Thursday, July 3, 2008

A Very Important Year for Gary!

Dana O'Neil of espn.com recently wrote an article that documents the decline of the hoops program of UMD since the 2002 title run and how Gary Williams may be feeling the seat beneath start to heat up.

Here are some highlights from the article...

"Williams, once lauded for resurrecting Maryland from the depths of NCAA probation, now enters his 20th season dogged by questions about himself, his program and his status with the university administration.
"Is this a big year? Absolutely," said Kent Greenway, coach of the Richmond Squires AAU team, a power in the D.C.-Baltimore-Virginia hub. "People are questioning how good of a coach Gary is, how good of a job the team is doing recruiting and whether the AD wants [Williams] out. This is a very, very important year."
Yet, in a season with conceivably so much on the line, Maryland starts with only 10 scholarship players. Shane Walker transferred, would-be recruit Tyree Evans never got past the administrative smell test and heralded rookie-to-be Gus Gilchrist elected to transfer to South Florida, where he hopes an appeal will restore a year of eligibility. "

Dana also takes a look at some of the local talent that has slipped through Gary's grasp.

" In the past two years, the Maryland area has produced three top-five NBA
draft picks -- Texas' Kevin
Durant went second and Georgetown's Jeff Green
fifth in 2007, and Kansas State's Michael
Beasley went No. 2 just this past Thursday. Mix in Carmelo
Anthony in 2003, and you get an idea of just how deep the talent pool is
around College Park.
"There's no reason they're not getting some of these
guys," said Curtis Malone, co-founder of the powerful D.C. Assault AAU team.
"It's a great campus, a great facility, great conference. Gary is a good coach.
There's so much talent in the Baltimore-D.C. area, they should be getting more
kids to stay home. I can't put my finger on it."

Here is the link of the article. http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/columns/story?columnist=oneil_dana&id=3469331

It is a great read and with Shane Mosley as the only incoming freshman as of now, it makes me a little worried about the prospects of the upcoming Terp season.

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