At least the Maryland Terrapins have stopped teasing their fans with tantalizing performances suggesting they were worthy of another trip to the NCAA Tournament.

All it took was a four-game, 12-day disaster at the worst possible time for the Terps to announce they don’t belong anywhere but the NIT.

That giant sucking sound heard around Comcast Center Sunday night — highlighted by an epic, 11-minute collapse that ended when Clemson guard Terrence Oglesby hit a three-pointer with 2.3 seconds left for a stunning, 73-30 victory — was Maryland gasping for air as it sank in the quicksand of its own making.

It took more than seven years for the Terps to produce a sequel to the infamous, “Gone In 54 Seconds” game. On Jan. 27, 2001 they gave up a 10-point lead in the final minute of regulation before losing in overtime to Duke at Cole Field House.

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That team, eminently more talented than this crew, recovered and finished with a head of steam that carried them into the school’s first Final Four.

This team looks incapable of such a turnaround. This team, with its naggingly inconsistent offense, its unacceptably poor ball handling and its disappointing bench, is counting itself out of the NCAA Tournament with a late-season flop few could have foreseen. This team managed to blow a 20-point, second-half lead at home to a Clemson squad it had to beat.

Here’s the sad truth: The Terps are about to miss the NCAA Tournament for the third time in four seasons. They have squandered any wiggle room on the tournament bubble where the program has lived for five straight years.

With a RPI rating of 64 according to RealTimeRPI.com, Maryland probably needs to win the ACC tournament if it falters at Virginia (RPI 125) in the regular-season finale on Sunday.

Should the Terps beat Virginia, they probably need to reach the ACC tournament title game — presumably by beating Duke or North Carolina — to negate the damaging, recent stains on its postseason resume. Those marks include home losses to Virginia Tech and Clemson during a slie in which it has lost three of four games.

Should Maryland miss the NCAA Tournament for the fourth time in five seasons next year, athletics director Debbie Yow might have enough leverage to start pushing for replacing head coach Gary Williams.

Things could get real ugly between two Terps who have never had a warm and fuzzy relationship.

Williams, winding up his 19th season at his alma mater, turns 63 today. What an early birthday present he received on Sunday.

The Terps, who have had trouble all year playing with a lead, outdid themselves on Senior Night, which featured the absence of their seniors once the bleeding started.

Center Bambale Osby, battling a recent illness, contributed just six points in 17 minutes. Senior forward James Gist didn’t score any of his 15 points during the final 14 minutes.

But Maryland was horrendous in every way with the ball, especially after it took what seemed to be a commanding, 59-39 lead with 11:22 left.

Led by sophomore point guard Greivis Vasquez — their best and worst player at any moment — the Terps handed the Tigers’ full-court pressure a 21-turnover gift, with Vasquez ringing up seven miscues to negate his seven assists. Throw in nine missed free throws out of 21 attempts, 2-for-15 shooting from three-point range, a collapse in transition defense and an inability to get the ball inside on offense, and you have a full-scale meltdown.

The Terps have been a turnover waiting to happen for most of the season. It finally caught up with them and cancelled the good defense they have played most nights.

Their butter fingers were fatal during the Black Sunday Collapse.

For a while, it really looked as if the Terps were growing up. Since mid-January, they hardly looked like the group who couldn’t score 60 points in amazing, back-to-back home losses to Ohio and American in December.

During a 7-2 stretch that began on Jan. 19 with their 82-80 upset win at then-No. 1 North Carolina, the Terps were rounding into the real deal, an NCAA Tournament team. They were 17-9, 7-4 in ACC play, with designs on a third-place finish in the league.

Now, with their flaws exposed in the worst way during the past two weeks, they have reverted to December form. As a result, they deserve to watch another NCAA Tournament.

Gary Lambrecht writes about the NFL, Major League Baseball and college sports. He can be reached at glambrecht@baltimoreexaminer.com.