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• Mar 17, 2008 6:15 pm US/Eastern
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  Maryland Teams Prepare For NCAA Tournament

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Maryland Teams Prepare For NCAA Tournament

BALTIMORE (WJZ) ― Three schools from Maryland are preparing to head to the big dance.

Derek Valcourt reports March Madness is kicking into high gear across the country, including locally.

Students at UMBC are on spring vacation, but many of the students plan to use up those vacation days watching basketball.
 
It's quiet at Coppin State as well thanks to the break. Students are out of classes, but they're not out of team spirit.

"Two of the guards are my suitemates. You know, they came in the room and they were like all on the floor jumping, shouting, screaming, for no reason.  So I am really happy for them," said Coppin student Darron Mills.

"I hoped they didn't have to play into the tournament, but hey that's what it is, so we'll definitely enjoy it," said Steve Delice.

Coppin will take on Frederick County's Mount St. Mary's University in the play-in games as both teams make the NCAA Tournament for the first time this decade.

Both Maryland teams will have to travel to Dayton, Ohio to square off against each other in Tuesday night's game.

The winning team then heads down to Raleigh, N.C. to take on number 1 seed University of North Carolina on Friday.
 
"It uplifts what we try to do at Coppin University obviously athletic-wise but in terms of enhancing our whole profile for the university academically and otherwise to let people know that Coppin is a force to be reckoned with," said Dr. Reginald S. Avery, president of Coppin University.

Excitement is also spreading across the Catonsville campus of the University of Maryland Baltimore County.

That's thanks to the Retrievers' best season ever.They'll play Georgetown Friday.

"Everybody's congratulating us. Everybody's talking about it. They want to know how to get tickets. Everybody wants everything to do with it," said center Tyler Massey.

"Everybody's talking about how pumped they are. I've talked to people today and yesterday about coming down to Raleigh. It's good to know we're going to have that support going into the NCAA," said forward Cavell Johnson.

Maryland basketball kicks off March Madness Tuesday night. It will continue into the first week of April.

(© MMVIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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