University of Maryland sophomore Jalen Smith, the 19-year-old former Mount St. Joseph’s star, typed out a message yesterday in an attempt to process the shocking news he’d just learned.

March Madness, the whole thing, cancelled.

It is, and the feeling applies to a lot of us at this point.

As novel coronavirus fears and prevention measures sweep the country, the NCAA—the national governing body of college athletics—made the unprecedented move on Thursday to cancel the 68-team men’s basketball tournament as part of a decision to end competitions in all spring sports.

It’s the first time in the 80-year history of the bracket-busting tournament that it won’t be played—and the news came quick. On Wednesday, it was announced March Madness games would be played without fans, which was weird enough to think about.

A day later, hundreds of thousands of college kids like Smith were digesting a sudden end to their seasons, and their entire playing careers, in some cases, like Terps senior captain Anthony Cowan, Jr. And Smith, too. He might test the NBA waters and enter the draft.

Business as usual in the U.S. is suspended for the time being. Many government officials have taken measures to limit public gatherings in an effort to stop the spread of COVID-19—for which there’s no vaccine and specifically impacts those over the age of 60 and those with underlying medical conditions.

That goes for events like weddings, court trials, conferences, and schools. After the Big Ten conference cancelled the rest of its spring seasons earlier on Thursday, Maryland coach Mark Turgeon released a statement saying that “the health and safety of our student athletes and entire program is paramount. This is an unprecedented situation that is much bigger than basketball.”

It sure is. In the local sports world alone, Orioles opening day, as directed by Major League Baseball, has been pushed back for at least two weeks. Spring training games in Florida have been cancelled, though the team will still practice and continue precautions they began last week.

And the postseason hopes of teams from colleges like Maryland, Loyola, Johns Hopkins, Towson and many others are now over before players even took the field. Same goes in the ranks of public schools throughout the state, which will be closed for at least the next two weeks.

Mancini has tumor removed; Awaits test results

Meanwhile, all the coronavirus news has overshadowed another big piece of news with the Orioles this week.

Trey Mancini, the team’s most established figure and a fan-favorite, had surgery yesterday to remove a malignant tumor from his colon. He expects lab results back next week, and there’s no timetable for a recovery yet. He left the team last week after a colonoscopy revealed the tumor.

Mancini, 27, shared his thanks with everyone who sent messages and notes of encouragement. “The outpouring of love and support I have received has made an extremely tough week so much better,” he said. “I have the best family, friends, fans, and teammates imaginable.”

Yanda retires from the Ravens

Finally, longtime Ravens offensive lineman and potential future Hall-of-Famer Marshal Yanda formally announced his retirement—and look, his buddy Joe Flacco returned to Owings Mills for the press conference at the Ravens practice facility…

The Ravens have already announced that Yanda will be inducted into the team’s Ring of Honor at M&T Bank Stadium. Until then, we’ll remember the scene of the grizzled, sweaty, and frustrated 13-year-pro in the Ravens’ locker room after their shocking early playoff exit against the Tennessee Titans in January. That showed the type of person he is.

Yanda was adamant at calling out Titans rookie defensive lineman Jeffery Simmons for allegedly spitting in Yanda’s face during the game. “I just want to put him on notice in the media,” Yanda said. “I’ve never done this in my career, but I just wanted to let you know there’s a right way and a wrong way to play football, and that guy did not do it the right way today.”

Turns out the notice was a parting gift.

We all want to be Mark Watts.

In contention to win $1 million on a sporting event, and not even know it. And, moreover, be betting against yourself, and not even know that. And be carelessly asleep while the outcome is unfolding. Then find out you won the million the next day.

It’s a true story.

Watts, a 60-year-old U.S. Air Force veteran and fire-alarm technician from Baltimore, beat out 1,196,756 people who submitted their brackets to Yahoo Sports’ Best Bracket Millionaire Contest to win $1 million.

He was just completely oblivious to his chances, and didn’t know he won until multiple Yahoo employees told him that he did. It took several emails and a few phone calls for him to believe it. “This still feels surreal!” he wrote back to one in a text.

Plus, while Watts actually needed Virginia to beat Texas Tech to win the challenge two Monday nights ago, he had a $50 side bet going with a longtime friend, who picked Virginia.

“So I’m actually not pulling for Virginia to win,” Watts told Yahoo! Sports in an interview this week, now aware of how absurd that fact sounds in retrospect.

Watts—like most people, a casual basketball fan at best—hadn’t checked how his free 68-team bracket entry was doing since the early rounds, when he saw he missed a few picks. Turns out Watts had one of the best brackets of any in Yahoo’s March Madness competition as it neared its end.

