Terrapins

DENVER (AP) &mdash; Some might say Stan Kroenke and his family would be pulling off the impossible by bringing a long-awaited NBA title to Denver.
Less discussed &mdash; at least these days &mdash; was their willingness, in 1999, to dive into a messy acquisition process for a largely irrelevant franchise that had been considered a relocation prospect as the 21st century approached.
All of the talk of them relocating no longer exists.
Now, the conversation is about how the Nuggets were able to reach their first NBA Finals thanks to the stubborn patience displayed by the Kroenkes, who have taken an unorthodox route toward assembling an unorthodox winner. Denver hosts the Miami Heat in Game 2 Sunday night after&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/miami-heat-denver-nuggets-nba-sports-755531bae7f944958c4225f8d5f54bad">winning the Finals opener</a>.
Kroenke&rsquo;s deal to purchase the Nuggets, along with the Colorado Avalanche and their home arena for $450 million, included a clause that tethered the NBA franchise to Denver for the ensuing 25 years. These days, the Nuggets are estimated by Forbes to be worth $1.93 billion.
&ldquo;One thing I know about Stan is that when he sets his mind to doing something, and when he thinks he&rsquo;s right, he&rsquo;s going to fight for that,&rdquo; said Wellington Webb, who was Denver&rsquo;s mayor in 1999 and helped broker the deal that closed a year later between Kroenke and the Nuggets.
Though Kroenke married into money &mdash; he wed Walmart heiress Ann Walton in 1974, a few years after meeting her during a ski trip to Aspen &mdash; he had already honed his business chops. His first deal: Taking a $1,500 loan at 6% interest from his dad so he could buy part of a clothing shop with his friend.
Not long after, he got into the real estate business, building shopping centers with a developer who was tight with Walmart founder Sam Walton.
Real estate and sports are, these days, almost intertwined &mdash; a reality Kroenke grasped quickly.
&ldquo;I always thought I&rsquo;d enjoy (owning a sports franchise) because the professional sports business is part business and part sports,&rdquo; Kroenke told the Columbia (Missouri) Daily Tribune in 2022, &ldquo;and I love both of them.&rdquo;
Kroenke&rsquo;s representatives did not return messages left by The Associated Press seeking an interview.
His first major jump into sports was his partnership with Rams owner Georgia Frontiere. In the mid-1990s, Frontiere was chafing at the inability of Los Angeles to build a new stadium, She was looking for partners to bankroll a move to St. Louis. Kroenke bought in, and when Frontiere died in 2008, he exercised his right to purchase a majority stake in the team.
The sad irony is that it was Kroenke, the Missouri native, who moved the Rams out of St. Louis and back to LA where they are the main tenant in his $5.1 billion stadium. His connection with Denver &mdash; much different.
&ldquo;One of my dreams was to be involved in a professional basketball team,&rdquo; Kroenke told The Denver Post, shortly after closing the deal for the Nuggets. &ldquo;This is a dream I&rsquo;ve had for a long time.&rdquo;
There is, in fact, a strong argument that the basketball trophy might be the most meaningful for a family that has amassed three Stanley Cup trophies with the Avalanche, a Super Bowl trophy with the Rams and is still looking for glory with Arsenal, the Premier League soccer team it has had a controlling interest in since 2011.
Kroeke&rsquo;s son, Josh, was a standout basketball player in high school and played at University of Missouri. He now runs the Nuggets.
&ldquo;I thought that you could bring a championship to Denver,&rdquo; Josh said in a recent interview on team-owned Altitude Sports Radio. &ldquo;Trying to do something that&rsquo;s never been done before, it&rsquo;s not always easy, and it&rsquo;s usually met with a lot of resistance. ... We&rsquo;re mostly excited for the city to get to experience this. But the job&rsquo;s not done.&rdquo;
The Nuggets were parked squarely in NBA purgatory when the team went on the block in 1999, having not sniffed relevancy since their mid-80s heydey, when the teams were highlighted by coach Doug Moe&rsquo;s uptempo offense. Their situation off the court wasn&rsquo;t much better. In the late &rsquo;80s, then-owner Sidney Shlenker had toyed with the idea of moving the team to Memphis.
His sale to a media conglomerate that was never truly hot on owning sports teams did nothing to tamp the idea that the Nuggets were a team that might be available to move. And teams were moving; Between 2001-08, Memphis (from Vancouver), Oklahoma City (from Seattle) and New Orleans (from Charlotte) all adopted existing franchises in a flurry of NBA reshuffling.
When Denver went on the block, the highest bidder, billionaire businessman Donald Sturm, came in with a $460 million offer, but balked at the idea that he couldn&rsquo;t move the team.
In stepped Kroenke, who had no problem with the arrangement. A side note: To close the sale, Kroenke had to outmaneuver another group fronted by none other than John Elway.
&ldquo;It was clear Sturm wasn&rsquo;t going to work out,&rdquo; Webb said. &ldquo;And my only question was, &lsquo;Is the new guy going to be supportive of the team winning?&rsquo; Because if the arena is full, not only do the owners make money, but city makes money, as well.&rdquo;
The Kroenkes have answered Webb&rsquo;s question with their willingness &mdash; increasingly rare in pro sports &mdash; to play the long game, both on the roster and on the bench.
The roster was built in workmanlike,&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/nba-finals-nuggets-jokic-murray-malone-18329e13dfecae50834ebc06d409027c">no-drama fashion</a>,&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/nba-playoffs-nikola-jokic-denver-nuggets-mvp-lebron-lakers-8e668572f9f43942175ded63e7a61832">highlighted by Nikola Jokic</a>, who entered the league as an unheralded second-round pick from Serbia. The coach, Michael Malone, was hired in 2015, and there was never much talk of making changes after disappointing finishes to their seasons in 2018, 2019 and even last year.
Today, Malone sits behind only Gregg Popovich (Spurs), Erik Spoelstra (Heat) and Steve Kerr (Warriors) &mdash; who have a combined 11 championships on their coaching resumes &mdash; in terms of longevity among the NBA&rsquo;s 30 head coaches.
&ldquo;That has a ton to do with where we are today,&rdquo; Malone said. &ldquo;I couldn&rsquo;t be more thankful for working for an ownership group that is not impatient and is not trying to find the next great thing, but is saying &lsquo;Hey, listen, let&rsquo;s let this grow and marinate into something special.&rsquo;&rdquo;
Despite his family&rsquo;s large role in the Denver sports scene &mdash; the Kroenke business also owns the MLS Colorado Rapids, and the National Lacrosse League&rsquo;s Colorado Mammoth, who lost the deciding game in that league&rsquo;s title series Saturday &mdash; Kroenke has still taken his fair share of criticism around town.
It&rsquo;s a byproduct of his 2004 move to bundle his teams&rsquo; TV rights and air them on company&rsquo;s new regional television network, Altitude.
In 2019, the region&rsquo;s biggest cable operator, Comcast, stopped carrying Altitude due to a disagreement over fees the cable giant was charging to carry the network. The ensuing legal battle has kept the Nuggets off the local airwaves in millions of homes for the last four seasons. The battle between billion-dollar companies has left many average Nuggets fans feeling like the only real losers in the equation.
But whatever bitterness lingers from the cable dispute has mostly been set aside over the past few months. All the playoff games have been on national TV.
Meanwhile, Kroenke stays firmly in the background. He can make it from his apartment at the top of Ball Arena through some back passageways and into his luxury suite to watch games in less than two minutes. Sometimes he brings his German Shepherd along.
&ldquo;I think that not only is he a good businessman,&rdquo; Webb said, &ldquo;but he also feels he has something special in Denver. And I think it&rsquo;s always been his goal to do right by Denver.&rdquo;

