BALTIMORE, Maryland February 18, 2016 - Maryland's Big Ten basketball game at Minnesota tonight will begin with the Terrapins one win away from being back in a three-way tie for first place in the conference with the days - and number of remaining regular season games - dwindling down to a precious few. Thanks to losses by both Indiana and Iowa, the Terps are tied in the loss column with their two season-long rivals for Big Ten supremacy. The No. 4 Hawkeyes bit the dust again on Wednesday night when they fell at Penn State, 79-75. The Nittany Lions had earlier beaten Indiana and came close to beating Maryland in College Park. On that night, which was the first regular season game for both teams, Maryland was saved by Diamond Stone's 39 point explosion. Stone will not play in tonight's game in Minnesota because he is serving a one-game suspension arising out of his conduct in Maryland's last game, Saturday night in College Park in a loss to Wisconsin. Stone pressed the Badgers' Vitto Brown's face into the floor after Brown and Stone tumbled down together after struggling for a rebound. At the time it did not appear to be a major incident, as neither player was ejected. But it has been made into a major incident by Maryland and the Big Ten. Maryland Coach Mark Turgeon imposed the suspension, which had to be the most serious penalty considered. Turgeon's action may have been prompted by the conference, which was at least hinting it would take action if Maryland did not. Nobody was hurt in the very brief incident, and no punches were thrown, no blood was let and, as stated, the three Big Ten officials did not see fit to eject anyone, which may have been due to the aggressive treatment Stone was subjected to by the win-starved Wisconsin team. Turgeon announced Wednesday that, for tonight's game, Damonte Dodd would return to the starting position he had lost to Stone. Michael Cekovsky, the 7'1" Slovakian sophmore, will move up to the top front line reserve that Dodd had been holding down. Ivan Bender, a 6'9" freshman from Bosnia, will move up to the second front line reserve usually manned by Cekovsky.
Going into tonight's game, Indiana and Iowa are tied for first in the Big Ten with 11-3 conference records. Maryland is one-half game behind both leaders with its 10-3 Big Ten mark. Wisconsin has catapulted into fourth with an 8-4 conference record. Immediately behind Wisconsin are three teams with 9-5 conference records. They are Michigan, Purdue and Ohio State. Next is Michigan State, which hosts Wisconsin tonight. The Spartans are 8-5. The rest of the conference is below .500 in league play.
Soccer: Burnley - with two of its next three games against teams facing relegation - looks to move into certain promotion position.
Burnley did not lose in January or February in the Championship League, and now stands just two points out of second place. The Claret won 3 matches and drew in another to pick up ten huge points during the first month of the year. They have earned five more points so far this month, and have not lost in Championship play since last year.
Burnley hosts Rotherham Saturday at 3 pm local time (10 am EST) as they begin a stretch of three Championship matches in 8 days. The Claret take on Nottingham Forest on Tuesday and Bolton next Saturday. Both Bolton and Rotherham are entrenched in relegation position while Nottingham Forest stands in tenth place, 14 points behind the Claret. As the table stands now, Hull City, which just lost to Burnley, leads the Championship with 60 points, followed by Middlesbrough - which also fell to Burnley in January, albeit in an FA Cup match. Middlesbrough has 58 points. Brighton has, for the moment, taken a short lead on Burnley and stands in third place with 57 points, while the Claret are in fourth with 56 points. The teams that finish first and second in the Championship are automatically promoted to the Premier League. The third through sixth place finishers enter a tournament, with the winner becoming the third team to earn promotion. The other three teams return to the Championship League next season.
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