A string of bad news for Terps’ hoops
First, Jin Soo Kim was declared academically ineligible prior to last night’s game with Boston College.
Then, Maryland blew a 16 point lead and lost to the Eagles at home in the Comcast Center.
Now, the latest from the Baltimore Sun:
More than seven months after Maryland ended relationships with two highly touted men’s basketball recruits, coach Gary Williams and athletic department officials are offering conflicting accounts of what happened and why.
Kathleen Worthington, a senior associate athletic director, yesterday questioned Williams’ statements about forward Gus Gilchrist and guard Tyree Evans, who were to have been integral parts of Maryland’s recruiting class.
Williams had told reporters Monday: “It wasn’t my fault that they’re not here. That was somebody else’s call.”
But Worthington telephoned The Baltimore Sun yesterday and said: “I want to clarify the facts and the timing and the decision process of these situations. It was my recommendation that we not sign a release for Gus. I didn’t want to release him. It was the head coach’s decision. No one else released Gus.”
In a document dated June 3 and signed by Williams, the university released Gilchrist, now averaging 10.8 points at South Florida. “Mr. Gilchrist has expressed an interest in pursuing opportunities at other institutions in the sport of men’s basketball,” the document said.
Williams said last night that he signed Gilchrist’s release because the 6-foot-10 player was going to leave anyway.
“He was going to leave. Me signing the release had nothing to do with it,” Williams said after Maryland’s 76-67 loss to Boston College. “He had made up his mind. Why not sign a release and let the kid go where he wants? Why am I bad for signing a release? …. Kathy Worthington doesn’t speak for me, she has never won a national championship, she has never done anything. She’s an associate AD. This is just giving you guys stuff to make me look bad.”
[...]
The 6-3 Evans, averaging 12.8 points for Kent State, was also due to be a Terp. Worthington said Williams terminated Evans’ recruitment after learning details of the former community college player’s troubled past.
“Gary made the final decision to withdraw an offer of aid to Tyree and personally called the Office of Student Affairs to inform them he was no longer recruiting Tyree Evans because Tyree had not disclosed all of the criminal issues he’d had in his past,” she said. “Gary became upset that Tyree hadn’t disclosed everything.”
After last night’s game Williams said: “What had been in the paper for two straight weeks was you shouldn’t make that kid come into that situation here. He would have had to go through so much just being a student on campus after everything that was said in the papers. … I’ve run a clean program for 20years. Check my record.”
[...]
Current and former staff members in Maryland’s basketball program and athletic department have questioned whether Williams’ hands-on recruiting is adequate.
The Evans and Gilchrist disputes show continued strain in the relationship between the coach and the department. The strain was evident last year when AD Debbie Yow told The Sun she didn’t know – at least until late in the process – that Williams was recruiting Evans, whose background includes misdemeanors for marijuana possession and a prep school assault. A handgun charge wasn’t pursued by prosecutors.
Evans was offered a scholarship by Maryland last spring. He obtained a waiver from a school policy that recommends against allowing junior-college transfers such as Evans to be “individual admits.” Individual admits are applicants possessing special skills – such as athletics – who don’t meet the standard academic criteria required of the general student body.
[...]
John Zacker, director of Maryland’s Office of Student Conduct, said yesterday that Williams called the office last year to share troubling information about Evans.
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1
gary is going down like a 3 dollar whore
Comment by dogdiq — January 28, 2009 @ 9:57 am
2
I’m with Gary on this one. If he had not disclosed the info on Evans instead of a losing season, Maryland would be looking at another Bob Wade situation with sanctions, bans and a losing season. Gary has run a clean program, but now that maryland’s not winning the way the fans want, Gary is a bad coach, the bad guy in everything wrong with the college itself. Come on, give me a break! Everyone in the AD department is looking out for number one; and in these hard economic times, to save their jobs the AD department would love to throw Gary under the bus (me thinks literally).
Comment by Albert — January 28, 2009 @ 7:08 pm
3
[...] East Coast that Capel would be near the top of the list for the Terps if they fired Gary Williams amidst all the bad news this season. We do have to wonder how the average Maryland fan would react to the hire of a Duke [...]
Pingback by Jeff Capel to replace Gary Williams at Maryland? — January 29, 2009 @ 9:38 am
4
Gary has never been a good recruiter, except in his early days at MD (Joe Smith, Keith Booth, the freshman class of 1992-93) and he got a few good ones later on (Steve Blake, Juan Dixon, Chris Wilcox, Lonny Baxter, Terence Morris), but his recent teams have been full of nobodies except for Grievis Vasquez. Despite Vasquez’ obvious talent, he hurts the team as often as he helps it (150+ turnovers last year). The fact that MD has been so undisciplined and inconsistent for about the last 6 years is a reflection on Gary’s coaching, which has become as bad as his recruiting. The team is just talented enough to build big leads and more than sloppy enough to blow most of them. Here is a list of blown double digit leads for MD the last two seasons (at least, these are the ones I can remember):
Last year:
14 pts vs. Va. Tech
20 pts vs. Clemson
15 pts vs. BC (in ACC Tournament)
This year:
14 pts vs. MORGAN STATE!!! (Unthinkable — at home against a MEAC team the Terps used to beat by 40 every time!!!)
17 pts vs. Miami
16 pts vs. BC (yeah, BC upset UNC but then lost at home to Harvard!)
MD’s opponents know that no deficit is insurmountable, and they are confident they can come back. No one respects MD any more. The Terps are lucky to be 4-5 in the ACC because they’ve beaten a horrible Ga. Tech team twice. Add in that 85-44 disaster vs. Duke (MD’s worst loss in how many years??), a 75-48 stinker vs. Georgetown, and this season is looking even worse than last year (if that’s even possible). (On the bright side, we have that fluke upset of Michigan State, kind of like that fluke upset at UNC last year. After beating MSU, MD lost to Gonzaga by 22 and Georgetown by 27.) Also, MD’s performance in the ACC Tournament in recent years has been totally disgusting (1-4 since 2004) and three of those 4 losses have come against ACC bottom feeders (Clemson, Miami, BC) with a combined ACC record of 13-35 in those seasons! Throw in home losses to Manhattan, Ohio and American (and near-losses to Hampton, Northeastern and Vermont) the last few years, and it’s clear that the MD program is no better than an average mid-major program at this point. Gary’s arrogance and denial of reality have never been worse, he has TOTALLY lost his ability to do his job in all phases. Really, if not for the fluke ACC Tournament title in 2004 (remember the Terps were only 7-9 in the ACC regular season that year) and Drew Nicholas’s miracle buzzer beater against UNC Wilmington in 2003 which paved the way for making the Sweet 16 that year, you could say MD has accomplished virtually nothing since moving into the Comcast Center in 2002. Right now I’d be happy even if the Terps hired Kelvin Sampson! Gary’s time is up and someone else, ANYONE else, can do better.
Comment by Eric — February 11, 2009 @ 12:51 pm
5
One more thing: Kentucky fans began to call Tubby Smith “Ten Loss Tubby” because his teams lost 10 or more games in five of his 10 years there. Since it is a near-certainty that the Terps will reach the 10-loss mark this year (they have 8 losses already), that will bring the number of 10+ loss seasons in Gary’s tenure to 16. Think about that:
In Gary’s 20 seasons at MD, the Terps lose 10 or more games in SIXTEEN of those seasons!!
Thanks for the national title in 2002 and the ACC title in 2004…but this is 2009 and Gary can’t live off the past forever. Enough already, please!!
Comment by Eric — February 11, 2009 @ 1:17 pm