He missed seven picks total, but correctly nailed the final four teams, the title game and the champion, finishing with 179 out of 192 possible points. By then, between work and family time (with his wife, 14-year-old son, and 22-year-old stepdaughter), Watts had completely forgotten about his bracket.

He was in bed. He gets up around 4 a.m. each morning for his job with Baltimore County public schools, and heads to sleep by 8:30 p.m. The title game tipped off after 9:20 Eastern (Yeah, that was late) and went to overtime.

Of course, Watts barely researched any of the teams too. He also didn’t bother to name his digital entry; instead it was labeled the default “My Bracket.”

In the interview with Yahoo, Watts struggled to explain any method to his madness. Asked why he picked Auburn to get to the final four, he said, “That’s just one of the teams I guess I got lucky with.”

And why he picked Virginia?

“I remember hearing a lot about their defensive prowess,” he said. “How strong they were on defense. And how they were able to limit teams’ scoring.”

This is a win for the regular guy.

Born in New Bern, North Carolina, Watts enlisted in the Air Force as a young adult, and served as a technician in Alexandria, Louisiana; in England; and at Fort Meade, and ultimately settled here. He likes golf and football more than basketball.

Winning the cool million is “definitely life-changing,” he said. He plans to invest some of it (smart) and take care of some bills, then put some toward his wife’s 50th birthday (also smart), coming up in the fall, most likely a trip to somewhere with a beach. “This will definitely make it possible,” he said.

But he isn’t planning anything reckless. “It isn’t like winning the lottery,” he told Yahoo.

In this case, it sort of is.

With one emphatic and timely two-handed dunk, Mount Saint Joseph’s alum and Maryland freshman forward Jalen Smith officially let us know Thursday that March Madness is here for the next few weeks.

Breathe it in:

The Terps advanced to the NCAA men’s basketball tournament’s round of 32 with a dramatic 79-77 win over Belmont University, the second-highest scoring team in the country, and the victory was punctuated by Smith’s slam that gave Maryland a three-point lead with just under two minutes left, in a critical and Baltimore-flavored sequence.

Smith’s former Mount St. Joe teammate, sophomore Darryl Morsell, fed Smith the ball on the play and, about 30 seconds earlier, Morsell, the 6-foot-5, 200-pound guard, delivered another key moment with a driving layup in which he drew a foul and drained the ensuing free throw to put the Terps’ up 74-71.

As a two-time state player of the year nicknamed “Stix” for his stringy frame, Smith had his “best game in a long time,” with 19 points and 12 rebounds, Maryland coach Mark Turgeon said. And with Morsell scoring a college career-high 18 points, it was if the MIAA or Baltimore Catholic League tournaments were playing out on the NCAA branded floor in Jacksonville, Florida, albeit in front of a much larger nationally televised audience.

“Our Bmore guys stepped up today,” Turgeon said during the team’s post-game press conference, with Morsell sitting beside him along with teammates Bruno Fernando (14 points, 13 rebounds) and Eric Ayala (12 points). “They were terrific.”

Smith and Morsell, a duo that played for three years together at Mount St. Joe and enjoyed much success at the high school level, powered the Terps’ to their first postseason win in three years, and helped make Turgeon’s hot seat a little cooler by holding off a projected Cinderella in Belmont to set up a game on Saturday against LSU. The game will air at 12:10 p.m. on CBS. (And, speaking of the TV broadcast, you can also catch Baltimore’s Evan Washburn working the sideline during other games throughout the tournament.)

There are more Bmore guys, too. Another Mount St. Joe alum, Phil Booth, who has program bragging rights after winning the NCAA championship last year with Villanova, scored 20 points on Thursday in Nova’s round of 64 win over Saint Mary’s. Booth has scored 122 career points in the NCAA tournament, most of anyone who’s playing in it right now.

After the win, he fielded questions from reporters like the seasoned tournament veteran he is.

“There’s a lot of distractions that come in the NCAA tournament,” Booth said, “so the best thing you can do is focus on your opponent, take care of your body, and focus in on what you have to do as a team.”

The defending champs play Purdue on Saturday night on TNT. (Catch your Law & Order reruns some other time.)

Elsewhere, if you’re looking for a local team to act as this year’s U Might Be Cinderella because, sadly, the UMBC Retrievers did not make the Big Dance this time, your best chances are to watch the 15th-ranked Towson women’s team play perennial power and second-seeded UConn at 7 p.m. Friday.

And if you want to see games in person, the shortest drive is to the Xfinity Center, where the Maryland women, seeded third, are hosting 14th-seeded Radford at 11 a.m. Saturday. Then Tennessee and UCLA play there immediately following in a first-round doubleheader, as the Madness continues and we watch transfixed.

