FanHouse Maryland

At the University of Maryland, where I started teaching a course last semester, the university president just before last Christmas announced that the campus would have to implement a furlough plan -- unpaid leave -- this year because of budget cutbacks from the state due to the economic downturn. Maryland wasn't alone.

Arizona State implemented furloughs. Utah State did the same for all of its 2,995 employees the second week of last month. That followed layoffs at Clemson. Small schools like John Carroll University in Cleveland aren't immune as it, too, forced unpaid vacations on employees.

You can't blame Jim Calhoun if he's whistling "Route 66" over the next couple of days because he certainly loves to travel west. Both of Calhoun's national championship teams, in 1999 and 2004, came out of the West Region. So Calhoun's probably feeling like a million bucks right now -- or $1.6 million bucks, as we all now know he makes (But he's worth it, just ask him.) -- with Connecticut grabbing the top spot out west.

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If Maryland coach Gary Williams earned a nickel for every time he's been left for dead, he'd be able to solve this economic mess with the walk-around change in his left pocket and pay the legal defense fund of the Dallas Cowboys with the money in his right. Pay the man by check, and you'd burn through enough paper that the rain forests would be more aptly known as the rain bushes.

In the seven years since he won Maryland's only national basketball championship, Williams has been fitted for more pine boxes than suits, and yet he's still come back more times than a has-been boxer.

Before March was mad, the ACC was already basketball crazy.

Since 1955, the granddaddy of all conference tournaments has put one heck of an exclamation point on the end of the season, the twist ending to an Oscar-worthy film. Even in an era when six bids out of the league are as routine as Billy Packer ripping apart mid-majors or Mike Krzyewski having a colorful conversation with the referees, the ACC tournament still matters.

And in 2009, the ACC tournament has a to-do list the size of Barack Obama's.

March started days ago. The Madness started Wednesday night.

On an evening where bubble teams could've punched their ticket to the NCAA tournament and boosters could've started humming bars of "One Shining Moment," teams turned down invitations like they were to a wedding without an open bar or the People's Choice Awards.

A memo, fellows. This isn't an invitation to a candlelight dinner with Randy Johnson. "Big Dance" doesn't mean you're cutting a rug with Mark Madsen or waltzing cheek-to-cheek with Mike Tyson.

You actually want to go to this thing.

FSU lost yet another conference game this week against Maryland's football - not basketball - team 27-24. Even though the loss is very disappointing to see, there were a lot of positive things to take from it.

Former 5-star QB Xavier Lee found out he was going to make his first collegiate start about an hour before game time because Drew Weatherford had tendinitis in his ankle (or so they say). The sophomore made the most of his opportunity as he looked great all night. Lee threw for 286 yards with 2 TDs and no interceptions. He made all the throws and played well enough to win, but numerous drops by his receivers hurt the Seminoles again. Lee also contributed 50 yards on the ground and used his mobility to move around until a teammate would break open somewhere. His performance was very encouraging and definitely has opened up a true QB controversy. I would like to see him start again next week against Virginia.

This is very rare, but I really liked the play-calling by whoever that was in the booth. ESPN kept saying that it was Jeff Bowden when they showed FSU's box, but honest to God I didn't see him in there. And from seeing the plays we were running throughout the night, especially in the ground game, I really do question who was calling the shots. In the past, we would abandon the running game as soon as we fell behind. And when I say abandon, I mean absolutely zero running. However, last night we fell behind very early and still ran the ball the entire game and with success. As a team, we had 34 carries for 172 yards. That is over 5 yards a carry. The type of running plays we ran is also what surprised me. There was a lot more misdirection and plays that allow the line time to move guys out of the way. This balance allowed us to rack up 458 yards of total offense. Let's see more of this in the future.

Locked in a tight re-election race with Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley, Governor Bob Ehrlich was tackling the tough questions at a campaign luncheon in Hagerstown on Friday, like how the Ravens will finish this season. When pressed, the Governor said that he expected the team to finish 11-5 and make the playoffs. No word yet on whether or not the O'Malley campaign intends to respond.