Jeff Barker, a Columnist for the Baltimore Sun, has declared war on Gary Williams, the head coach at the University of MD. Barker has been releasing a series of negative columns on Williams and has turned many of the local sports fans against Williams, including my Dad. I completely disagree with Barker.
Maryland hit a real dark period in on June 19, 1986 when Len Bias died of a drug overdose one day after being drafted by the Boston Celtics as the second overall pick. Lefty Driesell, their long tenured coach, who was great recruiter, but had limited success in the NCAA tournament, was forced to resign as a result of the Bias death.
Bob Wade, a successful African American high school coach at Dunbar was hired next. He was the first African American coach in ACC history. Unfortunately, in his 3 years the team was 36-50 and there were numerous NCAA rules violations.
Gary Williams, an already successful coach at Ohio State and a former MD player, took over a program that had faced many NCAA sanctions, lost its once proud legacy, and would have trouble recruiting African Americans out of Baltimore, as a result of Wade.
Williams struggled for six years at Maryland, but hit a turning point in 1994 when, Keith Booth, a Baltimore area African American chose Maryland. Williams built a powerhouse that would make the NCAA tournament 11 straight years and win the school’s only NCAA Championship in 2002. They were the first NCAA champions in many years that had no McDonald’s High School All Americans.
The 2004-2005 season saw a downward turning point. John Gilchrist, a highly talented junior, who had almost singlehandedly won the ACC tournament as a sophomore feuded with Williams down the stretch of the season as MD faded to 19-13 and missed the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1993. MD has made only one NCAA tournament since.
This past off season was particularly difficult as a two highly touted transfers, Gus Gilchrist, and Tyree Evans, both left before ever playing a game for MD. This has left a very young, undersized, scrappy team that so far has still managed to go 15-8 and 4-5 in ACC.
Williams has prided himself on running a clean program. Two of his assistant coaches are Keith Booth and Chuck Driesell, who is the son of Lefty. Both the recruits that left in the off season speak very highly of Williams. He has done things the right way for the last 20 years and I have enjoyed telling my Michigan Friends that they should “Fear the Turtle.”
Now it appears that the School Administration and the local fans may just be dumb enough to let a sports columnist lead the charge to sweep Williams out of town. If that happens, It will be very dissapointing and a sad ending to a great 20 year run for MD Basketball.