In an unfortunate turn of events for tortoise enthusiasts everywhere, Maryland Terrapins have tumbled out of The Associated Press women's basketball poll like a tortoise strapped to roller skates, effectively ending their impressive 13-year streak. The indignity, we might liken to losing your shell at a turtle fashion show, has the Terrapins blushing various shades of shell-red that could well signal the end of the Ice Age. Rated for the past 251 weeks as hot-shot hoopsters, only trailing the seemingly ever-victorious No. 6 UConn in terms of consistency, the Terrapins are now relegated to the forgotten territories of 'unrated'. They had seemingly hackneyed the word ‘defeat’ since the dawn of 2010/11 season, yet their recent tryst with UConn earned them a shell-shocking 32-point loss on Thursday, then barely a wiggle past Syracuse on Sunday. It proved to be the straw that broke the tortoise's back. While the Terrapins migrate self-consciously off the court, South Carolina is strutting their stuff like peacocks in May, as they soar to a unanimous No. 1 spot. Just as the Terrapin's unfortunate tumble has left them shell-shocked, South Carolina's meteoric ascendancy seems as certain as a hawk hunting a field mouse. Basketball pundits, with their sphinx-like expressions, had much to say, primarily concerning the seismic shift of Terrapins’ fall and South Carolina’s rise. "It's like the law of the jungle out there," one noted. “You win, you’re the apex predator, you lose, you're the tortoise without its shell”. Suffice to say, for the Terrapins, this remarkable defeat is not just a fall out of favor but seems an eclipse of the tortoise kind. One can only hope, for the sake of tortoises and basketball fans everywhere, that this eclipse is merely temporary. For now, we defer to the wisdom of the wildlife - or in this case, the basketball court - survival of the slickest. Meanwhile, keep your eyes on that high-flying hawk of South Carolina, because if anything, the law of the jungle tells us, it's far from the tortoise that wins the race.