Some might say Stan Kroenke and his family would be pulling off the impossible by bringing a long-awaited NBA title to Denver.

Kroenke bought Nuggets, kept team in Denver, now hoping to deliver title

DENVER (AP) &mdash; Miami could blame it on fatigue, or that much-talked-about Mile High elevation. Or maybe this was just one of those nights.
Whatever the reason, the Heat had plenty of open looks in Game 1 of the NBA Finals on Thursday but couldn&rsquo;t knock them down during a 104-93 loss to the Denver Nuggets.
&ldquo;When you look at it during the game, they all look like the right shots and I&rsquo;m not saying that we can&rsquo;t as a team make those, but we&rsquo;ve got to get more layups,&rdquo; said Jimmy Butler, who had 13 points. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s it as a whole. We&rsquo;ve got to attack the rim a lot more, myself included.&rdquo;
The stat lines were hard to fathom: Max Strus, 0 for 10. Duncan Robinson, 1 of 6. Even Caleb Martin, who had a stellar showing in the Eastern Conference finals, wasn&rsquo;t immune. He finished 1 of 7.
Coach Erik Spoelstra won&rsquo;t be saying much other than possibly this: Don&rsquo;t read too much into it.
Just one night.
&ldquo;We also have ignitable guys. You see a couple go through and that also can become an avalanche,&rdquo; Spoelstra said. &ldquo;One way or the other, we have to find a way to get the job done.&rdquo;
This was far from a shooting clinic for the Heat. They did make a flurry of shots in the fourth quarter to show what they can do and make the numbers a little prettier (40.6% from the floor) than they might have been.
Then again, the Nuggets felt they had a little something to do with Miami&rsquo;s wayward aim.
&ldquo;Our guys did a great job of defending without fouling,&rdquo; Nuggets coach Michael Malone said.
Denver committed just eight fouls total, resulting in only one trip to the line by Haywood Highsmith, who made both.
It tied for the fewest free throws made in a playoff game, broke the record for fewest attempts from the line in a playoff game and set an NBA Finals records for fewest free throws made and attempted.
&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t even realize it was two free throws only, and it was only my two free throws,&rdquo; Highsmith said. &ldquo;So that was pretty interesting. I think we were aggressive, but we did shoot a lot of jump shots because we were open.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s weird having two free throws. I&rsquo;ve never seen that before.&rdquo;
Added Bam Adebayo: &ldquo;We made history.&rdquo;
&ldquo;I mean, when we got in the locker room and (saw) the stat sheet,&rdquo; Adebayo said, &ldquo;I feel like we were all shocked that we only had two free throws.&rdquo;
In this make-or-miss league, quite a few of the Heat struggled to get into any sort of rhythm through three quarters.
Sometimes, shots just don&rsquo;t fall. The Heat advanced to the Finals because of Boston&rsquo;s ineffectiveness from the outside in Game 7, when the Celtics were 9 of 42.
On Thursday in Denver, the Heat got a small taste of what it felt like.
&ldquo;I just feel like we took a lot of jump shots, and we missed a lot of them,&rdquo; Adebayo said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re going to watch film and get back to the drawing board.&rdquo;

