Terrapin men’s basketball coach Gary Williams had to go to an extreme Tuesday night to describe the frustrations of what has been a season full of extremes and frustrations.
Never in 37 years of coaching could he recall having such an inconsistent team, he said. Williams was a graduate student assistant who worked with the Terp freshman squad 37 years ago.
The same Terp team that swept the season series from Duke for the first time in a decade was swept by last-place Clemson Tuesday night. The Terps hold the distinction of being the only team to win at Duke’s Cameron Indoor Stadium this season, yet they lost to a Clemson team that entered the contest 1-5 on the road in ACC play.
“We’ve had so many ups and downs. It comes to the point where everybody just has to look in the mirror,” junior forward Nik Caner-Medley said. “We’re at Maryland in the white jerseys at home; it just doesn’t make any sense for us to lose this game.”
The Terps (16-9, 7-7 ACC) have two regular season games left in which to better their chances for a 12th straight NCAA tournament selection. But picking up the all-important eighth ACC victory doesn’t seem to be the team’s only concern.
Junior point guard John Gilchrist said the Terps are hindered by “a lot of things behind the scenes,” which he didn’t specify. But in his most candid postgame comments of the season, Gilchrist portrayed the Terps to be troubled by personal issues.
“We’re fighting things that we can’t even see,” Gilchrist said. “You can just tell with each and every guy. You can look at somebody and be, like, ‘What’s wrong?’ We’re trying to make things right, but you can just tell everybody has things that should be wiped away when you step on the basketball floor, but it’s kind of being carried over this year.”
He said the Terps haven’t taken well to criticism this season, himself included.
“On this team, criticism gets taken the wrong way sometimes,” he said. “It’s definitely tough when you have ups and downs like this, and you’re one of the main reasons that the blame is getting put upon. I think everybody’s a little sensitive of having things said to them. We’re just trying to find our niche with one another — our common bond.”
Gilchrist said people sometimes forget the players are just college students with problems of their own, and that he’s tried to put “a straight mask on” after tough defeats this season.
But after the loss to Clemson, he let down his guard.
“I don’t know how everybody else views this game of basketball, but it’s just a game. It always should be a fun thing,” he said. “It’s not you walk out on the floor and you’re, like, ‘I must win this game.’ Or, ‘We need to go to the NCAA tournament.’ Putting all this pressure on yourself — it’s just outright silly, in my opinion. It’s silly. I just want to play the game of basketball. My momma always told me when you do something and you enjoy what you’re doing, you’re going to do it at your best ability. You can’t put negative energy and negative thoughts into your mind.
“I guess when you become a grown man, you have responsibilities. You can’t look at things with a child-like mentality, but it’s kind of hard when this is a game you grew up with. I’ve slept with a ball all the way up until last year sometimes. You look at a game like it’s a love and look at it with that same child-like mentality, and then it starts turning into a job. That’s when it’s difficult. That’s when it becomes less fun.”
With the regular season drawing to a close and questions still surrounding the team, the Terps continue searching for answers to explain their inconsistency. As has been the case all year, the Terps’ potential is up to them. They’ve shown they can play with one of the conference’s best teams or be shown up by one of its worst. But why that is, they still don’t know.
“I have no clue,” junior guard Chris McCray said. “We know the ACC is good, but still you have to put it out there every night, and every night we haven’t been putting it out there. We just going to have to rethink things, and hopefully our attitude changes.”
