Major Meltdown

This was bad, very bad -- a loss so awful and inexplicable it might be Back to the NIT bad. Wherever Gary Williams's mentally fragile team goes from here, it can fall no farther than it did before a confounded and dazed gathering in its own arena last night against an all-but-beaten ACC foe.

Did this really happen last night in College Park? It is difficult to digest what happened to the Maryland Terrapins, how they ruined a perfect senior sendoff and now must deal with the anatomy of their own train wreck.

Up 13 points with 4 minutes 48 seconds left -- blowing out the Tigers 59-39 with 11 minutes left, for goodness sake, picking Clemson apart with back picks, pretty offensive execution and James Gist's film-at-11 dunks and blocks -- yet Maryland lost.

They missed nine free throws. They tensed up as the shot clock wound down on those final possessions. Disturbingly, they morphed from the swaggering, smack-talking team at the park to a bunch of youngsters who weren't sure what to do.

As the game wore on and Clemson drew closer, nobody seemed to want to take a big shot.

Then, with the game tied, a 19-year-old hit a Dan Majerle-distance prayer of a three-pointer from way out on the right wing in the final seconds, freshman Terrence Oglesby's shot sending The House That Gary Built into a state of stunned silence.

Clemson's Comeback Kids 73, the University of Meltdown 70.

Unbelievable.

When it was over, a senior collapsed to the floor in agony on what was supposed to be his night. Gist went down hard, just like his Terrapins did in a no-they-didn't nightmare that was as unreal as it was unacceptable.

This was not supposed to happen, especially after Gist threw down some of the nastiest dunks of his four-year career last night. He cradled the ball once. He brought his elbows back and used two hands another time. Once he simply rose and levitated, pausing for effect before depositing the ball maliciously through the rim.

As the lead grew to 20 points -- as the Comcast Center crowd roiled with sound and belief -- the conversation at press row actually turned away from a rout of Clemson and toward where Gist stood in the pantheon of Maryland skywalkers.

Somewhere in the vicinity of Laron Profit, Exree Hipp and Steve Francis, but still a few vertical miles south of Len Bias?