This time of year, sports fans typically have three things on the brain: basketball, brackets, and booze. As March Madness gets underway, tons of neighborhood bars are offering discounted eats and drinks during tournament games. So polish up your bracket, throw on a jersey, and take advantage of these specials while seeing how your bets play out. (To find the best spots to cheer on your alma mater, check out our Ultimate Sports Bar Guide.)

Delia Foley’s: Immediately after this Irish pub—also a popular University of Michigan hangout—winds down from its St. Patrick’s Day shenanigans, it’s rolling right into March Madness. From March 18-20, the first 64 people to purchase a Miller Lite pitcher will be randomly picked and entered into a special Delia Foley’s bracket. Prizes will be given out to the elite eight, final four, and grand prize bracket winner. Beyond that, there will also be game-day beer and food specials during every matchup. 1439 S. Charles St. 443-682-9141

Five & Dime Ale House: Hampden locals will be heading to this sports bar on the Avenue to tune in while tipping back $3 Bud Light, Miller Lite, and Michelob Ultra bottles. Other noteworthy discounts include 16-oz. pours of Oliver Brewing’s Balls to the Wall IPA and Founders’ Solid Gold lager for $4. Plus, there will be extra food and drink deals if your team happens to be playing during happy hour. 901 W. 36th St. 443-835-2179

Il Palio: If you need a spot to cheer on your team from Owings Mills, this Italian restaurant in Foundry Row is offering all-day happy hour specials at the bar. Gather around one of the three massive screens to enjoy half-price appetizers, beer, select cocktails, and wines by the glass throughout the final game on April 8. 10090 Reisterstown Rd., Owings Mills. 888-456-3463

Johnny’s: This Roland Park mainstay is getting creative with a basketball-inspired menu offered throughout the tournament. Watch all of the action unfold while sipping specialty cocktails like the “Alley-Oop” (Natty Boh, cointreau, housemade lemonade, and ginger beer) and the “Slam Dunk,” which mixes Woodford Reserve with vermouth, Campari, and blood orange juice. The snacks also stay on theme, with featured “baskets” of mac-and-cheese balls, crab balls, and cauliflower-potato balls drizzled with ranch and Old Bay Buffalo sauces. 4800 Roland Ave. 410-773-0777

Mt. Washington Tavern: All of the bars inside this multi-level Mt. Washington bar will be cracking open $2 Narragansett cans and pouring $6 Tito’s drinks to celebrate the games. Additionally, fans will be able to choose from a selection of $4 small plates like cheese curds, pretzels with beer cheese, boneless wings, and nachos with pico, queso, and guacamole. 5700 Newbury St. 410-367-6903

The Red Star Charles Village: Johns Hopkins students and Charles Village locals will be making this neighborhood spot their headquarters for NCAA games. Catch every upset and buzzer beater on one of the many screens while sipping $5 pints at the bar. There will also be daily food specials (you can’t go wrong with the cheesy crab dip), and a fun beer bracket challenge to see which of Red Star’s 16 top-ranked beers reigns supreme. Local favorites like Union and Monument City will face off against domestics including Bell’s Brewery and Brooklyn Brewery. 3224 St. Paul St. 443-948-9539

If anyone is wondering what life is like for the UMBC men’s basketball program—coming up on one year after its star turn as America’s favorite underdog—just know that it’s still pretty great.

Last night, on their suburban Baltimore campus, when the Retrievers faced America East rival Vermont, the UMBC athletic department proclaimed it Fortnite Night. Of course they did. It was an ode to senior forward Nolan Gerrity’s proclamation last year that 16th-ranked UMBC beating No. 1 Virginia in the NCAA tournament was akin to winning in the massively popular, last-person-standing concept video game.

And so the roughly 2,000 people that showed up to the UMBC Event Center on Thursday night received a beautifully detailed themed poster, complete with the university’s mascot, True Grit, hanging from a helicopter. Gerrity said he wanted to go home with 10 of the giveaways, and he wasn’t the only one. “Obviously, we love Fortnite,” junior Arkel Lamar said afterward.

Plus, the players are also talking about March again, as in what they can do for an encore to last spring’s Cinderella story that brought them, and their relatively small and very smart research university in Catonsville, unexpected and exceptional national recognition. Because let it be known: The men’s basketball team from University of Maryland Baltimore County, or U Must Be Cinderella, is still winning.

