When the Terrapin men’s basketball team missed the NCAA tournament last season, many fans lashed out at then-junior John Gilchrist, who they felt symbolized the team’s disappointing run and inconsistent play.
Three months after he played his final game, the anger and resentment many students felt in March subsided into acceptance.
Rising junior criminology and criminal justice major Brandon Bicknese isn’t happy about Gilchrist leaving, but he feels he understands the issues that led to Gilchrist’s departure.
“He wasn’t getting along with Coach [Gary] Williams, and he probably wouldn’t have gotten very much playing time next season,” Bicknese said.
The tumultuous relationship between Williams and Gilchrist was well documented, with Williams even telling ESPN’s Andy Katz his guard “struggled with his identity” after earning ACC tournament MVP honors his sophomore season.
It was then that Gilchrist considered leaving the Terps for the NBA Draft after averaging 15.4 points per game. In hindsight, many students feel Gilchrist’s leaving after his sophomore season would have been a better move for all parties involved, as Gilchrist was not selected in Tuesday night’s NBA Draft and the Terps failed to make the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1993.
Some fans saw signs of severe attitude problems during the season that showed Gilchrist was destined not to stick around for his senior year.
“There were a couple of instances seeing him on the bench when it seemed he was pouting a little bit,” graduate student Keith Swaney said.
Rising sophomore pre-nursing major Allison Payne was alarmed by a postseason article in The Washington Post in which Gilchrist criticized his teammates for not playing up to his intensity in practice and placing too much blame on him. Gilchrist even said, “No matter what, I’m not coming back,” when discussing his thoughts during the season.
Fans are split on whether Gilchrist’s exit is a positive step for the team, which returns 10 regular contributors.
Payne is glad to see Gilchrist go, believing the team as a whole is better off without what she feels was his negative attitude. Other fans, such as Swaney, are more willing to forgive a player with such obvious talent.
“I’m not one of the fans who say, ‘Kick him out of here,’” Swaney said.
He and other students harbor no hard feelings, although they hoped Gilchrist would have returned.
But after being critical of teammates and failing to live up to the expectations resulting from his ACC tournament success, Gilchrist suffered a major decline in support among fans.
Bicknese attributes Gilchrist’s sinking popularity more to the team’s disappointing results than his personal statistics.
“His numbers didn’t go down; it’s just they didn’t win as many games,” he said.
Gilchrist dropped 1.5 points per game from his sophomore season average to his junior campaign and played in four fewer games because of an injured ankle. Still many fans felt Gilchrist, as well as the rest of the team, should be improving, not declining.
The fact that neither the Terps nor Gilchrist had their best year led some fans to wonder why Gilchrist is leaving now.
“It’s foolish, because he didn’t play that well and the team didn’t play that well,” rising senior finance and international business major Eric Fishel said.
Whether looking back to the 2004 draft or ahead past next season, the consensus among students is Gilchrist’s best interests lay in any other year.
After going undrafted, it’s clear to fans on the campus this wasn’t the guard’s best opportunity.
Rising senior business major Tim Morris said the abundance of point guards should have kept Gilchrist out of the NBA picture, especially after this season.
Ten point guards were drafted in the 60 selections Tuesday night; Gilchrist never heard his name called.
