Terps Need More Work

By Mike Wise
Monday, January 28, 2008

Maryland has completely distanced itself from the lost team that inexplicably fell to Ohio and American in a 10-day span almost a month ago. Coach Gary Williams can see his team crawling its way back toward the elite of men's college basketball -- a team that might just be tournament-worthy in a month.

But there is a hitch that needs to be fixed, a fundamental problem that last night kept the Terrapins from knocking off a top-five team for the second time in eight days and might keep them from the 20 wins probably needed to get in.

Like most teams coached by Williams, they know how to play with their backs against the wall. Their stunning victory last Saturday against North Carolina in Chapel Hill is testimony. But playing with the lead, getting used to prosperity instead of the usual adversity, is a real chore right now.

"We were acting like we were the team that was down," Bambale Osby said. "I don't know why we were in such a rush. We were leading. We weren't behind."

Maryland was undone by Duke's second-half will and poise in a 93-84 loss, which had to be deflating after shooting a lights-out 62.1 percent in the first half and nearly running the Blue Devils off the floor with an assortment of dunks and drop-step layups.

Osby was manhandling Duke's Lilliputian frontline. Big, strong and imposing, with a pick-combed Afro to boot, the Maryland power forward just ran over Mike Krzyzewski's fourth-ranked team. The imposing player teammates and fans affectionately call "Boom" should have come equipped with a roll bar.

But Gerald Henderson and DeMarcus Nelson, a very NBA-ready back court, came out in the second half and led their teammates on a nice little run. Duke scored the first six points of the half and, suddenly, it was a three-point game and a grind-it-out affair the rest of the way.

Williams's only real complaint had to be his players' inability to corral a few loose balls with less than four minutes left and his team trailing by five. Duke's desire simply made it impossible for Maryland to make this a last-second affair. Other than that, they hung around with a one-loss team until the end.

"What do you want me to do?" he said, rhetorically. "Fifty-four percent [shooting] against the number [four] team in the country."

He wasn't satisfied -- how could he be after the Terrapins fell to 12-8 with 11 games to play in the ACC? But he wasn't down on his players either, especially not after they stunned the Tar Heels last week and were in a very good position to take out Duke before letting the Blue Devils back in the game.

"We're doing it," Williams said. "We've won six of our last eight games. We beat the number one team in the country and had the number [four] team in the country down nine at halftime. We just didn't get it done in the second half. We're not perfect.

"We have two days to get ready for Virginia and we're going to be ready. We have to play every game, every situation. We were that way for a long time and we want to get back to that level."

"It's all mental," Osby said. "We just haven't learned everything yet about playing with a lead."

There isn't much time for adversity's children to become prosperity's adults. The learning curve is steep right now.

Greivis Vasquez is still tying to become a consistent floor leader as a sophomore, playing the risk-reward game on almost every possession. James Gist is learning to be the go-to guy in the low block and finding out how good he can be with his back to the basket. And Osby is learning to play 30 minutes per game after barely averaging 13 minutes per game a season ago.

Maryland can't worry about becoming tournament tough until they become ACC tough. It may be a long shot, given they would most likely have to go 8-3 down the stretch.

"We missed an opportunity to win a game that might have helped put us in the tournament," Vasquez said. "You can let a game like that get away."

Vasquez missed the front end of a one-and-one with 2 minutes 42 seconds left that hurt almost as much as losing those rebounds to Duke on the defensive end.

Downing Duke would have indeed helped their cause. But that's short-sighted. Maryland's fixation with Duke might need to subside a bit. It's almost unhealthy. When the Duke game becomes a referendum on the season, it takes away from the importance of beating Virginia at home on Wednesday night.

It's a nice victory for College Park anytime Coach K's program goes down. So what did those victories really do, except give the fans some validation they hardly need anymore?

They shouldn't see themselves as the plucky kids who shocked the world when a team like Duke goes down. The Terrapins already play in one of the best on-campus bandboxes in the country. Their coach is three wins shy of No. 600, a feat accomplished by just six other active Division I head coaches. And Maryland won a national title less than six years ago.

It all goes with the mind-set of viewing yourself as belonging in the big-time college basketball world once you beat the elite.

"We need to learn how to play with a lead, bottom line," Osby said.

He said it best for Maryland, who has a shot this year if it can shake the idea that the Terrapins don't always have to be the team that overcomes. It's all right to be up 10 points in the second half, to slow it down and win going away. Being comfortable with being ahead is not a bad thing.