Terps find it difficult to cover up the face of defeat

DURHAM, N.C. -- You ever seen the face of a big game?

There it was on the Maryland Terrapins' bench, where senior Nik Caner-Medley had just taken his seat. He didn't say a word, and no one said anything to him. He just shook his head in disbelief.

And there it was on the court, where junior D.J. Strawberry looked to the scoreboard, and then at J.J. Redick, before stealing another glance at the scoreboard. His eyes were glazed over like a boxer who'd had the past several hours knocked clean fromhis memory.

The most telling face is always that of Terps coach Gary Williams, whose blood-red mug could inspire a thousand Halloween masks. But that's any game and that's every game for Williams. Last night at Cameron Indoor Stadium, if you were looking for a face that revealed anything about top-ranked Duke's 76-52 dismantling of No. 23 Maryland, it was on Williams' face in the closing minutes of the first half.

He stood near the Terps bench, hands on his hips, eyes directed at a distant corner of the gym. Three feet away, Redick, the Blue Devils' golden boy, took a pass and drilled a three-pointer. Williams' hands never shifted and his eyes never moved. He didn't appear to see the basket, but he certainly felt what was happening. Everyone in the gym could.

A big game is about faces, and last night revealed the face of the Terps' program: It's bruised and shows few signs of hope. This is a team that lacks a floor leader, and as long as they scurry about the court like an over-caffeinated hummingbird, the ACC will prove to be a much tougher conference than it has in a long time.

"It's not a program-decider or anything like that,"Williams had said the day before the Duke game.

In North Carolina and in Maryland, the knee-jerk reaction is to wake up this morning and forget what month it is. Every year at about this time, as soon as the final seconds tick away, the excitement seems to erase perspective.

The reality this morning is that it's not March yet. Every ACC game is important, but historically, there's nothing about the Terps' matchup against the Blue Devils that helps forecast the rest of the basketball season.

"You play 30-some games in basketball, so one game doesn't kill you," Williams had said earlier this week.

As conference foes, the two schools play at least twice every year. Duke has an 8-3 advantage in the annual first matchup over the past 11 seasons. Most years, the initial meeting has had little direct bearing on how the rest of the season played out.

For example:

Last year, the Terps won the first game. Duke was ranked No. 2 at the time. Despite the big win, Maryland posted a 7-8 record the rest of the way.

The year before, Maryland lost the first game against a topranked Blue Devils team. The Terpswon the ACC title that year.

All Terps fans remember the 2001-02 season fondly. Maryland lost its first meeting with Duke. Of course, they were 19-1 after that and won a national championship.

That's history. While an early meeting with Dukemight dictate little, it reveals a lot.

Maryland and Duke play a different kind of basketball right now. Duke is smart, athletic, calmand good. Maryland is none of those things. Road signs and traffic cones couldn't help the Terps navigate the court last night.

They had trouble running the offense - largely because they struggle to even hold on to the ball. As has been the problem in each of the Terps' three previous losses, Maryland booted the ball all over the place, turning it over 18 times in the first half alone. For a comparison, the Terps suffered just 15 turnovers in their entire game against Boston College, a 73-71 win last month.

Sure, if the Terps had the personnel, they could recover from last night's loss quickly. But this season might not be exactly like previous seasons. Last night wasn't a wake-up call. That came in a loss last week.

While Miami had humbled the Terps, Duke has exposed them.

But no matter what time of year, a big game is about faces, and last night we saw what the Terps look like after going 12 rounds with a heavyweight. The best makeup artist in Hollywood couldn't have dressed this one up.

Maryland doesn't look like a team that can be on the court with the nation's top program. A game against Duke might not decide a team's fate, but it goes a long way to revealing a team's true self.

Williams is right. Losing to Duke isn't a program-ender. History might suggest otherwise, but if there's such a thing as foreshadowing in college basketball, last night's loss sure felt like a season-ender.

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Read Rick Maese's blog at baltimoresun.com/maeseblog