Miami had many open looks in Game 1 of the NBA Finals on Thursday but couldn’t knock them down in a 104-93 loss to Denver.

Cold Heat: Miami struggles with outside shooting in Game 1 of NBA Finals

DENVER (AP) &mdash; At times, the Denver Nuggets were easy &ndash; sometimes, too easy &ndash; to love, with their rainbow uniforms, their rumpled grumposaurus of a coach and a defense-optional game plan that kept the scoreboard clicking into the 120s and 130s night after night.
At other times, loving them was more difficult, say, during those 50, 60 and 70-loss seasons in the &rsquo;90s that installed a revolving door on the coach&rsquo;s office, or even during a decade-long resurgence in the 2000s when they were led by a fickle superstar who ultimately bailed for New York City.
And even now, with the Nuggets the top seed in the Western Conference, Denver has yet to be mistaken for much beyond an NBA novelty. Such is life in a league driven by superstars who are on a first-name basis with fans &mdash; Magic, Michael, LeBron and Steph &mdash; but never by a team that doesn&rsquo;t win titles, doesn&rsquo;t even play for them, and doesn&rsquo;t get much love even when&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/nba-mvp-jokic-embiid-antetokounmpo-award-finalists-befc47525340c68c47b50cf5ddcfdee5">the two-maybe-three-time MVP</a>&nbsp;is on its roster.
And yet, as any Denver fan of a certain age will tell you, there is something special about the Nuggets. While Denver may obsess over the Broncos, love the Avalanche and tolerate the Rockies, only one team really placed this dusty old cowtown on the map. That&rsquo;s the basketball franchise the NBA plucked from the dying ABA in 1976 to officially turn Denver into not just a major-league city, but a winning one.
&ldquo;There was always a sense of pride that that was the other professional sports franchise in town,&rdquo; said Ron Zappolo, the longtime Denver sports and news anchor, in recalling a long stretch when Denver&rsquo;s big-league teams were the Broncos and the Nuggets. &ldquo;And they never took a back seat to too much. And, yeah, they weren&rsquo;t champions, but they won a ton of games in the &rsquo;80s, and they made it entertaining for everybody.&rsquo;&rdquo;
Their welcome to the NBA came a year before the Broncos &mdash; still B-listers at best and seven years from landing John Elway &mdash; made their first Super Bowl. Denver&rsquo;s biggest sports star at that time: a gap-toothed undersized center with an awkward-but-effective head fake named Dan Issel.
Issel, Bobby Jones and the Skywalker, David Thompson, lost to the Blazers and Bill Walton in the conference semifinals that season. Ever since, part of the price of loving the Nuggets is that the fun always ends early. The Nuggets have been to the playoffs 29 times in their 47 years in the league. They have never played in the NBA Finals.
The player who could change that is Nikola Jokic, a 6-foot-11 force of nature from Serbia who finished 0.2 assists short of averaging a triple-double this season &ndash; something only guards Russell Westbrook and Oscar Robertson have done.
Yet, the national debate this season centers around whether the Lakers, Warriors or Denver&rsquo;s next opponent, the Suns, will win the West. Those discussions feel more like a rite of passage than a true insult in Denver.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been here since the &rsquo;70s, and there&rsquo;s always been a national feeling that what happens in Denver, it&rsquo;s in the Rocky Mountain time zone out there, it&rsquo;s kind of quirky, it&rsquo;s kind of crazy, but, ehhh,&rdquo; Zappolo said.
By 1980, Doug Moe had returned to Denver to take Larry Brown&rsquo;s spot on the sideline. He, along with high-scoring Alex English and Kiki Vandeweghe, made the Nuggets eminently watchable. They averaged more than 120 points a game for five straight seasons. They traded in their &rsquo;70s logo &mdash; a gold-digging mountain man named Maxie Miner &mdash; for those multi-colored rainbow threads with the outline of the Denver skyline. Today, those are among America&rsquo;s favorite throwback unis.
Moe was worth watching all by himself &mdash; a coach whose wry basketball brilliance was on par with his need of a good dry cleaner for his sports coats and a bar of soap for his mouth. Ten years into the gig, he popped champagne at the news conference on the day he was fired. He is still the team&rsquo;s most successful coach, with 432 wins.
What his team could never overcome was the unfortunate fate of sharing the Western Conference with the Lakers. The best Denver team of that era was the 1984-85 squad that fell 4-1 to Magic and Showtime in the conference finals.
Moe&rsquo;s firing led to the indignities of irrelevance that, it could be argued, have bled into today.
There were 12 coaches over the next 14 years. Twice, Issel manned the bench. The first time, Dikembe Mutombo helped the Nuggets rally from 0-2 against Seattle to become the first 8 seed to beat a 1.
George Karl, like Moe and Brown before him a product of the Dean Smith-North Carolina motion system, coached the Nuggets from 2005-13 and made the playoffs every year, including in 2009. That season, they lost to the Lakers and Kobe Bryant in Denver&rsquo;s third trip to the West finals.
Karl&rsquo;s tenure was marked by an uneasy alliance with Carmelo Anthony -- with Kenyon Martin, Chauncey Billups and even Allen Iverson making appearances in attempts to get the Nuggets over the hump. That group made news, but not the finals, and &rsquo;Melo eventually forced his way to the Knicks.
What put the Nuggets in the headlines again is a second-round draft pick whose selection barely registered across basketball or in Denver.
Title or no, the selection of Jokic &mdash; a two-time league MVP and a finalist for a third award &mdash; already&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/denver-nuggets-nba-sports-nikola-jokic-6b7dc34c311b6810ec67c76ee2208c2d">goes down as one of the best personnel moves in the history of the league</a>. Still, the Nuggets have won five and lost four playoff series since Jokic started taking the Nuggets to the playoffs in 2019.
So, as Denver prepares for Kevin Durant and Phoenix, some Colorado natives might be bracing for the worst. Few, however, will turn their backs completely.
&ldquo;There has always been a soft spot for this team,&rdquo; Zappolo said.
And if, after all these years, there really is gold at the end of all those rainbows, a real Nuggets fan would have to see it to believe it.

