CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. -Here are the Terps, heading back to College Park with just a couple of days to lick their wounds and make one last desperate push for the NCAA tournament. They'll roll into Atlanta on Tuesday night for the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament, tasked with a tall order: "We might have to make something impossible possible," junior Greivis Vasquez says.
That's what the season has come to: A team that showed again and again that it struggles with probable must now make the impossible possible. Sounds promising, right?
If we use yesterday's 68-63 loss at Virginia as any gauge, Maryland seems eager to pack in its season. In a game the Terps had to win to even their conference record, they blew not only a first-half lead but also possibly their chance at the NCAA tournament.
There was one sequence against the Cavaliers that seemed to shrink the Terp Coaster down to size, squeezing all the ups, the downs, the dips and the crazy turns of their season into a 10-second flash of time.
With only 38 seconds remaining, Virginia's Mamadi Diane drilled a three-pointer to break open a game that was tied at 61.
The Terps inbounded the ball, and what happened next encapsulated all the chaos that seems to envelope this team at key times.
"For a minute, we didn't really know what play we were going to run," Landon Milbourne said.
Said Dave Neal: "Coach Williams called one play. Greivis called another one."
"It was a little confusing to me," Vasquez offered.
Williams anticipated a zone defense - which had been eating up the Terps for much of the second half. He called one play but tried switching it when the Cavaliers showed man-to-man.
The eventual play was called "Black" - Neal sets a screen, Vasquez loses his defender and fires an open shot.
But either the confusion or the excitement forced Vasquez to freelance. He acknowledges missing the play. "It happens," he said. Neal set the screen, but Vasquez refused it, instead driving into the paint and launching an ugly shot that never had a flight plan.
"I take responsibility in that play," Vasquez said later. "I should've run a good play. But I got confused."
Williams crouched on the sideline, disgustedly swatting his right hand through the air. There was no public persecution of his star player after the game, though.
"It isn't all about the last play," Williams said. "There's 39 minutes before that."
