in peak shape for the NCAA tournament.

"Our conference prepares us for any team we're going to face," she said.

And though analysts are quick to point out the Terrapins' struggles against the top teams, the players themselves look at it much differently.

"It doesn't really matter if we got a big win in the regular season or not," she said. "It's all about getting the big win in the postseason."

The Terrapins' early-round draw looks promising. Ivy League champion Harvard was just 15-12 in the regular season. Beat the Crimson and Maryland will face the winner of Texas Christian University and Mississippi. The Terrapins played both earlier this year, beating TCU by 18 points and Ole Miss by 31 points.

But the games get incrementally tougher in the tournament and the bulls-eye on the champ's back steadily gets larger.

"Last year, we didn't have the expectations," Toliver said. "We didn't have the bar set very high for us. To be national champions coming into this year, obviously, the expectations are to go out and win it again. I think that's great. That's the pressure we put on ourselves. We're ready to go out and defend our championship."

This post was written by Express contributor Derek Turner
Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images