Maryland's Dixon, Baxter, Williams beat odds, win ultimate prize.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)

ATLANTA _ All through its charming NCAA tournament run, Indiana had played the underdog role like a ham.

Pity the slow, unranked Hoosiers, still traumatized by the firing of coach Bobby Knight.

But the Hoosiers II plotline neglected to take into account the team symbolized by the lowly turtle.

If Indiana was chopped liver, Maryland was a program still haunted by the Len Bias tragedy, a school perenially overshadowed by its Atlantic Coast Conference peers and a team led by a center labeled too fat and a guard dismissed as too skinny.

Maryland fulfilled its favorite's status Monday, battering Indiana 64-52. An Indiana upset would have been sweet. But Maryland's triumph was more deserved. This was history hard-earned and a long time in coming.

Indiana has won five national titles; Maryland had won none. Indiana coach Mike Davis made it to the ultimate game in his second season as a head coach; Gary Williams has toiled for 24 _ longer than it took Dean Smith (21) or John Wooden (18) to win their first titles. The last time Williams cut down a championship net was in 1970, as coach of Camden (N.J.) High.

Indiana's Dane Fife and Jared Jeffries were high school all-stars; Maryland's Juan Dixon and Lonny Baxter were all but ignored by recruiters.