Terps are flying high, but know of potential pitfalls

For most of this season, the Terrapin men's basketball team drifted along on the fringes of the national college basketball radar.

Duke's dominance and North Carolina's post-National Championship swoon took much of the spotlight away from a Terps' squad that struggled for consistency early and didn't garner a marquee win during its nonconference schedule. Late last month, coach Gary Williams wondered why his team hadn't secured a national ranking despite piling up conference wins.

But with seven straight wins to close the regular season, including several in which they needed second-half heroics to squeeze by, the No. 19 Terps have demanded attention with their success. They roll into today's ACC Tournament opener against No. 7 seed Georgia Tech as unquestionably the conference's hottest team.

In a tournament that has been owned by the Blue Devils and Tar Heels in recent years, the No. 2 seed Terps (23-7, 13-3 ACC) come in facing the big expectations that come along with being ACC regular season co-champions.

"We don't think about it," forward Landon Milbourne said. "These are just our goals. We set our goals at the beginning of the year, and it's just a matter of us going out there and conquering them. Our next goal is to win the ACC championship. There's no reason we can't do that." 

Sporting a veteran roster that includes three seniors and most key cogs from last season's impressive postseason push, the Terps seem well-positioned for a run at their first ACC Tournament title since 2004.

But Williams and the Terps know firsthand how fickle late season success can be.
Three years ago — at Milbourne, Greivis Vasquez and Eric Hayes' first ACC Tournament — the Terps entered riding a seven-game winning streak and dropped a first round game to No. 12 seed Miami.

The Terps charged from the sixth seed to win their unlikely 2004 title at the Greensboro Coliseum — the only time a team other than Duke or North Carolina has won it in the last 13 years.

They'll kick off this year's edition tonight against the Yellow Jackets, who knocked off North Carolina 62-58 in a first-round game yesterday.

"Tournament play is funny because it's one game," coach Gary Williams said before contrasting it with a drawn-out NBA playoff series. "If you play poorly, you go home."

Thanks to earning their first bye since the conference expanded to include multiple first-round games in 2005, the Terps have had plenty of time to let their favorable prospects sink in.

Tuesday, a day before the team left for the tournament, Williams said the Terps had focused on themselves in the days since locking up a share of the regular season crown with a win at Virginia last weekend.

After an at-times rigorous ACC slate that featured several quick turnarounds, Williams relished the Terps' time to decompress — which included no formal practice on Sunday or Monday.

Despite posting regular season wins against 10 of the 11 teams that will be vying for the conference's at-large tournament berth, the Terps know they'll need to continue their steady improvement to be a factor in Greensboro, N.C.

"We humble," Vasquez said. "We know that what's coming ahead of us is unbelievably tough. We got to earn every win and continue to work hard."

Last season, the Terps needed ACC Tournament wins to secure a spot in the NCAA Tournament field. They got two before the Blue Devils stopped their run in a Saturday semifinal.

But the team's success in a parity-marked conference ensures it will be a target this time around.

The Terps' recent consistency provides a not-so-subtle indication they are equipped to survive that gauntlet.

And if they can rise to the occasion and add an ACC Tournament championship to their growing list of accomplishments, the Terps will finally claim the conference spotlight all to themselves.

"We should have a little bit of swagger coming in there," Milbourne said. "At the same time, we gonna just work hard. We're not going to get away from what got us to this point."

edetweiler@umdbk.com