Man, how annoyed have the terps got to be? Three year's worth of frustration on par with the Buffalo Bills, getting snubbed on an invite to the tourney in their own backyard, and their heralded all-everything recruit shreds his leg before ever playing a game? 1999 probably wasn't the coolest year for 'em. They look to be a little stronger in 2000, and if some pretty big question marks end up turning in their favor, they could do some damage come May.

By all accounts, freshman Mike Mollot is the real deal; someone who sees the field really well and can follow it up with a quick feed -- something increasingly rare since the influx of offset heads. Attackman Marcus LaChapelle and middie Brian Zeller should benefit from that vision. Zeller, who's at his best when not trying to do everything by himself, has a crank that'll get a lot more mileage when it comes off sharp feeds from behind instead of dodges from out front. LaChapelle should keep the offense greased. He served as the quaterback last season, where he led the team in assists (another reason Mollot could be the missing piece of the puzzle -- LaChapelle led the team with 18). Also look to Mike LaMonica and Chris Malone to fill out the scoring from the midfield, as both had 99's that showed a lot of potential. The rest of the offense is a really big question mark, and that'll be where Maryland's fate rests. Why?

Cause their defense are a bunch of bad-asses. Long poles Jason Carrier and Casey Connor play D the way it should be played: legs first, great communication, and a nasty attitude. Nobody is having a great day against either of them, and David Rose, Kevin Necessary, and Carrington King get to duke it out for dibs on the third attackman. Which means most of the opposition's scoring has to come from the midfield. Yeah, right. senior middie Jeff Shirk wrote the book on short stick D -- the guy flat out never gets burned. He should prove invaluable when matching up against interleague rivals the likes of Jay Jalbert and Hanley Holcomb. By the way, we set the office pool over-under at 2.5 for how many guys get shirkisized a game. Burner Geoff Burnham also has a big presence out there with dogged, physical hounding.
All that D might be needed -- after the departure of Kevin Healy to wall street, the Terps have Pat McGinnis starting in the nets with just 88 minutes of gametime in '99 (although a great 6.13 goals against), but he appears ready to step up. According to Coach Edell he actually has better reaction time and hand speed than Healy.

Basically, the Terps get better as they go from attack to defense, so look for a lot of 9 to 8 games. If Zeller can live up to his potential and Mollot can quarterback the offense with a savvy atypical of freshmen, the terps have a realistic shot of getting as far as the semis. Of course if they don't, with one of the most grueling schedules in division one, it might be a long year.