PORTLAND, Ore. — (AP) The Portland Trail Blazers selected guard Will Barton out of Memphis (Lake Clifton) with the 40th overall pick in Thursday night’s NBA draft.

The Conference USA player of the year last season as a sophomore, the 6-foot-6 Barton averaged 18 points and 6.5 rebounds.

The Blazers also took point guard Damian Lillard out of Weber State with the sixth pick and 7-foot-1 center Meyers Leonard out of Illinois with the 11th overall selection Thursday.

Honorable Mention: Golf-PGA Tour Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial (Thursday & Friday 3pm live on Golf Channel Saturday & Sunday 3pm live on CBS. All golf from Ft. Worth, TX), Champions Tour Senior PGA Championship (Thursday & Friday 3pm live on Golf Channel Saturday & Sunday 3pm live on NBC. All golf from Benton Harbor, MI); High School Lacrosse: MPSSAA Class 2A/1A Final-Fallston vs. South Carroll (Tuesday 6pm UMBC Stadium), Class 4A/3A Final-Westminster vs. South River (Wednesday 4pm UMBC Stadium), Class 3A/2A Final-Hereford vs. Glenelg (Wednesday 8pm UMBC Stadium); WNBA-Tulsa Shock @ Washington Mystics (Wednesday 7pm Verizon Center)

10. Drake (Friday 7pm Verizon Center); One Direction (Thursday 7:30pm Patriot Center); Corey Smith (Friday 8pm Rams Head Live); Jason Isbell (Saturday 1pm Rams Head on Stage); Garbage (Wednesday 7pm 9:30 Club); Collective Soul (Wednesday 8pm Fillmore Silver Spring); Thrice (Wednesday 7:30pm Howard Theatre); John Mayer “Born and Raised” and Garbage “Not Your Kind of People” available in stores/on iTunes (Tuesday)

You know that I’m a “money over everything, money on my mind” type of guy, right?

I used to have the biggest crush on Shirley Manson. Hell, I probably still have  huge crush on Shirley Manson…

If you don’t want to go see Collective Soul we probably wouldn’t be much of friends…

John Mayer is apparently doing country music now. This is a classic example of when “success just simply isn’t enough.” See below.

9. “Men in Black III” and “Chernobyl Diaries” open in theaters (Friday); Bob Marley (Wednesday-Sunday DC Improv); Cedric The Entertainer (Saturday 8pm Modell Performing Arts Center at The Lyric); Brew at the Zoo (Saturday & Sunday Maryland Zoo in Baltimore)

There’s simply no chance MIB3 is something I’ll want to go see. And while Cedric the Entertainer is funny, I’d rather talk about beer.

I have no idea whether or not Flying Dog Brewery will be unleashing canned Underdog Atlantic Lager on the Zoo this weekend, but I DO know that the campaign they used to roll it out in our nation’s capital was simply fantastic…

Brilliant.

(Updated: 10:15 a.m.)

Looking primed to return to the NCAA tournament next season with a loaded recruiting class coming this fall, the University of Maryland will suffer a major blow to those hopes.

More details are emerging about the reason for leading scorer and second-team all-ACC guard Terrell Stoglin declaring for the 2012 NBA Draft on Sunday. The university announced Monday morning that Stoglin and Mychal Parker, who recently announced his intention to transfer to another school, had been suspended for a year due to “a violation of the University of Maryland Student-Athlete Code of Conduct.”

Averaging 21.6 points per game to lead the Atlantic Coast Conference in the 2011-12 season, the 6-foot-1 Stoglin will exit College Park after his sophomore season.

Stoglin’s relationship with first-year head coach Mark Turgeon was strained at times last season, which included an incident in which the guard publicly questioned the coach’s motives after he was benched in the final minutes of a loss at Duke. Turgeon openly shared his frustration with Stoglin’s willingness to be coached at different points but had recently expressed confidence on AM 1570 WNST that he would be a better coach for the Tuscon, Ariz. native next season.

The mercurial guard — along with Parker — will instead depart after one season under Turgeon.

“Being a University of Maryland student-athlete carries a tremendous honor and responsibility,” director of athletics Kevin Anderson said. “As much as we appreciate the effort these two young men gave to the program this season, they were unable to live up to that responsibility. We’re disappointed, but hope they use this as a learning experience.”

