Maryland Finally Opens Its Season

COLLEGE PARK, Md. — Maryland, playing for a coach with no previous college experience and stripped of veterans, opens its basketball season tonight after a self-imposed one-month delay.

Winthrop College of Rock Hill, S.C., will provide the opposition for the Terrapins, who are still trying to recover from the drug-induced death of All-American Len Bias last June.

Coach Lefty Driesell, a fixture at Maryland for 17 years, resigned under pressure after intense investigations by a grand jury and a campus task force uncovered academic deficiencies in the basketball program.

As a result, university officials delayed the start of the season.

Driesell was replaced by Bob Wade, whose 272-24 record in 11 seasons at Dunbar High School in Baltimore gained him national acclaim.