With an impressive 65-56 victory over visiting and league-leading Vermont on Thursday night, a rematch of the game that sparked 2018’s magical run, the lovable Retrievers have won nine of their last 10 games, a remarkable feat considering they lost starting forward Daniel Akin to a season-ending knee injury just a month ago, and that was after they’d lost five of their previous eight games dating back to mid-December. And, you know, it’s also harder now that everybody knows who they are. The proverbial target is on their backs, along with jersey numbers and last names.

But UMBC hasn’t lost it charm, even in its $85 million athletic facility and led by a coach, Ryan Odom, who doubled his salary after pulling the strings on last March’s madness. After Thursday’s game, each member of the team circled the courtside seats and front rows of the stands, slapping hands and fist bumping supporters with personal thanks. At halftime, Odom’s kids shot baskets on the court, then his youngest son, Owen, joined the boisterous student section behind one of the baskets for the second half while his older brother, Connor, a sophomore basketball player at the renowned Oak Hill Academy in Virginia, sat behind the UMBC bench.

Four rows up at center court, Odom’s dad, the former Wake Forest and South Carolina coach Dave, sat with family members that twisted with the emotions of every play on the court, up to final-minute free-throws. True Grit sprinted around the court in a No. 50 jersey to pump up fans. The women’s lacrosse and swimming and diving teams threw out free T-shirts during television breaks because the game was shown live to a national audience on ESPNU. A white, gold, and black banner—#16 UMBC-74, #1 Virginia 54—hangs from the ceiling of UMBC’s arena.

And post-game, in a media room that contained just six reporters and one university-issue video camera, Odom said proudly, “This team just keeps playing. They’re resilient, and guys continue to make plays. . . . They listen. They’re coachable kids. They’re all great kids.”

While the two primary faces of last year’s history-making team, Jairus Lyles and K.J. Maura, are no longer in uniform, there’s still a few players left over, most notably graduate student (in data science) Joe Sherburne. The forward is this year’s leading scorer and rebounder and just plain looks like a calming agent in what can otherwise be a chaotic chess match on the court. Gerrity, a “management of aging studies” major is back, too, as is Lamar, who had 10 rebounds on the big stage against Virginia a season ago. And there’s new names and faces that, if the Retrievers are able to win the America East tournament once again, might also become popular across CBS broadcasts next month. Like London native R.J. Eytle-Rock, point guard K.J. Jackson, and junior guard Ricky Council II, a transfer from Providence.

The Retrievers have a solid nine-man rotation that gets contributions from each piece in various ways, be it Lamar making a steal and throwing down a thunderous dunk Thursday night that gave UMBC a 42-33 lead with about 13 minutes left, and got the crowd off its feet for the first time. Or, a few minutes later, Lamar hitting a three-pointer that made it 51-41, and slapping an unrestrained high five with Sherburne at mid-court, again getting the crowd going. Or Jackson hitting a three-pointer as the shot clock expired to make it 59-48 with 3:39 left, that essentially sealed the win, or one-shotted it, in Fortnite lingo. Jackson had a game-high 18 points and three assists, Lamar had 15 points, Eytle-Rock had 10, and Sherburne, quietly, led with six rebounds. Council had nine points off the bench.

Overall, the team’s identity centers around defense, a stamp that began to be impressed after back-to-back losses at Hartford and UMass-Lowell the second week of January and helped Thursday when Sherburne and others got in foul trouble early and sat on the bench. That means generally gritty work like rebounds, steals, and blocks turn into points. “The coaches just really didn’t let us make excuses,” said Jackson, a junior from Houston. “We responded to that well, not giving in, not allowing ourselves to be any less than we could be. We have a standard and we’re destined to meet it every single time out.”

Sure, “Neither team could win the championship tonight . . . It comes down to March,” as Odom said Thursday. “We don’t have it figured it out. We’re trying to continue to figure it out, every game and every practice.” But the result was an important, big-picture marker. UMBC, as a program, had lost 23 straight games to mid-major power Vermont before Lyles’ buzzer-beater in the 2018 America East conference title game (the only real way for them to make the big NCAA tournament via a conference champion automatic qualifying bid). Now UMBC has beaten them three times in a row, after also winning on the road a month ago.

With the latest victory, UMBC moved into second place in the America East standings, clinched a conference postseason tournament home game, and improved its overall record to 18-10 with only three games left in the regular season. That’s called heating up in a Fortnite Battle Royale, if you ask them, and at the most wonderful time of the year.

“As it gets closer to March, we’re always excited,” Lamar said, speaking like the veteran he is. “The thought of going dancing is unbelievable.”

They haven’t lost since before Christmas.
A few weeks might not seem like a long time in the grand scheme of things, but consider that the University of Maryland men’s basketball team has played and won six games since December 22, when they last lost, by four points to Seton Hall. Coach Mark Turgeon’s bunch has won 15 games this season and lost just three, beaten four projected NCAA tournament teams this month, and could jump into second place in the Big Ten conference standings this weekend.