It is believed that Stoglin’s suspension stems from academic issues.

The deadline to declare for the NBA Draft was Sunday, with the draft itself to be held on June 28 in Newark, N.J

Based on Stoglin’s action on his Twitter account Monday morning, it became more apparent the announcement was not based solely on his desire to play in the NBA.

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - Terrell Stoglin was given the Len Bias Award as the most valuable player on the team Tuesday at the University of Maryland men’s basketball awards banquet held at the Riggs Alumni Center.

Senior Sean Mosley earned three awards at the ceremony, which was attended by more than 250 people. Mosley got the Steve Blake Award for most assists, the Walt Williams Coaches’ Award and the Greivis Vasquez Award for most inspirational player.

James Padgett earned the Len Elmore Award for most rebounds, while Nick Faust won both the Juan Dixon Award for most improved and the Buck Williams Award for most valuable defensive player.

Sophomore John Auslander earned the Tom McMillen Award for academic achievement.

Awards for MVP and Most Inspirational Player were voted on by the players.

Mosley, Berend Weijs and Jon Dillard received special recognition as seniors on this year’s team.

Maryland finished 17-15 overall this season, extending its string of consecutive winning seasons to an ACC-best 19 years.

- Terps -

On Friday’s edition of “The Reality Check”, Ryan Chell and I decided to put together a Maryland Terrapins season ending report card. After the Terps’ loss to North Carolina in the ACC Tournament, it was easy to assume the basketball season was over in College Park.

That assumption proved accurate Sunday night, as the NIT failed to extend an invite to the Terps as expected. The University of Maryland declined to participate in the lesser known postseason CBI Tournament due to the financial model that forces schools to pay for participation. (Three schools from BCS conferences-Washington State, Pitt and Oregon State all accepted CBI bids.)

It’s a long winded way to say the season is over. The Terps finished 17-15 in Mark Turgeon’s first season since taking over for the retired Gary Williams, surpassing the expectations of many while still falling short of the expectations of others.

In our Report Card segment Friday, I graded Turgeon’s job in year one as a “B”. I noted the lack of both quality and quantity in Maryland basketball players that Turgeon was forced to deal with partly due to the late timing of Williams’ retirement announcement. Not only did Maryland lose All-ACC Center Jordan Williams to the NBA, they also lost F Haukur Palsson to a pro turn in Europe. Turgeon was only able to retain one from Williams’ three-man recruiting class (G Nick Faust) although he made up for that in part with a late commitment from C Alex Len.

(I point all of this out because some Maryland fans have decided to “blame” Gary Williams for the state of the program. They’re only telling half of the story.)

Len’s 10 game suspension to start the season and PG Pe’Shon Howard’s 18 missed games due to injury made an already difficult situation nearly impossible. Entering the season, there was legitimate reason to fear a “bottoming out” of sorts for the Maryland program.

While those fears never came to fruition, the team never fully came together. Sophomore G Terrell Stoglin at times carried the Terps during a 6-10 Atlantic Coast Conference campaign, but often proved to be as much of the problem as the solution. Len never showed progress during his freshman campaign, Senior G Sean Mosley offered valuable leadership but never overwhelmed with his play on the floor. The only player that showed marked progress was Faust, who was named to the league’s All-Rookie team.

All of these were contributing factors in grading the job Turgeon did this season. It was a tough campaign, but it could have been significantly worse. Turgeon deserves credit for keeping the program afloat and avoiding any true embarrassment. (Only a late season loss at Georgia Tech stands out as a head shaker due to the opponent and Maryland’s most lopsided defeats came at the hands of NCAA Tournament participants like UNC, Duke, Virginia, Florida State, Alabama and Iona.)

Nearly five hundred words in, it’s time to look to the future. While Turgeon is absolutely deserving of praise for how he kept this Maryland team together in his first season, the coach offered a noteworthy thought Sunday night via Twitter.

Been an unsettling day. Its tough not to be a part of Selection Sunday. It’s something I am not used to.

— Mark Turgeon (@CoachTurgeon) March 11, 2012