There's something to be said for hype.
At least, that's what Maryland is hoping.
The sixth-ranked Terrapins have moved from a last-place preseason conference ranking last year to a second-place ranking this year. And Steve Francis, a junior college transfer who few have even seen play, made the preseason All-ACC second team.
For a club that has rebuilt from crippling NCAA sanctions eight years ago, it's quite an achievement.
"Every team dreams about [the ranking]," said senior Laron Profit. "You're in college and you're looked at as one of the best five teams in the country-that's great for people to think of you that way. It means that the program's come a long way."
Maryland, which is ranked only behind Duke in the preseason conference polls, thinks it has the potential to pass the Blue Devils.
"You have to give Duke credit," Profit said. "They won the last two league titles so why shouldn't they be the No. 1 team? But every year we get out the magazine, look at the preseason rankings, look at the rankings at the end of the year and they're never the same."
Along with seniors Obinna Ekezie and Terrell Stokes, Profit is a returning starter from last year. The trio has a combined 204 career starts and is poised to lead the team.
Profit, who will probably start at small forward, led the team last year in scoring average at 15.8 and steals per game with just under three.
"Laron has really matured for his senior year," said coach Gary Williams. "He's really worked well with the young guys and he's not afraid of them taking away time from him. When he shoots the ball well, he's as good as anybody in his position."
For a player who entered Maryland with all of two years of basketball experience behind
He improved further this summer, playing for Hakeem Olajuwon on the Nigerian team at the World Championships in Athens, Greece.
"Each year he's made a significant advancement in his game," Williams said. "He's a little more patient offensively. Last year he'd catch it and he would have already made up his mind what he was going to do, whether he was double-teamed or not. "
Compared to Stokes, Ekezie's journey at Maryland seems easy. A six-foot point guard, Stokes came to Maryland from the streets of Philadelphia, where he was caught selling drugs as a young teenager and took a stray bullet in the knee. Last season, a disastrous conference opener against Clemson prompted an "Expel Terrell" chant on campus, and the temporary loss of his starting job.
He rebounded the rest of the season, however, finishing with a school single-game assist record (14) and averaging 7.3 points and 5.7 assists in the NCAA Tournament.
This year, Stokes will be challenged once again at point guard-this time by junior college All-America Francis.
And although Francis grew up only 15 minutes from campus in Takoma Park, Md., his path to the University has been the most convoluted of all. College Park will be his sixth campus in six years, including two public high schools, a prep school and two junior colleges.
Now that he has arrived in Division I, the hype surrounding Francis knows no bounds. He has been compared to Allen Iverson and Michael Jordan, and reportedly alley-ooped over Chris Webber in a campus pickup game. Earlier in the year, he flirted with entering the NBA draft but decided to stay at Maryland.
Although Francis has already accumulated quite a bit of lore, Profit has worked on keeping him grounded in reality in practice.
"He learned he can't guard me," Profit said. "I'm trying to impose upon him that he can gamble. I think he's been a little hesitant to take chances. I got 87 steals last year and it was because I gambled quite a lot. I feel like if I went to Vegas, I would have walked away with some money because I was successful a lot."
Other possible starters for Maryland include sophomore Terence Morris and Mike Mardesich, who looked impressive at the end of last season. For Morris especially, this year is marked as his time to break out.
"I think Terence needed that freshman year to adjust to college and adjust to basketball," Williams said. "Now he's very comfortable and he likes being a college person. You can see it at practice. He smiles more, he laughs more, he's more open around everybody."
In its first exhibition game, a 90-59 victory over the Australian All-Stars, the team certainly seemed to gel. Williams surprised the crowd by starting senior guard Juan Dixon instead of Francis, but Francis enchanted fans in his 19 minutes off the bench, finishing with nine points and four assists.
After exhibition season, the Terrapin's schedule will get drastically more difficult. Before they even see another ACC team, Maryland could face Kentucky twice, UCLA, Xavier and Stanford.
And so, the team is careful not to coast on its preseason hype.
"I think it's all good that people ranked us so high, but we've got work to do," Profit said. "There's been no games played. The scoreboard at Cole reads 0-0. Our record is 0-0."
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