Status of Maryland Men's Basketball - Terps in trouble?

In a recent article on ESPN.com, Dana O'Neil talks about how Maryland's Men's basketball program has gone from "One Shining Moment" in 2002 to a state of scrambling to find scholarship players for the 2008 season. I think the article could have been 100x's better and I'm shocked that Dana's editor actually let some of the stuff in the article become published. For one, she mentions Sean Mosely as the only scholarship player in the class of 2008, which simply isn't true. Jin Soo Kim is possibly reclassifying for 2008 and Maryland will soon be officially signing center Steve Goins (http://mbd.scout.co m/mb.aspx?S=174& F=2580&T=2634500 &P=1) giving Maryland a solid class for 2008.

Dana also refers to Maryland as "bottom feeders" in the ACC, which is bullshit. She seems to forget that they won the ACC tourney in 2004, in 2005 they were 7-9 and should have made the NCAAs, in 2006 they were 8-8 in the ACC and didn't make the tournament but should have, in 2007 they were 10-6 and went to the NCAAs and then last year they were again 8-8 in the conference. Yes the program isn't at its best, but I blame that on a few bad recruits, who were all consider GREAT coming into college, but didn't pan out (Travis Garrison, Mike Jones being good but not a super star, Chris McCray failing out his sr. year, Caner-Medley not having a good sr. year). You mention none of that in your article as to why this program has struggled. Maryland brought in All-Americans, but they just had some bad luck, which hurts a program for a few years.

Maryland's biggest problem, which ALSO isn't mentioned in the article is Gary's style of recruiting. His assistants do a lot of the work and with some of his best assistants gone, he now has to go out himself (which he's been doing lately) to recruit. And Chuck Drissell is one of the best recruiters around so once he establishes himself more, you'll see the benefits.

Gary also likes to take guys who are kind of under the radar, and build them into champions (Juan Dixon, Lohnny Baxter, etc.) and that style doesn't work as well as it use to since players can no longer skip college and go right to the NBA. Because of that, more "1 and done" players are playing college basketball and Gary needs to get his hands on them.

I think Maryland will be 8-8 in the ACC, make the tourney and get back on track for 2009-2010, when they have a huge talent poll around them to draw from and when you'll have Vasquez and others as Sr's and Jr's for what could be a fantastic team.

Here we go again...

Just when we thought things couldn’t get any worse for Maryland basketball, I got a call from my Mom the other night saying that Gus Gilchrist was transferring out of Maryland. I thought “What? You’re crazy!” Apparently, since the ACC again denied Gus’ appeal to allow him to play at the start of the season rather than waiting until after the Fall semester, he wants to leave Maryland and play at a non-ACC school. There are several things here that don’t add up…
1. If Gus goes to another school, he’ll have to sit out a year before he can play again, unless he’s granted a waver by the NCAA, which by no means is a guarantee.
2. Even if Gus is granted a waver, he’ll likely only get 3 years of eligibility, rather than the 4 he is seeking so he’s risking having to sit out another entire year to be able to play for 1/3 of this season, against what will probably be cupcake games mostly. Seems like a big risk for not much return…
3. Gus seems to have left Maryland on good terms – no one is really disappointed or angry with him. That just seems weird to me…is it possible that Gary knew that if Gus’ latest appeal was denied, he was going to leave, and hence Maryland has been trying to bring in all of these other recruits last minute as a stop gap for a possible Gus absence? Is this why Shane Walker left, because he knew that even if Gilchrist left, he still wasn’t going to get playing time as Maryland looked for a possible stop gap for Gilchrist rather than relying on Walker? Or is Walker just kicking himself now for leaving because he probably would have factored huge into the upcoming season.

Just received an update on this...apparently Gus is going to play at a Ju-Co school, where he can play immediately, and then go straight to the NBA, or so the voice whispering in his ear, his "advisor," tells him...still seems like a lot of work just for missing like 10-15 cupcake games...

