Atlanta ? Oops.

Kansas University senior guard Jeff Boschee signaled for a time out when the Jayhawks had none left in the final 20 seconds and was called for a technical foul down the stretch of the Jayhawks’ 97-88 Final Four semifinal loss to Maryland on Saturday at the Georgia Dome.

“I got caught up in the end of the game,” said Boschee, who hit a three with :27 left, slicing Maryland’s lead to 90-85. He called time after Drew Gooden’s three sliced the deficit to 92-88 at :19.8. “I kind of reacted on instinct. I lost my head out there.”

He was a bit emotional after calling the time out, being rather hard on himself despite the fact he was crucial for Kansas with 17 points on a night the Jayhawks had trouble scoring.

“Truthful  the Chris Webber incident,” a tearful Boschee said, asked what thoughts went through his mind when he called the time out.

Webber called a time when Michigan had none in the national title game in 1993. That, however, cost Michigan the game. Boschee’s technical wasn’t in the same league.

“All it was was one point,” KU forward Nick Collison said.

Indeed, Juan Dixon hit just one of two technical foul shots, giving Maryland a 93-88 lead at :19.8. Maryland did keep possession and hit four free throws down the stretch.

“I called time out, too,” Collison said. “The referee just didn’t see me. People reacted to a tough situation. You get in a game situation and get so excited, a guy hits a three and you react. It’s a bad situation, but it’s only one point.”

Gooden said he also tried to call a time out, so by no means was it on Boschee’s back.

“That little rascal has made a lot of jump shots for us,” KU coach Roy Williams said, noting he’d told the troops there were no time outs left during the previous stoppage of play. “Right now I think about not being able to coach Jeff Boschee again. He has meant a lot to this program and more to me, personally.”

Of the time out snafu, Williams said: “That really bothered him (Boschee), but it’s just one point. We told everybody in the time out we had no time outs left, but it’s human nature. He feels badly about it. Jeff Boschee played his buns off for four years. I can’t say enough good things about Jeff Boschee.”

Collison grabbed 10 boards to go with his 21 points.

“You’ve got to give Maryland credit,” Collison said of the ACC champion Terps who advance into Monday’s national championship game against Indiana.

“They went on a couple of big-time runs. They’ve got some big kids who hit the boards hard and played very well after we hit them early (with 13-2 run).”

Williams tried various defenses to slow Juan Dixon (33 points), including a box-and-one with four men playing zone.

“It was during a stretch there where everything we tried didn’t work,” Williams said, “and everything they tried did.”

KU staged a furious comeback in the final six minutes, implementing a full-court press after falling behind by 20.

“The reason we played some zone and the reason we didn’t go to our pressure stuff sooner, we wanted to see if we could buy some time and keep our best players in the game,” Williams said. “Drew had four fouls. Kirk had four fouls (fouling out with 4:15 left). It didn’t work. So that’s the reason we went to the pressure even more.

“When it’s that big a thing, pressure helps us. If it was the first possession of the second half, there’s not that pressure on Maryland. But at the end, they’re trying to protect the lead. They’re not trying to score as much. So you have that emotion involved later in the game that you don’t have early in the second half, too.

“We haven’t been a very good team all year trapping in doubles,” Williams continued. “What coach (Dean) Smith used to call a scramble, probably the worst scramble team I’ve had. But you can’t just let them keep beating you without trying something.”