The Turtles vs. the Heir

ATLANTA —  Even in the best of circumstances, Maryland Coach Gary Williams is rarely calm. He is a man dripping sweat, a walking illustration of stress.

Down by 11 points four minutes into the Terrapins’ NCAA semifinal against Kansas on Saturday, he was livid in the Maryland huddle.

“He was telling us that we were [sissies],” forward Chris Wilcox said.

“That was intense,” guard Drew Nicholas said.

So were the Terrapins after that. They roared back to lead by as many as 20 in their 97-88 victory, only to have to hold off the Jayhawks when Kansas got as close as four with 20 seconds left in front of 53,378 at the Georgia Dome.

It was a topsy-turvy semifinal of dizzying fastbreaks and dagger-like three-pointers.

But no one was more phenomenal than Maryland guard Juan Dixon, who scored a career-high 33 points and made five of 11 three-point shots.

He’ll carry the Terrapins (31-4) into the school’s first national championship game Monday against Indiana--a year after Duke eliminated Maryland in the semifinals by coming from 22 points behind to win.

“I don’t think I’ll forget last year until we finally win the national championship,” said center Lonny Baxter, whose early foul trouble limited him to 14 minutes.

Dixon agreed.

“We didn’t give up, same as Duke last year,” Dixon said. “Great teams never give up. Kansas didn’t give up either.”

Down by 83-63 after a Dixon three-pointer with a little more than six minutes to play, Kansas (33-4) clawed its way back.

Drew Gooden, the Jayhawk forward who was a candidate for national player of the year but fizzled at the Final Four, converted a three-point play as the rally began, and made a three-point shot that cut it to 14.

But Gooden scored only 15 points--four in the first half--as Maryland’s athleticism and stable of physical defenders shut him down. (Kansas was led by Nick Collison’s 21 points and 10 rebounds.)

“Like Coach talked about in the scouting report, Kansas doesn’t like people in their space,” Baxter said. “We played up on them tight. Didn’t allow them to get free runs at the basket, just stayed physical with them.”

No one displayed more breathtaking athleticism than Wilcox, the sophomore who had 18 points, nine rebounds, four blocked shots and two particularly ferocious dunks.

“Well, Chris is going to be a great junior next year for us,” Williams began, as if trying to will him not to turn pro. “Chris is special.”

The game seemed decided, but Kansas kept pecking away. The Jayhawks got the lead down to five on a three-pointer by Jeff Boschee with 2:05 left--and all anyone watching could think was ... Duke. Again?

“That Duke game popped into my head for just a second,” Maryland guard Steve Blake said. “But it made me focus that much more. We weren’t going to let that happen again.”

After Kansas guard Aaron Miles stumbled and turned the ball over, Maryland ran the shot clock down to seven seconds and then Dixon drove the baseline and floated a shot into the basket for a seven-point lead with 1:14 to play.

“I’ve been saying that the whole week, if we ever got in that position again where we were up 22 points, we were going to find a way to pull the game out,” Dixon said.

“We did. It’s just out of experience. We grew a lot over the last year or so.”

Kansas allowed the Terrapins to keep running time off the clock without fouling quickly, but a three-pointer by Gooden with 20 seconds left suddenly cut the lead to four, 92-88.

Several Jayhawk players had the same instinct at once--time out!--but Kansas already had used its last.

Dixon--a 91% free-throw shooter--went to the line after the technical foul call and missed, but made his next free throw for a five-point lead with 19 seconds left, and Kansas didn’t score again.

The Terrapins started the game looking as if they were going to have another Final Four disaster, with four turnovers in the first five possessions.

Then Williams got ahold of them in a tirade during a TV timeout.

“He says a lot of things we just try to take in stride,” Wilcox said. “I appreciated him getting on us like that. It got us going.”

Kansas is just plain gone, knocked out of the Final Four without winning a championship for the third time in Coach Roy Williams’ three trips.

“I’m just sad that I’m not going to get to coach this bunch right now,” Roy Williams said. “And yeah, it hurts not to be playing Monday night, but it doesn’t hurt one iota or one ounce for Roy Williams over any record or championship. It just hurts because I’m not going to get a chance to coach them in the national championship game, not going to get a chance to coach them any more.”

So Maryland has one more game. Indiana will be trying to win its sixth national championship. Maryland is after its first.

“Indiana is a very good basketball team,” Gary Williams said. “I think people have to stop saying there were three really good teams here, and Indiana. I think that’s done now. I think they’ve proven themselves with the Duke win and the win against Oklahoma.”