It's Not Gary's Fault

It's March again, or, as some Maryland Terrapins mens' basketball fans like to call it, the annual bubble watch.

Can you blame them? The Terps have only been firmly locked into an at-large bid in two out of the last seven years, and in one of those seasons they had to rally late in the second half of the conference schedule to secure a spot (see, 2006-2007). Of those other five years, Maryland missed the field of 64 plus one four of them. The one exception of course was the 2003-2004 season where the mercurial John Gilchrist decided that he wanted to become the best player in the country for three games in the ACC Tournament.

With each passing season ending in disappointment, the "Fire Gary Williams" talk has augmented. The crescendo reached its apex prior to the start of conference play when the Morgan State Bears, a MEAC team that would probably go 4-12 in any major conference, came into College Park to stun the Terps.

For the next couple of weeks, you could turn on any local sports radio station and faithfully here the words "Gary needs to go" from every other caller. Prior to a painful loss at Virginia, that talk had died down considerably (funny how a win against North Carolina and great efforts against Duke and Wake Forest can change that), but right after the loss the lines were jammed again with irate Terp "fans".


Yes, the script for this March isn't much different than other Marchs in the first decade of the new millenium, but let's make this clear: considering what Williams has to work with, this may be his finest coaching job since taking over the program in 1989.

Losing James Gist and Bambale Osby to graduation was going to be tough, but what Williams didn't anticipate was that Gus Gilchrist, a big body whom the Terps desperately needed, would transfer. With Braxton Dupree and Dino Gregory not quite ready to step up and give them consistent minutes in the front court, Williams had no choice but to play small ball.

This means a player like Landon Milbourne, much more comfortable guarding perimeter players, had to match-up nightly with unsympathetic high-risers on the interior. Dave Neal, Maryland's 6'7", 263-pound "center", is probably the polar opposite of athletic, probably wouldn't even be the fourth player picked in a pick-up game at your local YMCA, and yet he has had to jostle for position with players who have two million times his athleticism.

And as if his troubles on the inside aren't enough, he has to contend with the volatile Greivis Vasquez, who probably leads the nation in games where he's had more shots than points.

The fact that he has these Terps, these under-sized kids who lack collective athleticism, at 18-12 and 7-9 in the Atlantic Coast Conference (which, by the way, is the top rated conference according to the latest RPI) is amazing. Yes, there have been some ugly moments along the way--the 44-point drubbing at the hands of Duke, a 29-point debacle at Clemson, MORGAN STATE--but this team has stuck together, fighting and clawing for each of their 18 victories, even doing the same in their 12 losses. There hasn't been any let up effort wise... after all, can a team that lost to Morgan State and Virginia really afford to have a lapse in effort?

Say what you will about Williams and his inability to recruit big-time players. You'd be right; no one said he wasn't stubborn about getting his type of player, mainly a player who would cares more about getting paid at the next level than diving for a loose ball and risking his draft status.


The sad part about it is that what he has failed to do off the court--not only the recruiting but the poor academic standards during his time as coach-- may have him looking for employment sometime within the next couple of years.

But, as far as using the tools at his disposal, as far as motivating his players to lay it on the line for him night after night, as far as being a leader, give me Gary Williams before any other coach in the ACC.

Any.