The top-seeded Denver Nuggets are flying under the radar, but that's nothing new.

Nuggets searching for NBA gold at the end of the rainbows

Shortly after the Sacramento Kings traded Tyrese Haliburton, Buddy Hield and Tristan Thompson to the Indiana Pacers for Domantas Sabonis, Justin Holiday, Jeremy Lamb and a 2023 second-round pick, fans and media (and even some <a href="https://twitter.com/HGiiizzle/status/1491118262570336257" target="_blank" rel="noopener">players</a>) rushed to social media to criticize the Kings&rsquo; decision and express confusion over the move.
Meanwhile, people in NBA circles were doing the exact same thing.&nbsp;
&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t get it at all,&rdquo; said a Western Conference scout. &ldquo;How Tyrese was made available is beyond me. It&rsquo;s puzzling.&rdquo;
&ldquo;The Kings are the worst,&rdquo; texted a league source.
&ldquo;What are the Kings doing?&rdquo; asked an NBA trainer. &ldquo;There has to be another trade.&rdquo;
It&rsquo;s rare for a trade to warrant such a one-sided response among people around the league, but every individual who spoke to BasketballNews.com questioned the move for Sacramento.
It&rsquo;s not a huge surprise that Sabonis landed with the Kings; after all, Sacramento and Washington were the two teams that had been linked to the big man the most, and it had become increasingly clear that the Wizards lacked the assets to complete a deal.
The shocking part was the inclusion of Haliburton. In the weeks leading up to the trade deadline, the Kings were shopping De&rsquo;Aaron Fox, Buddy Hield, Harrison Barnes, Richaun Holmes and Marvin Bagley III among others, but Haliburton wasn&rsquo;t mentioned as a possible trade chip.&nbsp;
In fact, in an effort to silence some of the Fox trade rumors, Sacramento had <a href="https://theathletic.com/news/kings-have-no-plans-currently-to-trade-deaaron-fox-will-center-team-around-him-sources/k4SfP584UQrs/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">leaked to The Athletic</a> that they had every intention of building around their backcourt of Fox and Haliburton going forward. Clearly, that was a lie in order to gain leverage in trade talks.
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The strong reaction has less to do with Sabonis and more to do with the fact that the Kings seemingly lack a long-term plan. After all, Sabonis is a two-time All-Star and he&rsquo;s clearly a very talented player; he&rsquo;s averaging 18.9 points, 12.1 rebounds, 5.0 assists and 1.0 steals this season. But what is the Kings&rsquo; ceiling with Sabonis? The eighth seed and a first-round exit?&nbsp;
Multiple executives said that it feels like Sacramento is mortgaging their future for minimal improvement, especially since they&rsquo;ll still likely miss the playoffs this year (they have the third-worst record in the Western Conference) and potentially next season too.
Also, many NBA executives expect the Kings to make another trade prior to Thursday's deadline.
Haliburton is a 21-year-old with seemingly unlimited upside, and he has a lot of fans around the NBA, so it&rsquo;s not a surprise that many league sources view this trade as a mistake. This season, he's averaging 14.3 points, 7.4 assists, 3.9 rebounds, 2.0 threes and 1.7 steals on .457/.413/.837 shooting splits.
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Kings Reddit is in shock (h/t <a href="https://twitter.com/ActionNetworkHQ?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ActionNetworkHQ</a>) <a href="https://t.co/KvGfbqyCpK">pic.twitter.com/KvGfbqyCpK</a>
&mdash; Hoop Central (@TheHoopCentral) <a href="https://twitter.com/TheHoopCentral/status/1491123100603551744?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 8, 2022</a></blockquote>

