By: Steve Lash

A beaming Sen. Lisa A. Gladden took her seat in the Senate chamber this morning. The source of the Baltimore Democrat’s delight became apparent about one hour into the session.

Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr., D-Calvert and Prince George’s, urged the lawmakers to take notice of “the vice chair” of the Judicial Proceedings Committee. Gladden revealed that under her dark-blue suit jacket she was wearing a light-blue shirt emblazoned with the name of her undergraduate alma mater: Duke University.

Yes, that Duke University — the school which defeated Butler University 61-59 last night to win the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship. And the school dubbed “The Evil Empire” in College Park and environs for its heated rivalry with the University of Maryland in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

“I don’t have anything to say today because I think everybody knows,” Gladden told her colleagues. “I don’t want to gloat. It was a great game and a great victory for the ACC.”

But Sen. James N. Robey, a University of Maryland alumnus, declined to let Gladden off so easy.

“Can you name one player on the Duke team?” Robey, a Howard County Democrat, asked in an effort to put Gladden on the spot.

Gladden was silent for about, er, one shining moment before responding, “Johnny Dawkins.”

Dawkins played for Duke but not last night. He was the team’s starting point guard in the mid-1980s — when Gladden was also a student at the Durham, N.C., school.