Burney coming along

Held a couple snippets back the other day, knowing there would have to be blog fodder heading into tomorrow's game against Bryant.

Before the Terps played American, forward Jerome Burney was walking around (with a boot still encasing his right foot) and hoisting some shots.

Burney's been out two weeks now, and the original diagnosis was three-to-six weeks. That he was moving around was an encouraging sign, not just for Burney but also coach Gary Williams.

"If a kid deserves a chance to play, it's him, given what happened to him during his freshman year," Williams said. "That's not a good part of a guy's career in college. You like to see things fair for everybody. That's not fair for him to get a stress fracture now."

Then Gary got nostalgic. Well, maybe "nostalgic" isn't the right word, because he started rattling off guys who had broken bones during their careers at Maryland. Garfield Smith. Walt Williams. Tahj Holden. Terence Morris. Even mentioned Obinna Ekezie's Achilles injury in 1999.

Which brought up my question from a few weeks back --- is Burney the hardest-luck player at Maryland over the last 20 years?

"Yeah," Williams said. "If it happens once, it can happen."

Twice is a bit tougher to stomach. But from the looks and sounds of things, Burney might be back on schedule, which would make this bump not nearly as difficult as redshirting was two years ago.

--- Patrick Stevens