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While it seems unlikely, it&rsquo;s possible that this move will work out and the Kings will silence their critics. After all, the last time Sabonis was traded back in 2017, the Pacers were initially ridiculed for that move too.
When Indiana dealt Paul George to the Oklahoma City Thunder for Sabonis and Victor Oladipo, the Pacers were mocked for this return. However, the deal ended up working out since Oladipo and Sabonis emerged as All-Stars and George requested a trade from Oklahoma City after just two seasons.&nbsp;
Two years ago, I <a href="https://hoopshype.com/2020/01/24/nba-rumors-indiana-pacers-front-office-pritchard-buchanan-oladipo-brogdon-behind-the-scenes/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">spoke to</a> Pacers general manager Chad Buchanan and president of basketball operations Kevin Pritchard about the backlash they received following their blockbuster trade.
&ldquo;I remember going back to my room probably around midnight and I was just exhausted. I turned on the TV before trying to fall asleep and we were just getting crushed for the trade,&rdquo; Buchanan recalled. &ldquo;I remember feeling like, &lsquo;Oh gosh.&rsquo; My wife called me and she was like, &lsquo;Uh, you guys really aren&rsquo;t getting much good press for your trade&hellip;&rsquo;"
&ldquo;After we did the trade, we were thinking, &lsquo;Okay, you ready for this avalanche?&rsquo;&rdquo; Pritchard added. &ldquo;I knew that there was going to be some harsh criticisms: &lsquo;Why didn&rsquo;t you get another pick? Why didn&rsquo;t you leverage longer? Why didn&rsquo;t you go [talk] to Boston? Why didn&rsquo;t you go to all these other teams?&rsquo; I knew it was going to come, but I didn&rsquo;t know it was going to come that hard. It came hard from the community, it came hard nationally.&rdquo;
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Pacers owner Herb Simon was very supportive of Pritchard and Buchanan during that time, which made them feel a lot better. Simon told Pritchard that they made the right move and stressed, &ldquo;You&rsquo;re not on an island.&rdquo;
&ldquo;When he said that, I could breathe,&rdquo; Pritchard recalled.
Two years later, the general consensus completely flipped, with the Pacers viewed as the clearcut winners of the trade. Perhaps the same thing will happen this time around, with Kings general manager Monte McNair and his staff getting the last laugh down the road.

As fans and media criticized the Kings' decision to trade Tyrese Haliburton, many NBA decision-makers were doing the same thing.