“This team is doing amazing things,” Turgeon said after the latest win, a 74-70 thriller over Wisconsin on Monday night. And that was a few hours after the Terps entered the latest Associated Press national Top 25 poll, with a ranking of No. 19, their highest of the season.

So, in short, it’s time to start paying attention to the basketball happening in College Park. Their next game is at 6:30 tonight at Ohio State, available to watch on Fox Sports 1, followed by a bigger one Monday night at No. 6 Michigan State.

There’s the Big Three.
One goes by Bruno, and the others are freshman forward and Mount Saint Joseph’s alum Jalen Smith, and junior guard Anthony Cowan, Jr., from Bowie. In basketball, it often beneficial to have a Big Three, to make it that much harder for opponents to defend you, and Maryland has a talented trio.

Angola native and 6-foot-10, 240-pound sophomore Bruno Fernando is the reigning national player of the week and is averaging 14.6 points and 9.9 rebounds. He also seems to have a good head on his big shoulders for a college kid, tweeting things about integrity, being blessed, and great team wins.

Meanwhile, the 6-foot-10, 215-pound Smith, the two-time Maryland Gatorade Player of the Year as a junior and senior at Mt. St. Joe, has made an instant impact in his first year, averaging 12 points and seven rebounds.

And the guy with the hottest hand of late is Cowan, the Terps’ leading scorer with almost 18 points per game. He’s got Gary Williams’ seal of approval. Cowan has scored at least 20 in the last three games, and isn’t afraid of taking the big shot. His winner on Monday night was Melo Trimble 2.0. We could watch this four-second clip from 105.7 The Fan’s Joe Schiller all day long:

Free tickets for government employees was a great call.
The Maryland athletic department recently offered free tickets to federal government employees affected by the current government shutdown, and 747 people took them up on the deal by attending either the Terps’ women’s game last Saturday or the men’s game Monday. “This was a great chance to have a family outing, relieve some stress, and watch a great basketball game,” Therman Hawkins Jr., who attended Monday with his wife and 14-year-old son, told Maryland’s athletics website.

The way negotiations in D.C. are going (in the last two days Baltimore native Nancy Pelosi called for the postponement of the State of the Union address; the president, in turn, cancelled her trip to the Middle East to visit U.S. troops), Maryland might need to re-up the ticket offer for their next home game in eight days.

Bracket projections have UMD in the NCAA tournament.
When it comes time to fill out an office bracket for March Madness, oftentimes you’ll do just as well by picking teams whose uniforms you like rather than doing any serious research. In any case, it’s usually easier, and more fun, to pick a school that you’ve at least heard of. Need say we say more than UMBC, 2018?

Current bracket projections (yes, there are already these things) have the Terps as high as a No. 4 seed, meaning prognosticators think they’re one of the top 16 teams in the nation. Keep this up and Maryland alums will have a reason to call out sick to work in a few months to watch the Terps’ first-round tournament game.

To paraphrase Will Ferrell’s zany character in Zoolander (Are we dating ourselves? No one on the current team has probably ever seen the movie), the Terps are so hot right now. Jump on the bandwagon before it’s too late, and it looks like you’re simply a fair-weather fan in March.

Ravens make power free-agent moves.
Maybe we can call them the three W’s or, perhaps, Triple-U? Regardless, it is clear after the signing of tight end Benjamin Watson last week, safety Eric Weddle on Monday, and wide receiver Mike Wallace on Tuesday, the Ravens front office is not playing around. Coming off its first losing season in eight years, the team (predominantly Ozzie Newsome) had to do some pretty aggressive wheeling and dealing to acquire the three players. First, they had to wrestle Watson away from the New Orleans Saints, then they apparently didn’t let Wallace leave the building before he signed, and a 90-minute phone conversation between Weddle and Ravens assistant GM Eric DeCosta did the trick. “The Ravens landed the best free agent remaining on Monday in Weddle, added the best deep threat available in Wallace and signed a tight end coming off a career season in Watson,” ESPN’s Jamison Hensley wrote. “These are significant steps to turn around a 5-11 team.”

We like President Obama’s March Madness picks.
Frankly it would ruin the fun to get political on Friday Replay. But, as loyal Terps fans, there is one thing we can agree on: We like President Obama’s bracket. For the second year in a row, and the third time while in office, the President picked the Terrapins to advance to the Sweet 16. This means he is predicting that Maryland will beat his home-state team, the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors, only to fall to Kansas, who he has picked to win it all. Not a bad bode of confidence.