COLLEGE PARK -- They had been waving their signs and placards all afternoon, the ones saying, "Don't Go Joe," the ones they had bought for $1 a pop as they came into Cole Field House yesterday.
With a little less than six minutes left in Maryland's 84-68 victory over Clemson yesterday, a sellout crowd of 14,500 started chanting the same thing. The plea died out for a while, but picked up again as Terps star Joe Smith waited to be interviewed on the post-game radio show.
First, he smiled.
Then, he cried.
And finally he waved.
Smith's decision whether to forgo his last two seasons of eligibility seemed to be on everyone's mind, even more than the Terps' completing their first unbeaten home season (16-0) since 1979-80. Or seventh-ranked Maryland (22-5, 11-3) jumping into a first-place tie with North Carolina and idle Virginia in the Atlantic Coast Conference going into the final week of the regular season.
"It's a tough decision," Smith said as the fans listened in to the broadcast being piped through the building. "I'd love to come back, the way the fans support me here . . ."
His voice tailed off, his eyes welling up with each word. By the time the sophomore All-American had made it through a gauntlet of well-wishers en route to the locker room, he couldn't contain himself any longer.
"He came in and broke down a little," said junior forward Exree Hipp. "He's a big fella. He's going to make whatever decision's best for him. But he won't let it affect him out there on the court."
If the performance by Smith was his last in front of the home fans, he certainly gave them something to remember. Despite some shaky free-throw shooting, Smith tied his career high of 33 points and grabbed 10 rebounds.
In last month's 56-51 victory over the Tigers, his teammates were unable to get Smith the ball for most of the second half. Yesterday, Smith shot 10-for-13 from the field but missed nine free throws in a school-record 22 attempts.
"I missed the first couple and that set the tone for the game," said Smith, a 75.5 percent free-throw shooter coming in. "That's awful. I don't ever remember shooting that bad, not even in practice."
Despite Smith's erratic free-throw shooting, Maryland accomplished its objective of getting the ball inside instead of trying to match three-point shots with the pesky Tigers, who prevented a blowout early and late by making 10 of 19 threes. Senior guard Bruce Martin made six of seven three-point attempts to lead Clemson (13-11, 3-11) with a career-high 20 points.
It wasn't just Smith getting open inside, or getting fouled. The Terps went to the line 50 times, converting 30. Sophomore forward Keith Booth went 5-for-8 from the line and finished with 11 points, as well as nine rebounds. But Maryland also shot 24-for-41 from the field.
"We were able to get the ball inside to Joe in the second half," said Maryland coach Gary Williams. "We were able to do that because of our height advantage. But I think you have to talk about our other players. That says two things. That says they're unselfish and it says how they feel about Joe."
Still, Maryland kept seeing its big leads shrivel. Clemson, despite not having a regular taller than 6 feet 7 and being in constant foul trouble trying to stop Smith, kept things interesting.
After taking early leads of 22-9 and 25-14 in the first 14 1/2 minutes, the Terps saw the Tigers climb quickly within 26-25. Then after seeing its three-point halftime lead reach 61-44 on two free throws by junior guard Johnny Rhodes with 8:39 to go, Maryland found itself leading 71-62 with 4:33 left.
"Today was like a 'Rocky' movie. We kept getting knocked down and kept getting right back up," said Clemson coach Rick Barnes, whose Tigers have been severely outmanned all season, especially since senior forward Devin Gray of Baltimore was declared academically ineligible in late December. "I don't know if I will ever coach a team again that will play as hard as we did today."
Said Williams: "Give them credit. They do everything they can to stay in games."
It prevented Williams from putting little-used senior Kurtis Shultz of Randallstown into the game until 59.6 seconds remained. He then put in senior walk-on Donny Judd a second later. Sophomore walk-on Matt Raydo and freshman guard Sarunas Jasikevicius followed.
Of the starters, only Smith remained. Williams, who has joked at times about Smith's impending decision, was in a more solemn mood yesterday. He got teary-eyed talking to the crowd about its support this season, but didn't crack any one-liners about his star player later on.
"Everything's already been written," said Williams, who obviously doesn't want Smith's decision to become the focus of a team looking for its first ACC regular-season title in 15 years. "Nothing's going to happen until the end of the year. It's a waste of time to talk about it."
The Maryland sports information office had been successful recently in making sure no one asked Smith about his decision. But despite a request to talk with the 6-10 center only about yesterday's game and the games coming Wednesday at Duke and next Sunday at Virginia, Smith was asked for his reaction to the crowd.
The smile was back.
Asked if it made him feel strange to see the signs -- one of which read, "Joe, We Want Two NBA Season's Tickets" -- Smith said, "Yes, it did. There were those signs and there were other signs supporting the team. It shows how much they feel about the team.
"I figured it would happen. I figured they would come out with those signs. I didn't expect to get teary-eyed."
Then someone popped the big question: Is he going to turn pro?
"It's still the same," he said. "I haven't discussed it. I really can't say."
He didn't have to say anything.
NOTES: Jasikevicius, who hadn't played the previous two games, got in with 18.2 seconds left and made a three-pointer at the buzzer. He then did a little celebration that included saying something to the Clemson bench, much to Williams' displeasure. Jasikevicius said later that he had told Tigers assistant coach Dennis Felton, whom he met in Lithuania, "that I was going to hit a three at the buzzer."