Published: February 22, 2008 10:09 am         

What a mess at Comcast

Greivis Vasquez wholeheartedly disagrees with this, and that's a good thing. But that real bad ACC loss the Maryland Terrapins had at Virginia Tech back on January 12? The one ACC loss the Terps should have won? Well, we can no longer say that as the thesis grew some legs Wednesday night with the Terps' 69-65 loss to the Hokies at Comcast Center - a game Maryland lost in the first half when it had a 28-14 lead and couldn't put Tech away, and then again in the second half when it had a 10-point lead and failed to finish the job once more.

Game, set, season sweep for Virginia Tech, and, as they like to say where I come from, "If you do it twice, it ain't braggin'."

Vasquez, bless his hot-blooded heart, doesn't see it that way.

"We're better than they are," he told reporters after the game. "We were leading the whole game by 14, 10 points. They just outplayed us at the end. It's hard to take, especially at home."

As the corner kids in "The Wire" like to say, "True that."

Or, as the boys at Mensa Cumberland like to say, "It was enough to make you (rhymes with Duke)."

Funny you should mention that, because in the middle of the second half Wednesday, with Maryland's 10-point lead beginning to melt completely away, Virginia Tech's Dorenzo Hudson (perhaps feeling unsettled by the Terps' free-throw shooting as Bambale Osby had just missed two) yacked all over the Comcast Center floor, delaying the game for 10 minutes and causing a frenzied reaction from Maryland coach Gary Williams that led us to believe he wanted to follow Hudson's lead.

After draping a towel over his head and retreating to the Tech dressing room, Hudson returned and seemed none the worse for wear. The same, however, could not be said for Maryland fans.

Not only did Virginia Tech come into Comcast and throw up all over the place, they didn't even clean up their own mess. That duty fell to the low man on the totem poll (obviously) amongst the Maryland team managers, who, no doubt, took a long hot shower upon his return to the dorm.

Worse, the Hokies, fresh off a 39-point loss to North Carolina, were able to complete the season sweep of Maryland because their bench produced and the Terps' did not (0 points); and Tech's Jeff Allen, the former DeMatha grad with the Ryan Randle body, dominated the paint in the second half to finish with 14 points and 14 rebounds, while Maryland's James Gist managed just three field goals and seven points after joining Osby on the bench for the final six minutes of the first half with two personal fouls.

None of which played too well with the three officials, who, even before Hudson's little accident, gave the appearance of being rather grumpy because, instead of working The Palace (the ESPN 9 o'clock game), they had to work the Virginia Tech-Maryland 9 o'clock game (a.k.a. the Tim Brant-Dan Bonner game). Come on. Leg-whipping isn't an intentional foul?

Still, that's no excuse for what the Terps allowed to happen.

Now granted, this is a very young team, just as Tech is, and all of this should help in the long run, but so far Maryland seems to be a team that is incapable of reaching comfort. Take nothing away from Tech, but in two blinks of an eyelash, that game should have been in the Terps' pockets, not once, but twice. Yet in both instances, you could feel it slipping away from them even when they were still on top of a four-possession game.

Vasquez, God love him, makes you want to laugh and cry all at the same time. He makes shots and plays he has no business making, but then he takes shots or forces plays he has no business considering. Still, what's a lad to do when there's no one else to help? When Vasquez goes off on a tangent, he can look bad. When his teammates are standing around and not producing, he can look really bad.

Vasquez always talks of his desire "to be a great player," which is admirable, but sometimes it seems he tries too hard to be a great player, particularly at home. And just as Vasquez appears to be a better road player, the Terps appear to be a better road team than a home team (an unthinkable five losses at Comcast this season). That could help them in the immediate future as well as in the postseason, provided they don't allow the postseason bid they want to slip away.

Poor Eric Hayes is lost. He can drive, of course, since he is a born point guard, but these days he's forcing the drive because it appears he has lost all confidence in his outside shot. Maybe that's because Vasquez, with his desire to create the world seven seconds into the shot clock, sometimes appears to unwittingly take Hayes out of the offense.

As for Gist? Plain and simple. If he's hitting three field goals a game as he has in every game since he scored 30 against N.C. State, the Terps can't win. Osby can only do so much on his own down there. And Braxton Dupree, we know you're just a freshman, but it's time to step up, son.

Maryland is still 7-5 in the ACC, but very easily could be better off. What could have been, however, is something the Terps can't consider. On Saturday, they need to go to Miami, a place and a team they have had little or no success with in the past, and realize everything worth attaining for them is still out there to attain.

With their backs again against the wall, the Terps are headed to the road for three of their final four games. Which is why it probably wouldn't be wise to count them out.

Contact Mike Burke at mburke@times-news.com.