Chris DiIonno has said a lot of things about Maryland basketball over the years, but he never thought he’d ever say that it was time for Gary Williams to call it quits. Until now.
On Memorial Day weekend, I had the luxury of spending the weekend free of work, free of responsibilities and watching one of my high school friends get married. It was the first weekend that I can remember where I wasn’t upset that I missed any sporting event due to social obligation. It was the end of May, which meant that I wasn’t missing the NBA Finals, the NFL Draft had passed (and the season is still light years away) and the 2006 baseball season was still in its infant stages. College basketball seemed like a distant memory to me and the only Maryland related thought that had entered my head in the past six weeks was how good Vernon Davis is going to look in a 49ers Jersey.
When I got home late Sunday night, the only things I was concerned about was checking the standings in my fantasy league and sleep. With a weary grin from an amazing weekend and a sea of dirty clothes spread out before me, I made some pitching adjustments for the next couple of days. Then I caught a little Microsoft Outlook alert letting me know I had mail. Upon opening my inbox I saw there were three new messages, all from friends at Maryland, all with approximately the same heading: “Maryland’s done”, “What was Gary thinking” and “#$@*&#&%^”.
Just like that, the feeling that I get in my stomach when J.J. Redick hits a three reemerged after months of hibernation. I had a strong desire just to forget I saw anything and rewind my life to just five minutes ago, when I was in a tired blissful peace. But I knew that I had to open those messages. I had to find out what the bad news was sooner or later. Unfortunately, curiosity does kill the cat.
While the number and choice of profanities varied in each email, the general message was just about the same in each: Maryland lost ’07 recruit Jeff Jones, might lose Eric Hayes (our point guard savior) and Gary seems to have lost it period. Not “it” like he’s going crazy (although sometimes it does seem like it), but “it” being the ability to successfully coach a big time college basketball program.
Oh, how I wish that no one read the Baltimore Sun on May 28th (here’s the link). Then I could just crawl back in my little hole and not let Maryland bother me until November. But I couldn’t help myself. Since then the depressing words from the article keep circling in my head. I can’t seem to do anything to get these worries and thoughts out of my head, except write about it. After a week of pondering here’s what I’ve deciphered. The article raises three crucial questions for any Maryland fan: 1. Why did former assistant coach Rob Moxley vacate his position at Maryland for a similar position at Charlotte? 2. Why the sudden cloud of doubt over Eric Hayes’ future? And 3. What is Gary doing?
It was just a year ago when Moxley was supposed to be the recruiting key that would replace Jimmy Pastos in the Maryland system. In my mind, he was supposed to be able to recruit from the elite high school basketball programs that make this area one of the best basketball regions in the country. In short, we wouldn’t lose out on any more Carmelo Anthonys and Rudy Gays and would always have an incoming class with a high school All-American. When searching for answers to figure out why Moxley left Maryland after just one year, all you stumble upon are more questions. Why would he move to a lower profile school if he weren’t going to be the head coach? Why would he leave the Baltimore-Northern Virginia-D.C. region for an area where he has to compete with Duke, UNC, N.C. State, and Wake Forest (just for starters) for recruits? Why wouldn’t he want to keep working and learning from a great coach like Gary Williams?
On top of that, did Jones’ decision to leave and Hayes’ uneasiness stem from Moxley’s departure? From here, it sure looks like it. And that raises another very scary thought. What if Jones and Hayes weren’t tied to the Maryland program after all? What if they were tied to Moxley? And most importantly if they were that closely tied to Moxley during the recruiting process, where was Gary Williams?
I don’t have to say this, but I will. This isn’t a good sign for Maryland. The only time you hear any college basketball news in late May-early June is in regards to the NBA draft. Anything outside of that, that actually makes the press, can’t be good. And when your coach hears that this news has hit the papers, and his first response is to get on the phone and curse the reporters out? That’s really not good. This might sound like blasphemy (it might even be too extreme on the “what have you done for me lately scale”) but it might be time for Gary Williams to step aside.
(Cue collective GASP from readers)
Look I love Gary. I always have. No moment ever made me happier during basketball games than when Gary first came out to the crowd and raised his fist in the air. I love the emotion, the sweat and the faces he makes at the refs. But he might have finally worn himself out. His consistent berating of players doesn’t seem to have the same effect that it once did, and he seems so set in his ways that it’s unlikely he’ll ever curb his coaching techniques around what his players do best.
