Terps look back, then ahead

Having reached the halfway point of their conference schedule, Jordan Williams, Dino Gregory and Adrian Bowie all made it clear Wednesday night that tomorrow afternoon has to be a turning point for the Terrapin men's basketball team.

Through 22 games, the Terps (14-8, 4-4 ACC) haven't knocked off a single top-25 team, and have only beaten one squad in the RPI top 50. Duke provided possibly the last chance for the squad to grab a signature win, but the Terps fell apart early and suffered an embarrassing 18-point home loss.

Yet Gregory was confident that a turn for the better would begin tomorrow. Against a woeful Wake Forest (8-14, 1-6) team — one that so far has been the ACC's worst — any hopes for starting anew likely won't be derailed this weekend.

"Our plans are to go 8-0 for this last stretch of the season," Gregory said. "My team thinks so. We have a lot to do to make the tournament, but it all starts [tomorrow]."

In his 22 years coaching in College Park, coach Gary Williams said he has never discussed his squad's NCAA Tournament standing with the team itself. He's never felt the need to.

But his players, constantly bombarded with questions regarding the team's tournament resumé, know time is slipping away to earn a third straight berth to the Big Dance. The Terps' three seniors experienced the disappointment of playing in the NIT as freshmen and have told the team's younger players they don't want to go back.

"We have to win games — that's the bottom line," Jordan Williams said. "We don't have a quality win under our belt. We beat some tough teams, but we don't have a win against a ranked opponent. That's what we need to do to make the tournament. We just have to keep moving forward and trying to improve."

The Terps shouldn't have trouble bouncing back against a Demon Deacon team they beat by 19 points earlier this season.

Gary Williams said he knows better than to put any extra emphasis on Duke compared to other conference opponents. Wake Forest, in the midst of one of its worst seasons in program history, is no different.

"You can't put any special effort into one game because you can turn around and lose the next game," Williams said. "So what did you gain even if you win? It's important to stay in the moment."

After the Terps fell to the Blue Devils in Durham, N.C., in early January, they blew out the Demon Deacons for their first conference win of the season. Since then, little has changed for Wake Forest, which has only one conference win this season. The Demon Deacons have lost by an average of 26 points in their five other ACC losses.

Under the direction of first-year coach Jeff Bzdelik, Wake Forest has felt the growing pains of a roster filled with eight freshmen and sophomores. Some have called the Demon Deacons the worst team from any of college basketball's power conferences this season.

In the last meeting between the two teams, the Terps shot just 17 of 33 from the free-throw line and five of 18 from the 3-point line but still cruised to an easy win. Still, the Terps can't blow off Wake Forest — or dwell on their mistakes against Duke — or they could suffer an even more crushing loss.

"We can't take back what we did against Duke," Bowie said. "All we have to do is worry about Saturday and go on from there."

ceckard@umdbk.com