But for Maryland students and their hot-shooting basketball team, Comcast Center turned out to be the perfect place - and North Carolina the perfect victim - to spend a frigid Sunday afternoon.

Playing in front of an even more boisterous crowd than usual, the Terps (16-6, 6-2 Atlantic Coast Conference) continued their home-court success against conference foes by routing the Tar Heels, 92-71.

Maryland has won its four ACC games here by an average of 19 points.

The frenzied crowd included several thousand students who did not have tickets but lined up in the cold and were allowed in to fill the void left by fans who couldn't drive to the game because of treacherous roads.

The red-clad students - perhaps releasing pent-up energy from waiting out the snowstorm - did The Wave and chanted "NIT" at the Tar Heels, (13-10, 2-6) who have lost six of seven games.

"Loudest I've ever seen it since I was here," said senior guard Greivis Vasquez, who had 26 points and seemed to perpetually be finding open teammates with passes on Maryland fast breaks. He had 11 assists. More...

Flacco's second NFL season featured some inconsistent moments, some of which could be attributed to a late-season hip injury. In Flacco's first 14 games this season, he completed 64.8 percent of his passes and averaged 240.6 passing yards a game. He threw 19 touchdown passes and 11 interceptions. In his last four games (including two in the postseason), he connected on 53.9 percent of his passes and averaged 122.7 passing yards a game. He threw two touchdown passes and four interceptions.

"I don't think there's any doubt that he's the key to any kind of growth in the system," Bisciotti said. "To some degree, he was maligned a little bit for not making a bigger step. What he did in his first year kind of set some unrealistic expectations."

The Ravens' optimism comes from the big picture: Flacco has proved he has a strong arm, he's physically tough and he's able to win in the postseason. Not to mention, he has had the fifth-most-productive first two seasons in NFL history, with 6,584 yards, behind Peyton Manning, Dan Marino, Drew Bledsoe and Jeff Garcia. More...

 That he didn't walk - and now finds himself kicking for the Indianapolis Colts in Sunday's Super Bowl in South Florida - is one of this week's most compelling stories. It might also be a story of divine intervention, Stover says.

"God's footprints are all over this thing," he said. "Is it surreal? Yeah. How could it not be?"

Surreal is Stover nearly moving his family to Dallas last spring, deciding not to uproot his teenage children, then waiting for a Super Bowl contender to phone and finally getting the call in mid-October.

Surreal is receiving a guaranteed offer of $1.2 million from the New York Jets in March - but no such guarantee from the team he had steadfastly served for more than a decade.

Surreal is following the Cleveland Browns to Baltimore in 1996 to play for the Ravens - and then joining the team the Ravens replaced.

It's surreal, all right.

Stover's improbable journey began last March when his Ravens contract expired. They told him he could come back but without a guarantee or signing bonus. It quickly became clear the team wanted to move on itself and use that kickoff specialist's roster spot for a position player. More...

Ex-Redskins head coach, former NFL QB will continue Flacco's education

 Zorn, 56, was fired by the Washington Redskins on Jan. 4 after a disastrous second season as their head coach. The Ravens, though, were overwhelmed by his experience: 11 seasons as an NFL quarterback, 11 seasons as a respected NFL quarterbacks coach and a familiarity with their offense.

"That's a great resume for us," Harbaugh said.

Zorn's primary goal is to continue the development of Joe Flacco into an elite, franchise quarterback. Zorn becomes only the second quarterbacks coach for Flacco, replacing Hue Jackson (who joined the Oakland Raiders as their offensive coordinator Tuesday).

"Joe Flacco is a really good young QB, so I'm definitely excited about working with him," Zorn told The Washington Post. "Whether it's a perfect fit, well, that'll be a good question to answer as I go along here. I hope it is. I believe it's going to be a great situation."

Zorn added: "But I'm not going to presume that I'm going to come in and all of a sudden Joe Flacco is just going to fall all over himself and say, 'Oh, this is great,' " Zorn said Saturday. "I've got to earn the right to speak into his life, to speak into his game, after I just see what's there."

