Firmly in NCAA field, No. 19 Terps hope to find some relaxation

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – After enduring an anxious Selection Sunday last March, the Terrapin men's basketball team aimed to move itself off the bubble coming into this season. A year ago, the Terps needed a pair of ACC Tournament wins to sneak into the NCAA bracket as a No. 10 seed — one of the last at-large berths awarded.

At the Terps' October media day, several players voiced hopes to not just make the 65-team field again but to ensure they fit comfortably into the list of tournament locks.

The No. 19 Terps' 74-68 final regular season win Saturday at short-handed and struggling Virginia confirmed they will head to the Greensboro Coliseum this week as the conference's hottest squad. Riding a seven-game winning streak, the ACC's co-regular season champs won't need a conference tournament run to prove their legitimacy. Instead, bubble squads will eye any match-up with the Terps as a chance for a late-season, resume-boosting win.

"I'm proud of our team," coach Gary Williams said after his team locked up its first share of the ACC regular season crown in eight years. "To get 13 wins this year in a very even league, I'm just proud of what we did."

Last March, the Terps trudged off the John Paul Jones Arena court after closing their regular season with a loss to Virginia unsure of its postseason fate.

With their position on the NCAA bubble growing more tenuous by the day, the Terps knew they needed ACC Tournament wins to secure an at-large NCAA berth.

They beat No. 10 seed N.C. State, and then they beat No. 2 seed Wake Forest. Then they spent 24 hours hoping they'd done enough to impress the NCAA Selection Committee after falling to Duke in the tournament semifinals.

This time, the Terps (23-7, 13-3 ACC), who secured the No. 2 seed in this year's tournament and a Friday matchup with the winner of Thursday's Georgia Tech and North Carolina opening round game, don't face that pressure.

With the first-day bye, they'll spend time trying to decompress after an emotional few weeks. Williams called the Terps' last six games — all wins — "crazy." They have included a pair of double-digit comebacks, an improbable home buzzer-beater, a double-overtime road win and Wednesday's upset of then-No. 4 Duke at Comcast Center.

The Terps struggled through a sluggish second half Saturday to hold off the Cavaliers. Williams said his team was probably "mentally tired" from that rigorous stretch. Guard Greivis Vasquez agreed.

"We just got a little tired," said Vasquez, who scored 13 of his game-high 23 points down the stretch to avoid the upset. "There have been a lot of things going on, emotions going on. ... It's been hard."

After surviving the Cavaliers, much of the postgame talk was devoted to looking back on the Terps' improbable run to the top of the ACC.

Williams credited his senior leaders — Vasquez, Landon Milbourne and Eric Hayes — with holding the team together through a disappointing start to the season. Guard Sean Mosley called clinching a share of the regular season crown — and eventually adding another banner to the Comcast Center rafters — "one of those feelings you'll never forget."

But the Terps will have to refocus as they try to win their first ACC Tournament title since 2004, knowing the rest of the conference is targeting them as a contender now. They've beaten every ACC team at least once this season except Wake Forest, which took the teams' lone meeting in Winston-Salem, N.C., in January.

The Yellow Jackets, who the Terps may play on Friday, would be in a similar position to the Terps last season — needing one more quality win to clinch a tournament berth after a disappointing close to the regular season.

Being a favorite can be tough, but for the Terps, it's certainly better than needing to win to get into the NCAA field. Instead of worrying about the bubble as the postseason begins, they'll have an eye on bigger things ahead.

"We just can't have no slippage," Mosley said. "We just got to continue to keep working hard — continue to get better. …  At the end of the day, we still have goals to reach."

TERP NOTE: Yesterday, Vasquez was named as one of three unanimous selections to the All-ACC first team, joining Duke guard Jon Scheyer and Virginia Tech guard Malcolm Delaney. Vasquez made the All-ACC second team in each of the last two seasons. Duke forward Kyle Singler and Clemson forward Trevor Booker rounded out this year's first team.

Jordan Williams also received all-conference honors yesterday, as the 6-foot-9 forward was named to the ACC's All-Rookie Team, the first Terp to garner the distinction since Steve Blake in 2000.

edetweiler@umdbk.com