18-13

It's funny how things work out sometimes. Back in those halcyon days of October, I thought the Terps would finish 3rd or 4th in the ACC - either right ahead of Clemson or right behind them. Now in March the Terps' regular season is over, and it resulted in a tie for 5th place. Not terrible compared to expectations, right?

Not so much. The Terps finished up with an unsightly 13 losses, including losses to the likes of Boston College, Virginia, Ohio, American, and Missouri, none of whom are even close to NCAA Tournament at-large caliber teams. Even more disturbing, only one of those losses - the most recent against Virginia - came in a true road game. Net that against just one win against an at-large caliber team all season (the big one - @North Carolina) along with a maddening inability to slam the door on opponents late in the game plus a weakish ACC, and you have a rather empty fifth place finish.

A disasterous 2-5 finish to the regular season now means that any thoughts about the Terps making the Big Dance can go on hold at least until and unless the team beats Clemson on Friday night, and possibly until an unlikely win over Duke in the semifinals of the ACC Tournament. After the Clemson loss it was always going to be an uphill battle, but a stupifying 15 point loss to Virginia makes it all the more harder.

And what can be said about that game? It was more of the same. Porous perimeter defense, namely by Eric Hayes and Landon Milbourne. Stupifying substitution patterns - did I really see Dave Neal on the court for nearly a dozen minutes? Lethargic play by supposed leaders like Hayes and James Gist.

I said in the preview for the game that the Terps could let Sean Singletary (27 pts, 8-15 FG) get his, but that they must stop the other Cavalier perimeter players. And boy did they not do that.

Adrian Joseph (13 points, 4-9 FG) busted out of his slump early due to the lax defense of Milbourne on his way to his most points in over a month. Mamadi Diane (12 points) and walk on Calvin Baker (11 points) once again put up nice scoring numbers while Lars Mikalauskas even managed to score 11 points down low for his fourth straight game in double figures. The only positive was former Terp commit Jeff Jones finishing up a flop of a freshman season with only a missed shot and a turnover to show for his 10 minutes of play.

In the end the Virginia game was more disgusting than infuriating, unlike the Clemson game which was a nice mix of the two. The Terps will head to Charlotte starting on Thursday for one last chance to dance. Can they do it? They've surprised me before, many times, this season. Hopefully they can do it again.