The Terrapin men’s basketball program has seen more drama this spring and summer than a lot of teams see during an actual season.
Two highly touted recruits asked out of their commitments, another’s academic standing was in doubt until a week ago, the team rescinded its offer to a player who had verbally committed in April and one player transferred out of the program.
Combine those events with a team coming off of its third trip to the NIT in four years, and you get coach Gary Williams facing criticism from fans and the media, as evidenced by a recent ESPN.com article profiling he program’s decline from its national championship in 2002.
In an interview with The Diamondback on Tuesday, Williams, entering his 20th year at this school, brushed off critics and reiterated his desire to win hasn’t wavered.
“In college basketball, it’s hard to be loved by everybody, especially if you’ve been at a place for 20 years,” Williams said. “It bothers you personally, but two years ago we won the fifth-most games in school history. You get judged here at Maryland if you win a national championship; at a lot of places your bar is set differently.”
Williams talked openly about the circumstances involving the departure of Tyree Evans and Gus Gilchrist, the two recruits who asked out of their commitments earlier this summer and were expected to help the Terps try to get back to the NCAA Tournament.
Evans, a junior-college transfer and shooting guard from Richmond, Va., with a history of legal troubles, was expected to contribute immediately this season after averaging 21.2 points per game at Motlow State Community College in Tennessee last year. He signed a letter of intent with the Terps in April, but after media outlets, including The (Baltimore) Sun and SI.com, published stories detailing Evans’ criminal record, Evans eventually asked out of his commitment.
“You could see it coming in the distance,” Williams said. “There’s no way he could have been a normal student on this campus. It wouldn’t be right to him. If he got a parking ticket, he would have been in trouble.”
Williams said he got no specific indication the Office of Student Conduct, which reviews all students with criminal backgrounds in the application process and is independent of the Athletics Department, would have denied Evans’ admission.
Evans had already been accepted by the Athletics Department Academic Committee, which voted to grant him a scholarship by a 4-1 vote, according to minutes from an April 17 council meeting. The committee did not take into account Evans’ criminal past, which includes a 2005 felony charge for possession of marijuana with intent to distribute. He ended up pleading to a misdemeanor charge and was sentenced to 12 months in jail, only two weeks of which he served before being released on good behavior.
Controversy about whether or not the program should admit a player with Evans’ checkered past, which also includes a guilty plea to a misdemeanor assault charge at his Massachusetts prep school in 2004, broiled in early May after the media reports. That time, according to Williams, is when Evans decided to leave the program.As for how Evans’ departure will affect the Terps’ ability to compete in what should be a conference full of quality guard play, Williams seemed confident.
“We have one of the highest-rated backcourts in the league coming into this season,” Williams said of returning junior guards Greivis Vasquez and Eric Hayes, and sophomores Cliff Tucker and Adrian Bowie. “It’s not like we’re not going to be good because Tyree is not here.”
Gilchrist, a 6-9 center from Temple Hills, Md., committed to this university last fall after he was released from of his letter of intent for Virginia Tech, citing the April 2007 shootings on the Blacksburg, Va., campus.
He had been practicing with the team and taking classes at this university last semester but wouldn’t have been allowed to suit up for the Terps until December of this year per ACC transfer rules. Gilchrist would have been able to play just two and a half years for the Terps, and after two of Maryland’s appeals to the ACC to grant Gilchrist more eligibility were denied, he decided to transfer to South Florida in June.
“The Gilchrist thing was unusual,” Williams said. “It was a situation where the league did not grant him a waiver from the transfer, so he went somewhere where he felt he could get that year back. He felt he needed that fourth year to become a pro.”
Then there is the story of guard Bobby Maze, a Suitland native who verbally committed to transfer from his Kansas junior college to the Terps last year. But the Terps rescinded his offer in April, in what many observers thought was a move to make room on the roster for Evans, who at the time had just committed. Maze subsequently chose to enroll at Tennessee.
Forward Shane Walker, who played sparingly as a freshman for the Terps last season, transferred in April to Loyola College in Baltimore, coached by former Terps assistant Jimmy Patsos.
There were concerns incoming freshman Sean Mosley, a 6-4 shooting guard and last year’s state Gatorade Player of the Year, would not qualify academically. But Mosley is set and should see significant playing time this season, according to Williams, who also said to expect a few more commitments from big men before the summer is through.
While Williams can’t comment on current recruits, reports indicate one of those players could be Steve Goins, a 6-10 center from Chicago. Goins committed to the Terps in June, according to TurtleSportsReport.com, but is awaiting word on his academic status.
When asked about the unusually high amount of player movement in and out of the program this summer Williams said, “Every year is different in college basketball now; a lot of things happen with a lot of schools.”
Williams specifically referred to the decision of Arizona recruit Brandon Jennings to forego his commitment there in favor of playing professionally in Europe.Williams also defended himself against recent public criticism.
“Understand that people who are the most vocal, most visible are usually always against something,” Williams said. “People that are satisfied or happy with the ways things are – they don’t say much. It’s the same with anything, politics or sports.”
In the ESPN.com report, high school and AAU coaches discussed Williams’ hunger when it comes to recruiting and if his job is on the hot seat.
Athletics Director Debbie Yow gave her support for Williams in a written response. “The achievements of coach Williams are very much appreciated by all of us in Athletics,” Yow said. “I continue to support all 27 of our varsity teams and their coaches in every way possible.”
Williams said he is still passionate about the program and is particularly excited about this year’s team because the four-guard lineups he plans to use remind him of his days coaching at American and Boston College.
Still, he said it’s important to him to realize when it’s the right time to walk away from coaching.
“I want the program to be the best in the country every year, so If I feel I can do that, than fine,” Williams said. “If I feel I can’t, then hopefully we can get somebody in here that can do the job, because the basketball program is important to me.”
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