ATLANTA -- Gary Williams found a tempered voice this season, one that could be constructively critical after a blowout loss, but uplifting the next day to ensure Maryland 's confidence wouldn't waver.
His passion for excellence and his enthusiasm for this particular team led to a revitalization of the Terps' NCAA chances the past two days in Atlanta with wins over NC State and Wake Forest.
Williams had T-shirts made up for the players that said "two more wins," with the assumption that Maryland could get into the field with that performance. The joke in the postgame locker room Friday was the Terps were ready to grab a sharpie and add two more on the back.
Williams' motivational work may be done. He probably doesn't need to say much to get the Terps focused on beating their nemesis Duke in Saturday's ACC semifinal, one set up after the Blue Devils narrowly escaped Boston College by one point when Rakim Sanders' 3-pointer at the buzzer was off.
"I've known Gary a long time and he likes this kind of challenge,'' said Maryland assistant Joe Harrington. "More than anything he loves to motivate these type of guys. That's the biggest thing for him, the challenge to be successful with this group.''
The most ridiculous part of this turbulent Terp season -- swings from wins over North Carolina in overtime to Michigan State in Orlando to a 41-point loss at Duke to blowout losses to Georgetown, Clemson and a crushing loss at Virginia to end the regular season -- is that Williams would be in trouble. Please.
If anyone could coach this Terps team to a title, a team that is limited by size, quickness and experience, then he's not currently employed in Division I. Recruiting misses are a valid criticism, but not coaching -- not this season.
"When we heard all of that, we thought how is that even possible,'' said Maryland guard Eric Hayes of Williams' job being in jeopardy midseason. "That's just crazy.''
The Terp players, especially Greivis Vasquez, are uniformly behind Williams.
"He made us believe,'' said Vasquez, who shares a unique passion for the game with Williams.
Vasquez has become such a devoted disciple that he wants Williams to teach him how he can dissect so many of the intricacies of a game while watching game tape.
"He's got so much passion and energy for the game like he's 22 years old,'' Vasquez said. "He makes us believe even when we lost to Duke by 40 points. The next day in practice he was there to put it behind us and move forward. He takes so much pressure off the players. He is a great coach. He can flat-out coach.''
Williams said he had to find the right buttons to push with this group. He didn't crush them after a loss. He had to find that voice early this season, one that he hasn't used often in his career.
"I've done a better job this year understanding them,'' Williams said. "I've got to keep myself on an even keel so I can walk into practice and say 'OK, they got us yesterday,' and that's what I've been able to do this year. I can't do that every year. The reason I can this year is because of the effort they gave in practice every day.''
Williams said he learned recently that he would have to temper his tone. Today's players aren't responding to discipline as much since they've been coddled. That wasn't the case, he said, when he was coming up as a player.
By the way, Williams isn't about to pronounce the Terps in the field of 65. But he knows they're close. Beating Duke would certainly end any discussion. For what it's worth, Williams isn't expecting to leave on Saturday. He said he brought four suits -- one for the first round, quarterfinals, semifinals and finals here in Atlanta .
• Wake Forest was on a roll, winning six of seven games prior to Friday's quarterfinal against Maryland. But the Demon Deacons were flat once James Johnson picked up early fouls in the first half.
The players seemed to think there was more of an issue than coach Dino Gaudio. Johnson said the Demon Deacons didn't bring enough energy and were immature in how they handled being down.
"We can't have our heads down, we've got more basketball to play,'' Johnson said.
Fellow Wake sophomore Jeff Teague said the Demon Deacons were uncharacteristically tentative against the Terps in the 75-64 loss.
"We've got to come out fighting in the NCAAs,'' Teague said. "I didn't step up in the first half. Everyone was looking to see what we would do next when James got his third foul.''
Gaudio said when Johnson is out that the Demon Deacons have a tendency to be lost. Shooting 29 percent is a prescription for a loss.
But Gaudio is confident Wake can get back to being a threat to get to Detroit once the tournament is at hand next week.
"We were playing real well,'' Gaudio said of the streak prior to the ACC tournament. "We tightened up a bit, no question about it. The thing about this team is that every time they got beat they responded. Hopefully this is a good thing.''
• Duke got Nolan Smith back from a concussion for the BC game. Smith hit a crucial 3-pointer, but did miss a layup in his 18 minutes.
• Duke's Kyle Singler is playing some of the best basketball of his career. He scored 26 points and had six blocks on Saturday. Singler said he's becoming much more aggressive offensively, and it showed, as he continues to seek his shot.
• Rakim Sanders missed on a chance to foul Gerald Henderson on his ultimate game-winning bucket. And Tyrese Rice wasn't supposed to call a timeout with 10.6 seconds left, but the BC coaches felt Rice didn't think the ball would be inbounded. It was and the Eagles then had to call another timeout with 5.5 seconds left when they got the ball across midcourt. The play was for Sanders to get the ball to Joe Trapani to start a cut toward the basket. But Duke did a good job of denying Trapani the ball, forcing Sanders to launch a deep 3-pointer that missed.
• Duke and Boston College are becoming solid competitors in this league. The two teams continue to play grind-out games against each other, with both teams exhausted by the end.
• BC coach Al Skinner was naturally disappointed in not being able to advance to the semifinals against Maryland, but optimistic that the fortitude the Eagles showed in coming back twice, and taking the lead late, will carry into the NCAA tournament next week. The Eagles firmly believe they can advance into the second weekend if they get an advantageous seed.
• Freshman Reggie Jackson had a bruised elbow and couldn't return after playing just five minutes. But he isn't expected to be out for the Eagles next week. Forward Josh Southern tweaked his shoulder and was limited to 25 minutes, but he won't miss games, either.
• Greg Paulus has essentially disappeared on the Duke bench. Paulus played just one minute and is being wedged out of the rotation with Smith, Jon Scheyer, Elliot Williams and Henderson dominating minutes on the wing. But to Paulus' credit, the senior guard doesn't sulk on the bench and hasn't been a problem.
Andy Katz