Who is to blame here? Is it Gary? I’d say this is just a string of bad luck for Gary, but if he knew Gilchrist was going to do this if he’s appeal was denied, then part of the blame must be placed on him for not having an alternative. EVERYONE should be angry with Debbie “I hate the Men’s basketball program even though it pays my salary” Yow, since she hasn’t gone to bat for any of Gus’ ACC appeals or for the Men’s program in general. She has to be one of the worst AD’s in the Nation when it comes to supporting some of her biggest programs. It’s almost like she WANTED these things to happen so she could get Gary out and hire her own Men’s Basketball coach. I for one will no longer be supporting the Athletic Department at Maryland so long as Debbie Yow is the AD. I encourage any fellow Terp Supporters to do the same.

Matt Bracken does a great job with a recruiting timeline for the 2008 class at Maryland, showing all of the potential players that could have been here and where we are now. Remember, at various points, Maryland had commits from the following for 2008: Tyree Evans (4 stars), Terrance Jennings (4 – 5 star big man), Bobby Maze (3-4 star combo guard), Gus Gilchrist (was already enrolled at the school and was eligible to play in Dec., but has since decided to transfer).

What are we left with? Sean Mosley, a talented guard who is committed for the 2008 class, still has to qualify academically. If we lose him as well, Maryland is screwed beyond screwed, to the tune of possibly having a season similar to that of UVA this past season, in which 1 really talented player (Vasquez) dominates but has little support around him. Jin Soo Kim, a forward that is committed for the class of 2009, is trying to get into Maryland’s 2008 class. Pray that he is able to, because Maryland currently has a huge hole in their front court offense.

Tyree Evans

Recently, Maryland signed high-baggage basketball recruit Tyree Evans for the upcoming basketball season. This represents something Gary Williams hasn't done in his 15+ seasons at Maryland - brought in someone who has been all over the police blotter. Does it show a desperation in Gary Williams? I don't think so. I think Gary has finally realized a few things. First, he can't rely on 4 year projects anymore as a coach. His recruiting style is going to have to change for him to survive in the future. Gary is fantastic at finding diamonds in the rough (Juan Dixon, Lonny Baxter, etc) and turning them into stars. But since the NBA started requiring players to be 19 before declaring for the NBA draft, several high school stars (Kevin Durrant, Reggie Love, O.J. "I pulled a Chris Webber" Majo) are now playing for college teams for a year and then leaving. Gary has mostly avoided the one and done guys because that doesn't work in this 4 year player development style. Sans Chris Wilcox and Steve Francis, Maryland has mostly avoided the one and done crowd. The problem is, that since these players are now staying for a year, teams further down on the recruiting food chain are now able to sign better players who would have been at some of these schools that have signed one of these one and done guys. So you see more parity in college basketball as a result. Why hasn't Maryland landed some of these big name recruits, especially some of the ones in their own backyard? (Kevin Durant, Carmelo Anthony, etc?) I'm not sure. There are probably a number of reasons but the fact that they would only be around for a year or two should be one of them. After all, look at Gary's recent strategy - recruiting JuCo players who, for the most part, are only in school for 2 years. Granted, Gary has done a fantastic job at bringing in some JuCo talent (Steve Francis, Boom Osby) but should I school who went to back to back Final Fours and won the National Title 6 years ago be relying on JuCo transfers?

Maryland is going to struggle in the front court this year, especially while they wait for Gus Gilchrist to become eligible to play at the end of December. So it appears that Gary is loading up on guards and might be running a lot of 4 guard sets come November. I think Gary knew that with Walker transferring and with losing Gist and Osby to graduation, his team might again not be an NCAA tournament team. Solution? Go get a guy who has fantastic talent, but doesn't have a halo over his head. Only time will tell whether or not this gamble was worth it for Maryland. I think if the Terps are back in the NCAA tournament and make it to the sweet 16, you won't hear much out of some of these fair weather Maryland fans who are in an uproar over this. If Maryland stumbles, you'll not only hear that Gary made a mistake, but that AD Debbie Yow allowed him to and that Gary should lose his job. If you read this blog, you know how stupid I think that thought is, but I fear some of the donors at Maryland who pay the bills might have a lessened opinion of Gary after signing Evans. He'll be under a microscope for his two years at Maryland - pray he lives up to expectations while keeping out of trouble.