The last point is what seems to have driven Maryland into its two-year tailspin. But it hasn’t always been this way. Now, It’s not like Gary always recruited ‘flexible’ and ‘coachable’ kids. In fact it was quite the opposite. It’s just that when he was faced with a problem in the past, Gary used to bend a little. He didn’t have Mr. Fantastic flexibility or anything, cause he still liked to be in control and wanted things done “his way”, but the bottom line was that he wrapped his game plan around his player’s talents.
Noticeable example: In 1999, he let Steve Francis do whatever he wanted. Williams knew that Francis was a shoot first point guard – not the type of player Williams is accustomed to having, but he knew that letting Francis run free was Maryland’s best opportunity to win that year. As a result, Maryland vaulted all the way up to #2 in the national rankings at one point during the season. A couple years later, Williams had another shoot first point guard on his hands in John Gilchrist but handled the situation much differently. In fact he tied Gilchrist’s hands and fought with him publicly and privately. But compare the game averages from the following players:
98-99 Steve Francis: 17ppg, 4.5 assists, 3 turnovers 03-04 John Gilchrist: 15 ppg, 5 assists, 3 turnovers 04-05 John Gilchrist: 13.9 ppg, 5.5 assists, 2.6 turnovers
Gary’s definition of a point guard is someone who passes first, shoots second. The point guard is an extension of the coach on the floor. According to the numbers, Gilchrist was, by Gary’s definition, a better point guard than Steve Francis. Yet Francis and Williams never clashed as openly and publicly as Gilchrist and Williams did. You don’t think that Maryland would’ve made the NCAA tournament if Gary let Gilchrist play his game? John was a different type of point guard, he was a guy who had to get his own shot falling before he started feeding his teammates, but the assists were there. In the ‘90’s, Gary would’ve realized that. Now, he’s like Principal Skinner tying to keep Gilchrist’s Bart Simpson in suspension.
In addition, Gary’s in game coaching (some of the finest forms of theatre on the East Coast) seems to be finally taking a toll on him. The Cameron Crazies used to chant, “Sweat Gary, Sweat!” and it seems that the sport coat comes off earlier in every game, to the point now where he’s getting a workout during the National Anthem. Gary never found a good fit for D.J. Strawberry and ended up wearing down his best defender by making him run point (yet this is the same guy who turned Juan Dixon into a shooting guard and Terrence Morris into an All-American). The only reason Gary ever put Mike Jones (Maryland’s best offensive threat) on the floor was due to Chris McCray’s academic suspension. Twice this past season he was out coached by Virginia coach Dave Leitao, barely winning two games with a much more talented team. And the worst of it, Gary seems to do less and less coaching during the games and more and more complaining with the officials.
It’s a popular coaching technique to work yourself into a technical foul to get your team pumped up. It was a dangerous ploy, because the coach had to know how to come back to the game and coach again once the technical is assessed. It’s a hard line to tread, but one Gary used to be able to walk. Not anymore. This past season, every time he was assessed a technical foul; he seemed more intent on drawing the ire of the referees than about the outcome of the game. Now, is it possible that he was simply coaching a team full of underachievers that made him look bad? Yes. But is it also possible that his players suffered from underachieving coaching?
The hardest thing about all of this is that Gary is the only one who can make the decision on when to hang ‘em up. There is no way in hell that Maryland can fire him, after all that he has done for the school. The best-case scenario for Maryland fan’s is that Gary realizes he has to retire due to health issues and Keith Booth (the Avery Johnson to Gary’s Don Nelson) takes over. I have no idea if Keith Booth can coach. The only thing I can tell from watching him sit in the bench covered in Gary’s shadow is that he looks good in a suit. However, I thought the same thing of Johnson at one point, and so far Johnson’s moves have been the story of the NBA playoffs. What Booth can bring to the team and to the school doesn’t have anything to do with X’s and O’s. It’s all about a breath of fresh air. It’ll be a hard thing for Gary to do because he’s a winner and this is what he was born to do. But someday he’ll realize that he just doesn’t have the motivation the job requires anymore.
Everyone gets his or her inspiration from somewhere. If I watch Almost Famous or Steve Nash run a fast break, I could give you 20,000 words on why Jerry Rice was the greatest football player of all time. I like to think that at one point, Gary was like that too. There had to be something that made him come back to his alma matta regardless that the school had just been placed on probation. There was something in him that would’ve worked just as hard if he was coaching for free or coaching a high school team.
But now? Gary’s job looks too much like work. It doesn’t look like his passion. For a job like that, where you have to commit so much time and energy, it has to be your passion in order for you to be successful. You can’t take the Steve Spurrier in the NFL approach – the regular 9 to 5 isn’t going to cut it for a big time college basketball program.
I just wish that Gary realized that.
Chris DiIonno broke down into tears rereading this article. He can be reached at .
U of Maryland 