Another grand entrance

Even going into his 20th season as Maryland’s coach, Gary Williams still understands the importance of a good entrance.

Williams, as usual, found an atypical way to arrive during the team’s introductions near the end of Friday’s Maryland Madness event. The man who has entered Comcast Center in a stock car, on a motorcycle and in a yellow Lamborghini in past years might have made his biggest arrival yet.

Williams popped out of the top of a BearCat armored vehicle, then addressed a crowd estimated at about 10,000 before the Terrapins began a brief scrimmage.

“This is my 20th year, and it’s been a great 20 years for me personally,” Williams said. “However, the only thing that matters right now at this time is this coming season. We want to have a great basketball team, and we need your help to do it.”

With a crowd that included coveted high school juniors Taran Buie, Isaiah Epps and Roscoe Smith, the Terps entered the court for a season-opening scrimmage while high-fiving fans.

Heading into a season with uncertainty in the frontcourt, the new-look Terps unveiled a glimpse of who they might be. James Gist and Bambale Osby graduated from last year’s NIT team, leaving plenty of playing time available inside on a team that went 19-15 a season ago.

The Terps will rely heavily on a backcourt featuring juniors Greivis Vasquez and Eric Hayes. Vasquez bopped about the arena for much of the night, clearly enjoying a Williams look-alike contest featuring Maryland students and judged by the coach.

Vasquez drew some of the night’s loudest cheers, and at one juncture during a team dance routine pointed toward Maryland’s 2002 national championship banner.

“That’s what I want,” Vasquez said. “I want to get that feeling. Hopefully we get that before I leave school. I’m going to work really hard, and I’m going to lead these guys by example.”

The women’s team, coming off a 33-4 season and a trip to the NCAA tournament regional final, also started practice with a short scrimmage.

Coach Brenda Frese’s team lost Crystal Langhorne and Laura Harper off a team that reached the postseason for the fifth straight season. However, forward Marissa Coleman and guard Kristi Toliver - both fixtures since the Terps won the national title in 2006 - remain.

Frese played to the crowd when she spoke before the women’s scrimmage, joking she would take some volunteer baby sitters for her twin boys born in February. But she also referenced last year’s postseason, when Duke played its first two tournament games in College Park.

“As you can imagine, we did the right thing. We booed,” Frese said. “When they asked the coach of Duke about it, she said, ’That must be their Turtle IQ.’ On Feb. 22, Duke comes in here to Comcast Center. I want to make sure you give them a full dose of our Turtle IQ.”

The festivities were just a pleasant precursor to the real start of practice. Most preseason magazines list Maryland in the bottom half of the ACC, and the Terps are well-aware Williams will remind them of the dim view many outside the program hold for this season.

For much of the night, sophomore guard Adrian Bowie sported sunglasses - part of his outfit for the dance number - as he took in the hoopla surrounding the start of the season.

On Saturday, though, the work truly begins.

“Saturday morning, 8 a.m., it’s going to be hell,” Bowie joked.