NBA decision-makers criticize Kings' trade: 'I don't get it at all'

After a recent loss to No. 4 Purdue, the No. 17 Fighting Illini (13-5, 6-2 B1G) visited the Maryland Terrapins with hopes to rebound with a win. Illinois was without junior big man Kofi Cockburn, who has dominated the interior as one of the best centers in the country this season &mdash; averaging 21.1 points and 11.8 rebounds per contest. Cockburn was out due to concussion protocol.
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Maryland (10-9, 2-6 B1G) and interim head coach Danny Manning are led by senior Eric Ayala. The athletic wing is averaging 16.3 points per game, followed by Fatts Russell and Donta Scott who are both averaging 12.0 points per game. Coming into tonight, the Terps led the head-to-head matchup 12-7 all-time.
Scott scored 25 off the bench for the Terps, while the Illinois bench provided only 13 points as a unit. Russell, Hakim Hart and Qudus Wahab combined for 36 for Maryland.
Alfonso Plummer got started early for the Illini by scoring five of the team&rsquo;s first seven points. He flashed a nasty step-back three right off the bat, displaying the tough shot making that has him second in the Big Ten in three-point shooting. Ayala answered soon after with a deep pull-up triple of his own to give the Terps the 18-17 lead.
Maryland took a 37-35 lead into the break behind 10 points from Scott and 8 from Russell and Wahab. Plummer led all scorers at the half with 14, connecting on 4-of-6 from behind the arc.&nbsp;
The two teams started trading threes at the start of the second half, with the game tied 51-51 at the 13-minute mark. Illinois appeared to be gaining momentum, but Maryland never quit and fought their way to a lead with seven minutes to go behind a nice run from Julian Reese. The Terps held a 70-63 lead at the under 4-minute timeout, much thanks to Scott who was a menace on the inside all night &mdash; he led all scorers with 25 points on 9-of-12 shooting from the field.&nbsp;
In the end, the Fighting Illini simply could not get stops when they needed them. Maryland pulled away down the stretch, securing an 81-65 victory. Coach Manning said, "We wanted to create paint touches. With Kofi being out it gave us an opportunity. Our guys continue to grind and work very hard."
Illinois remains winless against ranked teams this season, but the team is still in contention for the conference title. I believe their next game against Michigan State is a must-win.
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UPCOMING
Illinois will host No. 14 Michigan State on Tuesday.
Maryland will visit Rutgers on Tuesday evening.
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The Maryland Terrapins managed an upset at home, taking down Illinois 81-65 behind Donta Scott's 25 points.

Maryland knocks off Illinois behind Scott's big night

Stephen Curry scored 49 points in 29 minutes and matched his season best with 11 3-pointers and the Golden State Warriors beat the Oklahoma City Thunder 136-97 on Saturday night.
Curry shot 14 of 26 overall and 11 of 21 beyond the arc while fans serenaded him with chants of &ldquo;MVP! MVP!&rdquo; as they have ever since being allowed back in Chase Center. He made five 3s in the first quarter, one in the second and five more in the third before sitting out the entire fourth quarter.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
STEPH. BEING. STEPH. 🔥 Curry drains double-digit 👌's for the 7th time this season as he explodes for 49 PTS, 11 3PM and 60 FPTS in 29 minutes. <a href="https://t.co/vv9dAMULxl">pic.twitter.com/vv9dAMULxl</a>
&mdash; NBA Fantasy (@NBAFantasy) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBAFantasy/status/1391257774286323714?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 9, 2021</a></blockquote>

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&ldquo;I appreciate the love,&rdquo; Curry said. &ldquo;Nights like tonight, you want to get off to a good start knowing we should win this game. When you see the first two go down you start to find another level of confidence &hellip; and try to create an avalanche from there.&rdquo;
It&rsquo;s the fifth time in the last 15 games and seventh game overall this season that Curry has had 10 or more 3s in a game, breaking his own single-season record of six set in 2018-19.
&ldquo;It seems like he&rsquo;s just always spectacular these days and tonight he topped it, like really spectacular,&rdquo; Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. &ldquo;When he got going in the third, we had about 4,000 fans in the stands and you could hear ever one of them in anticipation of the ball going into the hoop. It&rsquo;s amazing. He&rsquo;s just an incredible player. In an era where the 3-point shot is king, Steph is the best one of them all.&rdquo;
Draymond Green had 15 points and 13 assists to help the Warriors to their second win over the Thunder in three days. Andrew Wiggins scored 18 points, and Jordan Poole had 16.
Golden State remained a half-game ahead of Memphis for eighth place in the West. The two teams play each other in the regular season finale May 16 at Chase Center.
Svi Mykhailiuk scored 17 points and Luguentz Dort added 16 for Oklahoma City. The Thunder have lost six straight and 20 of 21.
&ldquo;(Curry) puts a ton of pressure (on), even if he starts 0 for 5,&rdquo; Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s what opens everything up for them. He had it going tonight. We didn&rsquo;t do enough.&rdquo;
Curry got hot early and never let up. He scored 24 points in the first quarter &mdash; one fewer than the Thunder had as a team &mdash; and went 7 for 7 on free throws.
That didn&rsquo;t include what was arguably Curry&rsquo;s most dramatic highlight on a shot he wasn&rsquo;t given credit for.
The 33-year-old dribbled behind his back at the top of the arc, drove near the key then flipped an off-balance, one-handed shot off the glass and in, but referees ruled that Curry had been fouled by Josh Hall before getting the shot off.
&ldquo;Steph puts on a show every night,&rdquo; Warriors center Kevon Looney said. &ldquo;Sometimes you take it for granted. It seemed like one play all five guys were holding him and he was able to get up a shot and make it.&rdquo;
After sitting out most of the second quarter, Curry made back-to-back 3s and added another as part of a 19-6 run to start the third.
TWO TWENTIES
In addition to scoring 24 points in the first quarter, Curry poured in 22 in the third. He is the first player in the NBA to have two 20-point quarters in the same game since doing it against the Washington Wizards on Oct. 24, 2018.
TEMPER, BOYS, TEMPER
Green and Oklahoma City&rsquo;s Isaiah Roby were assessed offsetting technical fouls coming out of halftime after both the two exchanged heated words at the end of the second quarter. Players from both teams were headed to their respective locker rooms when Green and Roby got into the verbal altercation.
TIP-INS
Thunder: Ty Jerome did not play after waking up with a calf strain. &hellip; This marks the first time Oklahoma City has been swept in the season series with Golden State since 2016-17.
Warriors: Curry has scored 40 or more in 10 games this season. &hellip; Eric Paschall has been able to scrimmage some with his teammates but remains doing mostly individual and conditioning drills as he works his way back from a left hip flexor strain. Paschall has missed 19 games because of the injury.
UP NEXT
Thunder: Take a short trip north to Sacramento on Sunday for the first half of a back-to-back against the Kings. The teams play again at Golden 1 Center on Tuesday.
Warriors: Face the Utah Jazz on Monday night. The two split a pair of games earlier this season, the home team winning each time.
___
More AP NBA: https://apnews.com/tag/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

