Maryland's Kristi Toliver Will Be Tested Against Utah in Women's NCAA South Region Game

Daron Park, an assistant coach with the Maryland women's basketball team, is standing in a hallway inside Comcast Center talking to a reporter about one of the Terrapins' senior stars when he spots the player in question walking toward him. He sighs loudly.

"I'm so tired of talking about Kristi Toliver right now," Park says, as Maryland's all-American point guard saunters by with a grin. "I want to talk about Leilani Mitchell. Can we talk about her? Can we talk about the Utah point guard from last year? I mean, please?"

Park likes to tease Toliver about the talented guards he used to work with when he was an assistant coach at Utah. He tells her about Mitchell -- who was one of three finalists for the Nancy Lieberman Award as a senior last season, an award Toliver won -- and about current Utah star Morgan Warburton, the Mountain West player of the year.

Tonight, Toliver will get a chance to face the Utes and their guards, when top-seeded Maryland (29-4) plays ninth-seeded Utah (23-9) in an NCAA second-round game at Comcast Center. The winner will advance to Raleigh, N.C., for the South Region semifinals on Saturday.

"I'm excited to go up against Utah's guards," Toliver said. "Coach Park is always giving me a hard time about it, saying they're the Kristi Toliver of the Mountain West. It'll be fun to finally put things to rest and see who's better."

Park spent three seasons as an assistant at Utah, where he worked for longtime coach Elaine Elliott (26 seasons and 559 wins) and focused on developing the Utes' back-court players. He helped recruit and coach Warburton and junior wing Kalee Whipple, who has the same hometown as his wife. He was on the Utah bench in March 2006 when the Utes and Terrapins squared off in Albuquerque in an NCAA region final; Maryland won that game in overtime, 75-65, and went on to win the national title.

A year and a half later, Park was at Maryland, hired to replace Jeff Walz, who became Louisville's head coach. Park and Toliver clicked immediately, in part because of a shared sense of humor. They held pre-practice workouts last week to start preparing Toliver for the rapidly approaching WNBA draft (April 9) and season (which starts June 6).

When Coach Brenda Frese was unable to travel with the team at times last year because of her pregnancy, Park took over and Maryland went 9-1 in those games. During yesterday's practice, Park walked the Terrapins through a detailed scouting report on the Utes.

"It'll be a good match-up; he knows them inside and out," Toliver said. "We'll definitely be the most prepared team on Tuesday."

Part of that scouting report centered on Warburton, who averages 18.6 points and 3.5 assists and has made 39 percent of her three-point attempts. When Park describes Warburton, it sounds as if he's talking about Toliver (18.7 points, 4.9 assists, 42.8 percent from three-point range).

"Number one, she is a great shooter," Park said of Warburton. "Because she is such a great shooter, you have to honor that and defend her accordingly. Then she's really developed the ability to put the ball on the ground and get to the rim. When she does get to the rim, she's really good at controlling her body in the air."

Toliver's trademark is her step-back jumper; Warburton said she doesn't really have a go-to move, but said she likes to shoot runners when she goes to the basket, instead of jumpstopping and shooting.

Like Toliver, she has a knack for converting clutch baskets. Warburton hit two game-winning shots this season, both against rival New Mexico. The first one was particularly memorable; it came in front of 9,527 fans inside The Pit, the Lobos' fearsome home arena, and it capped a furious final-minute comeback. With less than 15 seconds remaining, the 5-foot-11 Warburton grabbed a defensive rebound, flew down the court and launched a running shot from the top of the arc that ESPN.com described as "something out of Pete Maravich's bag of tricks." The shot was good, and the Utes won, 53-50.

"Kristi obviously plays a different position than Morgan. But I would say that Morgan is our Kristi Toliver," said Whipple, who is second on the Utes in scoring (16.9 points). "If we're in a slump and no one is going to score, we say get the ball to Morgan. She's going to make something happen; she's either going to score herself or provide for someone else. If she is out there, everyone has that trust in her."

Added senior center Deanne Stevenson: "Morgan is the player that takes the team on her back and carries us through in tough times. She knows the game really well. She's not just an X's and O's player; she really plays the game and understands it."

Warburton made only four of 14 shots in Utah's 60-30 win over eighth-seeded Villanova in the first round, but she finished with 14 points. Toliver, meantime, was particularly sharp in Maryland's 82-53 victory over 16th-seeded Dartmouth; she scored 23 of her game-high 27 points in the first half, and missed only three shots the entire game (out of 14 attempts).

The Utah seniors and coaches certainly remember Toliver, who scored 28 points and hit six three-pointers despite battling the stomach flu in that 2006 region final. Elliott said that "Kristi's the one that beat us three years ago." Warburton had 11 points in that game.

"Everybody knows she's just a great shooter. She's a gamer," Warburton said of Toliver. "When the game's on the line, she's going to hit a big shot. You just got to be able to contain her, because you're not going to be able to totally stop her."