Although he took heavy criticism as the Redskins' head coach, Zorn is a highly regarded mentor for young quarterbacks.
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"We had some options out there, but it is one of those things where you really can't put a price tag on what it means to be at home," said Hendrickson, who married this offseason and lives year-round in nearby York, Pa., with his wife, Cortney, and stepdaughter Hannah. "To go home and live a normal life off the field, that plays a huge factor into it. Plus, it's a good team. There is no shortage of optimism among the players."

Hendrickson, 35, agreed to a one-year, $1.2 million deal with a $1.2 million team option for 2011, which includes a $200,000 buyout. The contract is pending a physical today. With the buyout, Hendrickson would be guaranteed $1.4 million in 2010, which is down slightly from his $1.5 million salary in 2009, a season in which he went 6-5 with a 4.37 ERA in 53 games, including 11 starts.

The contract includes escalating clauses each year if Hendrickson reaches a specific number of starts ($25,000 each for 10 starts, 12 starts, 14 starts and 16 starts), though he is expected to pitch mainly out of the bullpen, where he was 4-0 with a 3.44 ERA in 2009.

"I think that's something that does make our team better," Hendrickson said of pitching primarily in relief. "It's something I feel I can excel at." More...

 On Tuesday, Tejada again sat at a dais in the B&O Warehouse at an introductory news conference, but this time it was as a 35-year-old veteran in the latter stages of his career who had just signed a one-year, $6 million deal to be the club's stopgap third baseman.

Wearing his new Orioles cap and smiling broadly, Tejada said he feels he doesn't have to be the main guy in 2010 but instead is joining a group of young players that is talented enough to compete in the AL East for the first time since 1997.

"This time, unlike last time, it's not about me. It's about everybody," said Tejada, who batted .313 with 14 home runs and 86 RBIs for the Houston Astros in 2009. "Now they have pitching, outfielders. They have young talent. They don't have to do much to be a winner here." More...

But the receivers have a sense of how everything is going to play out in the end.

"In the position that we're in, we're probably going to end up having to find a guy that is going to be able to come in and be a straight playmaker," wide receiver Mark Clayton said.

The lack of a playmaking receiver was a major reason the Ravens finished 18th in the NFL in passing, and it might have been a factor in their playoff exit.

The Ravens' wide receivers made just two catches for more than 20 yards in the final four games, none in the postseason. As a team, the Ravens totaled six drops in the 20-3 divisional-round playoff loss at Indianapolis.

"We certainly had a lot of room for improvement," said Clayton, who expects to return to the Ravens as a restricted free agent in an uncapped year. "There were so many more plays to be made that we didn't make. That would have definitely propelled us further had we made plays on the outside. I thought we should have been a lot better."  More...

The sixth-seeded Ravens (10-8) failed to score a touchdown against Indianapolis for a third straight time and failed to stop Manning enough in the red zone. The Colts (15-2) stopped their run of choking in the playoffs as a high seed -- they had been 0-3 after first-round byes -- and advance to next Sunday's AFC championship game.

Manning has now beaten the Ravens eight straight times, including twice in the playoffs. He stopped their Super Bowl run in January 2007 despite not having a stellar game. And he did it again Saturday in more Manning-like fashion.

It's the same path the Ravens took last year - with much success.

Baltimore's 33-14 rout of New England on Sunday earned the Ravens (10-7) a Saturday night date with the Indianapolis Colts (14-2). The Colts opened the postseason with a bye after compiling the best record in the NFL and finishing atop the AFC South. Sound familiar?

After reaching the playoffs a year ago as a wild-card team, Baltimore defeated the AFC East champion Miami Dolphins 27-9. The Ravens then faced the AFC South winners, the Tennessee Titans, who owned the league's best regular-season record.

On the strength of a 13-10 upset, Baltimore advanced to the AFC title game.

The Ravens would love to have history repeat itself. Baltimore might benefit from having already taken this journey, but coach John Harbaugh conceded Monday that one season doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the next.

"Every year is different. Our younger guys can draw on the experience of the guys who have been there before, but it's a different year and a different team and this is a new week," he said. "So we'll just have to see how it plays out." More...