I'll do another post on why Maryland has struggled since 2004 to constantly play at a high level and how 1 bad recruiting class coupled with Dave Dickerson and Jimmy Patsos, two of Maryland's best recruiting coaches, leaving, has hurt the Terps.

Lady Terps Ride is over

Sadly, the basketball season for the University of Maryland's women's team came to an end Monday, as the Terps fell to Stanford. Maryland played well offensively but couldn't stop Stanford's Candice Wiggins who singlehandedly led Stanford to a victory over Maryland with her 41 points.

Every time MD went on a run and started gaining confidence, Wiggins was there on the other end to swing the pendulum back in Stanford's favor. It seemed like every time MD nailed a 3 and began to get close, Wiggins was there to answer on the other end. Maryland had no answer to her on defense. Credit to her and Stanford for running the triangle offense to near perfection, something no other ACC team does and thus that might have been why Maryland had such a hard time defending against it.

Although it was disappointing that Maryland didn't make it back to the Final 4, what was even more devastating was that this was the final game for Crystal Langhorne and Laura Harper. Those two, especially Langhorne, were highly touted recruits who Brenda Freese convinced should come to Maryland and help revitalize a program and put it back into the National Spotlight. The fact that Harper got injured her freshman year just allowed Langhorne to develop more and faster, eventually resulting in her being Maryland's all time leading scorer. After Shay Duron decided to come to Maryland, the fact the Crystal and Harper did the following year, helped show people that Maryland was for real. Then they went out and won the 2006 National Championship game. Maryland will still be great next year, but losing Crystal and Laura, in addition to Ashleigh Newman, Jade Perry, and Sa'de Wiley-Gatewood is going to hurt.
After all, how can losing the best player in Maryland Women's hoops history not hurt you?

Best of luck girls, we'll miss you.

Cooked

Last night's game, as many games have this season, ripped my heart out of my chest, stomped on it, and then threw it into the trash. Maryland has been quite good this year at making their fan base go into a frenzy of madness...too bad they won't be giving those fans the opportunity to take part in the March variety of that madness...

As I told my girlfriend as we left the Comcast Center following the heart breaking loss to Clemson, Maryland's season is over. After the loss to Boston College last night in the opening round of the ACC's, Maryland can officially kiss the NCAA's goodbye. Honestly, I don't even think they deserve a trip to the NIT. Boston College just out hustled them, played more defense, and Maryland started playing scared and stopped attacking the basket. And to top if off, they turned the ball over 40,000 times in the second half. When MD went down by 10, I thought the game was over. But Gist pulled the team together and gave every bit of energy he had. In the course of a minute, MD went on a 7-0 run to pull them within 3. Too bad everyone else on the team didn't do the same and it was too little too late.

Md has a chance to get a second Junior College transfer but doesn't have the scholarship to offer. I'm hoping Eric Hayes decides to transfer, but a few other people might consider doing so as well.

Na na na na, na na na na, hey hey, good bye (WE SUCK!)

(from Baltimoresun.com)

I interrupt this ACC student section ranking to bring you this post...Maryland is going to miss the NCAA Tourney for the 3rd time in the last 4 years. Unless we beat UVA (which I don't even think we'll do), and then do some damage in the ACC Tourney, we're headed to the NIT yet again.

Maryland had a 68-55 lead with 4:48 to go. We got outscored 18-2 to end the game. Unfreaking believable.



I'm normally super optimistic about things like this, but not anymore. I'm not going to get my hopes up and allow MD to crush them. My health can't take it anymore.