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.

Walker gone, Georgetown added to Old Spice

According to the University of Maryland, Freshman forward Shane Walker will be leaving Maryland and transferring to another school. I'm still not sure how I feel about this. I think Walker has a lot of potential and is very good under the basket, boxing out and grabbing rebounds, so in that regard, I'm sorry he's leaving, especially since Gus Gilchrist isn’t eligible to play until the end of December. The real question now is, what do the Terps do with an extra scholarship? A few weeks ago, it seemed like the Terps would have loved to have an extra scholarship so they could give it to Bobby Maze. The Terps have signed Tyree Evans and Sean Mosely, so at this point signing another guard would seem pointless, as Maryland is in desperate need of front court help, especially until December when Gilchrist becomes eligible.

In other Terps basketball news, as many people know Maryland will be playing in the Old Spice Classic down in Orlando over Thanksgiving Day weekend. But the team to replace Memphis, who backed out, in that tournament is none other then…GEORGETOWN! Sweet mercy do I hate Georgetown. Not only is the school full of a lot of douchebags who think their money automatically makes them better people, but their basketball team and program is full of cowards. Maryland and Georgetown are separated by 10 miles

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(at least from the Verizon Center to the Comcast Center…just as a side note there, the fact that each school’s arena is sponsored by rival telecommunications companies should be proof that this is a rivalry between the schools) and yet they haven’t played each other since 1993. Do you remember what happened in 1993?


That was the last time Maryland was scheduled in the regular season to play Georgetown. I think the last time we played them though might have been in 2001 in the Sweet 16, on Maryland’s run to the Final 4.


Maryland use to play Georgetown annually from 1943-1980 (Maryland leads the all time series 36-25) but a dispute over revenue has soured the series since 1993. It is suppose to be Georgetown’s turn to come to College Park in the series, but they refuse. I guess they don’t want to get embarrassed. But it is a shame that these schools don’t meet on an annual basis because they have a good rivalry and they’re so close to each other.