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The University of Maryland has a history of not recruiting local talent.&nbsp;
I&rsquo;m not from Maryland, but I have lived in Prince George&rsquo;s County for 20 years now since coming here to play with the Washington Wizards back in 2001. I&rsquo;ve never understood why the Maryland Terrapins refuse to take advantage of the incredible talent that&rsquo;s surrounding them.
On New Year&rsquo;s Eve, former DeMatha standout Hunter Dickinson absolutely shined against the Terps to the tune of 26 points, 11 rebounds and 1 block (while shooting 10-11 from the field and 6-7 from the free-throw line). The 7-foot-1 center completely dominated the game.&nbsp;
Don&rsquo;t get me wrong: Maryland played a good game right up until the end of the second half when Michigan pulled away. The final score, 84-73, definitely isn&rsquo;t indicative of the quality of the game. Maryland had great play from Donta Scott, Eric Ayala and Jairus Hamilton in particular, but Hunter was just too much to deal with down low. He scored on an array of duck-ins and post moves that made every old-school big across the country proud. Two feet in the paint, jump hooks coming across his right shoulder; two dribbles to the middle, reverse drop-step, hook off the backboard. We&rsquo;re talking classic big-man moves. And every time he scored in the first half, he stared down the Maryland coaching staff. At halftime, the announcers explained why.&nbsp;
Last year at DeMatha Catholic High School, Hunter won every accolade possible. Dickinson earned All-Met Player of the Year and WCAC Player of the Year honors, and he was named Maryland&rsquo;s Gatorade Player of the Year. He graduated as a three-time First-Team All-WCAC selection and was even invited to play in the Jordan Brand Classic.&nbsp;
I personally saw him score 40 points against St. John&rsquo;s his junior year, and that&rsquo;s when I heard the buzz that he wanted to go to the University of Maryland. However, as the announcers explained, Maryland never recruited him -- hence the staredowns. He even received a tech one time (which I thought was a very weak call, but I digress).
This made me think about all of the local recruits that Maryland has passed on over the years.
Back in 2009-10, I played with Kevin Durant on the Oklahoma City Thunder. He told me that he grew up wanting to go to Maryland (like most PG County kids), but they never recruited him.&nbsp;
<img src="https://basketballnews-media.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/images/story/body/kd21_lg.jpg" alt="" width="771" height="AUTO" />
DerMarr Johnson, who many were saying could&rsquo;ve left high school after his junior year and been a lottery pick, also wanted to go to Maryland.&nbsp;
Johnson was essentially LeBron James before LeBron James, according to <a href="https://www.nbcsports.com/washington/wizards/pg-county-legend-dermarr-johnson-was-dmvs-lebron">NBC Sports Washington</a>: &ldquo;Picture a 16-year-old kid with tons of basketball skill, athletically gifted and a mind for the game tearing up courts in the area in the late 1990s. Sounds like a phenom from Akron, Ohio just a few years later. And if not for an NBA rule at the time restricting non-high school graduates from entering the NBA Draft, DerMarr might have made that leap to the highest level of basketball even before graduating.&rdquo;
I asked DerMarr multiple times why he didn&rsquo;t go to Maryland and he always said that they didn&rsquo;t show interest in him.
&ldquo;They barely recruited me,&rdquo; Johnson said. &ldquo;They didn&rsquo;t do a good job of trying to get me at all. If I went there, a lot of the guys who came after me probably would&rsquo;ve gone there too. They made it seem like, basically, I should be happy they even kind of wanted me. I was like, &lsquo;Are you serious? I&rsquo;ve been the best player in the country for a few years now.&rsquo;&rdquo;
Jeff Green, who is currently playing with the Brooklyn Nets, is also a Prince George&rsquo;s County product. Like Durant and Johnson, he aspired to play for the Terps. When he joined me on <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/nba-jeff-green-houston-rockets-okc-oklahoma-city-thunder-kevin-durant-james-harden-russell-westbrook-trade-open-heart-surgery-etan-thomas">my show, &ldquo;The Rematch,&rdquo;</a> I asked him why he didn&rsquo;t go to Maryland.
