The Terrapin men’s basketball team accentuated the positive following its 85-83 overtime loss at Wake Forest on Tuesday.
Of course, it’s not too hard to figure out why.
The team entered the New Year without a lot to feel good about.
That happens when you close the decade with a home loss to a CAA team that caps the first two months of the season without any really notable wins.
But if nothing else, 2010 has brought considerably more buzz to the Terps (10-5, 1-1 ACC). That started with a thrashing of lowly UNC-Greensboro at the Greensboro Coliseum, site of this year’s ACC Tournament. Coach Gary Williams and his players have pointed to that Jan. 3 win as a turning point that gave the Terps some confidence about several facets of their game.
The recent stretch during which the Terps kicked off ACC play with two games in three days only enhanced those feelings.
Even after coming up short at Wake Forest in a game that everyone available for comment afterward agreed that the Terps should have won, there’s a newfound optimism surrounding the team.
“I think given our first few games with who we played and where we played, I think we’re in pretty good position to go here in the ACC,” Williams said.
During this quick spurt that featured a Sunday night win against Florida State at Comcast Center and a quick turnaround to Tuesday’s loss at Joel Coliseum, several promising trends emerged for a team that had thus far failed to capture the preseason expectations.
They’ve shown an ability to rebound against bigger teams. Jordan Williams is starting to establish himself as the inside presence last year’s squad lacked. Guard Adrian Bowie provided an intriguing spark off the bench against that Williams probably envisioned when he re-annointed Eric Hayes as his third guard with Mosley and Vasquez.
That’s where the team is right now. With a road trip to Boston College on Saturday before three straight manageable games at Comcast Center (Longwood, N.C. State, Miami), the next two weeks will be a good barometer of where the team is headed.
Guard Eric Hayes talked Tuesday night about making sure a potentially disheartening loss didn’t get in the way of moving forward from a very serviceable first conference road effort.
This team knew it got dealt a pretty rough hand to start conference play. That said, the seniors, Hayes and Vasquez, clearly kept perspective when sizing up the state of the team following a draining loss.
“We tough, man,” Vasquez said. “Playing these guys with only one day to get ready and coming into their house and losing like this, it’s a tough loss, but if you look at the positive, we should’ve really won the game.”
That type of upbeat sentiment would have been a lot less believable two weeks ago.
Eric Detweiler is The Diamondback’s Terrapin Men’s Basketball Team beat writer. He can be reached at edetweilerdbk@gmail.com. You can follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/edetweiler.