Maryland cancels on M. Hoops for next year

For the second year in a row, the Terrapins have crawled back into their nationally televised shell. Maryland has decided to postpone next season's meeting with the Penn men's basketball team at the Palestra, which had been tentatively scheduled for early December. In December 1997, when Penn was playing at the Franklin National Bank Classic in Washington, D.C., Quakers coach Fran Dunphy spoke with both Maryland coach Gary Williams and Kansas coach Roy Williams about the possibility of playing home-and-home series. Penn reached agreement with both schools, and in November the Quakers opened their season with a 61-56 loss to Kansas at the Palestra; Penn will visit Kansas' legendary Phog Allen Field House in early January 2000. Last summer, however, Gary Williams called Dunphy to request that the first Penn-Maryland game in the home-and-home series be moved from the 1998-99 season to the 1999-2000 campaign. Recently, Williams revealed that Maryland would once again have to postpone the Quakers-Terps matchup. "Maryland has asked us to put it off another year," Dunphy said. "They already asked if we would do it again, we've acquiesced to that, so hopefully everything will work out and we'll get them here in the year 2000-2001." Last summer, Maryland postponed its game with Penn because an opportunity arose to play an additional nationally televised game on ESPN. Dunphy expressed the belief that Maryland's decision not to visit the Palestra in '99-00 was based once again on a TV opportunity for the Terps. Chuck Walsh, Maryland's sports information director, said that ESPN regularly approaches Maryland with proposals for made-for-TV games; Walsh, however, could not comment on the exact reason why Maryland had opted not to play Penn next season. According to Walsh, Williams makes the Terrapins' schedule -- which is typically not announced officially until the end of summer -- while consulting Maryland Athletic Director Deborah Yow and the prospective opposing coaches. While Williams has not yet given Walsh the exact reason for Maryland's decision to postpone the Penn game, Walsh maintained that "Gary doesn't duck out of games" and that the contest would eventually be played. While Maryland will not be visiting Penn next year for a non-league matchup, the Terrapins will be participating in the Preseason NIT and the recently conceived ACC-Big 10 Challenge, as well as playing a non-league game with Kentucky. The loss of Maryland on the 1999-2000 Penn schedule is not entirely without an upside for the Quakers. With the recent surprise announcement by the athletic directors of the Big Five schools that the City Series will resume full round-robin play beginning next season, Penn suddenly found itself faced with having to make a scheduling change. While La Salle, St. Joseph's and Temple were all previously slated to play the Quakers, Penn would have had to renege on one of its arranged games to make room for Villanova. Maryland's decision to postpone its contest with Penn thus allows the Quakers to avoid the discomfort of canceling a game. St. Joe's, on the other hand, was forced this week to eliminate Drexel from its schedule next season to make room for a Big Five contest with the Wildcats, forcing the Dragons to back away from one of their bigger potential gate receipts of '99-00. In addition to the full slate of Ivy games and the complete Big Five circuit of games, Penn is also currently scheduled to play in November's Preseason NIT and will participate in the Cal Bear Tournament over winter break while tentatively awaiting a Terrapins visit in 2000-2001. The Quakers last played the Terps on January 21, 1997, falling 103-73 to Maryland at Baltimore Arena; Penn, however, holds a 12-2 edge in the all-time series against the Terrapins.

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