&ldquo;I would like to place the blame on Gary Williams,&rdquo; Green said. &ldquo;They gave their last scholarship away. I actually told him this a few years ago. I wanted to go there. I bled [Maryland colors]; like, fear the turtle! Like you said, anybody who is from Maryland who&rsquo;s a baller, you fear the turtle. That&rsquo;s the first college you know. But they gave their last scholarship away. They wanted me to go prep, but I didn&rsquo;t want to go prep, so I said, &lsquo;Try to figure out a way.&rsquo; They didn&rsquo;t. So Georgetown was recruiting me and so I was like, &lsquo;I&rsquo;m going to Georgetown.&rsquo; That was the only visit I took. I went there and when I signed, JT3 got the job.&nbsp;
&ldquo;So, in my mind, I wanted to make Georgetown the best area school during the years I&rsquo;m there. Because Maryland didn&rsquo;t recruit me, you guys are going to have to pay somehow. They actually didn&rsquo;t want to play us. We wanted to play them my junior year. You know you sign the contract and you play at the Verizon Center or on their campus for a couple years, but they didn&rsquo;t want to do it! So that&rsquo;s when I knew I had them (laughs).&rdquo;
<img src="https://basketballnews-media.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/images/story/body/ggf_lg.jpg" alt="" width="780" height="AUTO" />
Coach Gary Williams has admitted to missing out on local talent during his time at Maryland. He said that not offering Victor Oladipo a scholarship was perhaps his biggest recruiting regret.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;m sure there was others, but he&rsquo;s the one that comes to mind right away for me when I think about that,&rdquo; Williams said, according to <a href="https://www.si.com/college/maryland/basketball/gary-williams-recruiting-miss-victor-oladipo-pg-county-basketball-in-the-water">Sports Illustrated</a>.&nbsp;
Yes, there were plenty others including Michael Beasley, Quinn Cook and Ty Lawson (just to name a few).
Williams said he was unsure if Oladipo would&rsquo;ve selected Maryland if he offered him a scholarship, but regrets not making more of an effort.
&ldquo;I know that I could&rsquo;ve recruited him harder if I had done a better job,&rdquo; Williams said, per SI. &ldquo;If I give it my best shot and we don&rsquo;t get a player, okay, we move onto the next guy and see what you can do. But in that case he was sitting right there.&rdquo;&nbsp;
If you&rsquo;re a Maryland fan, these stories are tragic and heartbreaking. Prince George&rsquo;s County is a special place and it&rsquo;s been a hotbed for basketball talent for decades. Durant produced a great documentary over the summer called &ldquo;Basketball County: In the Water,&rdquo; which showcased Prince George&rsquo;s County basketball to the entire world.&nbsp;
Current Maryland head coach Mark Turgeon is a solid leader who runs a good program, but he cannot continue the Gary Williams tradition of overlooking the tremendous talent that's right in his backyard. Coach Turgeon has had some success landing local products since taking over the program (such as Melo Trimble, Jalen Smith and Anthony Cowan among others).&nbsp;
However, in June, Hunter Dickinson tweeted: &ldquo;Imagine if the two HM programs in the DMV actually recruited kids in this area for basketball... They&rsquo;d be top 5 in the country every year.&rdquo;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Imagine if the two HM programs in the DMV actually recruited kids in this area for basketball... They&rsquo;d be top 5 in the country every year
&mdash; Hunter Dickinson (@H_Dickinson24) <a href="https://twitter.com/H_Dickinson24/status/1270110454325657602?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 8, 2020</a></blockquote>

<script src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>

I&rsquo;ll take it a step further: With the amount of talent in this area alone, the University of Maryland could create a Fab Five made up solely of Prince George&rsquo;s County players. Wouldn&rsquo;t that be something?

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Eric