The Terps regular season ended with a 91-76 loss in Charlottesville, VA to an emotional Virginia Cavaliers squad that was honoring team captain and point guard Sean Singletary. Singletary joined Curtis Staples as one of two Cavaliers to have his jersey retired. He demonstrated why he was worthy of such an honor, as seemingly every Cavalier basket involved the senior. He led the Cavs with 27 points, becoming the 39th player in ACC history to score 2,000 points. But enough with him, and onto the enigma that is the Terps.

Greivis Vasquez led the Terps with 16 points and 9 assists, to only 3 turnovers, a sign that his decision making is getting better. A number of times last night Vasquez reigned himself in on a potential fast break, something that was absent earlier this season. What is most interesting about this development is that the Terps lost. During their run of success Vasquez was a whirling dervish on the court, freelancing on almost every play. While many of his decisions led to moans from the Terp faithful, even more of them made them clap and cheer. His risk-taking, while certainly a detractor from the box score, was a key element to us winning. His ill-advised shots went in; his no-look passes found their mark. Last night Greivis looked tenative with his jump shot, as if he was thinking about it too much. Gone were the off balance, end of shot clock three pointers. Instead, it was a deliberate, almost plodding Vasquez. When Greivis isn't thinking, he's usually playing his best basketball. NBA scouts have often said that Vasquez lacks a position, but that he is most certainly an intense, emotional basketball player. At times, it looks like Vasquez is playing pick-up basketball. As much as it pains me to say this, I think that Vasquez needs to stop playing such "smart" basketball and just let it all hang out. We were winning, even when he was making seemingly stupid decisions. The more he thinks about his play, the worse he plays.

Another element of that is that he is constantly roasted by the fans. I've heard people call for him to be benched; those people are idiots. He is a second-team all-ACC selection for a reason; the kid can play. His decisions may not make sense, but his dedication to the team and love for the game is undeniable. The Terps would have been lucky to go .500 in the ACC without him. People need to get off of his case when he makes stupid decisions and realize that if we want the benefits of Vasquez, we most certainly have to live with the consequences.

Notice I didn't say "with him at the helm." Gary needs to move Vasquez off the ball and put Hayes at point guard. Against North Carolina Vasquez came off screens on curl cuts and got the ball as he moved into the lane. In this position he was able to use his 6'6 frame to overpower Marcus Ginyard, one of the ACC's best perimeter defenders. Hayes is an excellent post feeder, as evidenced by his position on the wing in some off our halfcourt sets. Not only would that benefit Vasquez in the scoring column, it would also cut down on the impact of his turnovers. He has a tendency to turn the ball over in seemingly casual, careless ways; by taking away the primary ball handling duties, those turnovers hurt the Terps less, and allows Vasquez to still play his normal game.

One of the few good developments out of the game was the continued excellent play of guard Adrian Bowie off of the bench. Bowie had 15 points on 6-8 shooting, including 3 of 4 from behind the arc. For a guy that never shot a single three during his senior year, it seems like he certainly can shoot. He still makes the occasional mistake of dribbling too casually, but that's certainly a correctable mistake. What's more, with Vasquez and Hayes firmly entrenched as starters, at least until Sean Mosley gets to CP, Bowie can settle into a role as a scorer and spark plug off of the bench. If he can come enter the game with the mindset of score and harass the other team's perimter players, he can be a dangerous player. I don't seem him starting over Mosley next season, but if he can give us 6-10 points off of the bench every game, it'll be a big help to the team.

James Gist was named second-team all-ACC on Monday. His selection came off of the great beginning and middle of this season. He has been absent from the box scores in the last few games, including 6 points on 3 of 13 shooting. That's an abomination for a senior in his final game. But then again, who can blame him? He was coming off of screens and shooting from 17 feet all night long. It seems like a waste of his height to have him shooting from 17 feet when he's even more effective from 7 feet. A reasonable explanation for the change in play calling was that UVA's big men are not very athletic and therefore were unable to stay with Gist. After awhile, it didn't matter. He was shooting open jumpers and not making them. The Cavs were more than happy to let him stand out there and shoot and hustle for the rebounds. Gist did have 7 rebounds, but only one on the offensive end, again owing to his far position from the basket. Another explanation is that he is hurt in some unknown way that is preventing him from really attacking the basket. His trademark big dunks and blocks were a thing of the past last night; he was extremely quiet.

The Terps played relatively uninspired basketball throughout the entire night. The most emotion that someone displayed was Boom Osby yelling at his teammates, specifically Jerome Burney, after his flat-footed close out led to a wide open UVA dunk down the middle of the lane. Boom's point wasn't lost on the fans, although it may have been lost in the aftermath of Terrence Oglesby's dagger last week: that the Terps are letting the NCAA Tournament slide out of their hands. Just as surely as they were in the field of 65 a month and change ago, they are firmly on the outside looking in. They were not among Joe Lunardi's last four teams out; they weren't even worth that. The only reasonable way they get into the tournament is if they make a convincing run to the league title game, meaning they'd have to beat Boston College (never an easy out with guard Tyrese Rice shooting the way he is), Clemson (what an interesting psychological experiment that would be), and Duke. There they would presumably face North Carolina. If they can win some of those games an at-large berth is possible.

That scenario is about as far from possibility as one can imagine. The scene is very different from 2004, where a red-hot Terps team that had beaten four ranked teams in the past three weeks beat Chris Paul's Wake Forest squad, Julius Hodge's Wolfpack, a game in which the Terps were down 19 at halftime, the largest halftime deficit ever overcome in ACC history, and Shelden Williams' Duke team. That Terp team was led by John Gilchrist, a name that still brings muttered curse words under Terp nation's collective breath. That team made a hell of a run, but they came into the tournament playing inspired basketball. This team is wading along, mired in mediocrity, unable to muster much of anything on either end of the floor. I don't envy Gary Williams' task of trying to play a mental chess game with them and motivating them right now. If I were him, I'd try and keep the atmosphere loose. Perhaps a halfcourt shooting competition or a few games of H-O-R-S-E would get the guys back to having a little fun on the floor. I for one miss seeing Vasquez and Gist enjoying themselves on the court; for god's sake, Greivis hasn't shimmied on the court in awhile.

The Terps play Boston College on Thursday as the 6 seed, the Eagles are the 11 seed. We'll see what kind of motivation the Terps come out with on Thursday; I sure hope they show more fight than last night.