Wednesday afternoon, Vermont men’s basketball head coach Mike Lonergan opened his e-mail account and saw a message from a former coworker informing the coach that Gary Williams will be vying for his 400th career win at the university when the Catamounts and Terrapins play tonight at Comcast Center.
“Oh, God,” Lonergan thought. “I wish we weren’t his chance to get 400.”
Before taking the lead job at Vermont three years ago, Lonergan, 42, was an assistant with the Terps during the 2004-05 season – one he called “a little disappointing,” as the Terps missed out on the NCAA tournament for the first time in 12 seasons.
But tonight, he’ll be on the opposite end of the court after being a part of 19 of Williams’ 399 victories at this university.
“We’ll be real familiar with Maryland, but Gary will know what we do, too,” Lonergan said. “The game probably means a lot more to [Vermont assistant coach and former Terp player] Matt Hahn and I.”
Lonergan knew Williams before becoming an assistant here. Former Terps assistant coach Jimmy Patsos and Lonergan were best friends, and Patsos was single at the time, so when other coaches took their wives on charters to road games, Patsos took his buddy Lonergan.
Familiar with Lonergan, Williams hired him and worked with him for just six months before Lonergan left to become a head coach at Vermont.
“He’s done a very good job up there,” Williams said. “It couldn’t have been an easy job following Tom Brennan. He’s done a good job of getting good players and being very competitive in the league.”
Williams isn’t the only Terp familiar with Lonergan, either.
“I know him pretty well,” forward Landon Milbourne said. “We met when I was a sophomore in high school, and he was the first one who came to see me play in Georgia. We had a close relationship, but I haven’t really talked to him since he left.”
Lonergan, who grew up in Bowie as a huge Terps fan, wanted to play for the university but admits he didn’t have the talent, so he went to Catholic University in Washington instead.
His return to this university tonight won’t be the first since he left.
Lonergan took his Catamount squad to College Park two seasons ago as part of the 2K Sports College Hoops Classic Tournament, where they lost to the Terps by 18 points in the second round. He wasn’t pleased with the way his team performed, but they used the experience as a stepping stone to beat No. 14 Boston College in their next game.
Both Vermont and Maryland finished that season with 25 wins.
This season, Vermont (1-1) is once again projected to contend for an America East title, with a talented team featuring 6-foot-5 power forward Marqus Blakely – the nation’s only returning player to have averaged at least 19 points and 11 rebounds per game last season.
Lonergan compared Blakely’s defense to former Terp D.J. Strawberry and said the undersized but energetic junior scores mostly all of his baskets on layups and dunks.
“He’s one of those players that everybody looked at, and I’m sure they said he was ‘not big enough to play the way he plays,’ but now I think anybody would take him on their team,” Williams said.
Blakely and Vermont may be the last team standing in the way of Williams’ 400th win at the university, but Lonergan wishes Williams the best – at least, after they play each other tonight.
“I’ll be very happy for him,” Lonergan said. “That’s a heck of a lot of wins; he’ll probably be in the Hall of Fame some day.”
Williams’ first win came against Delaware State on Nov. 25, 1989 – eight full months before current Terp freshman Steve Goins was even born.
When asked about the milestone, Williams quipped, “400 wins? Where? They didn’t tell me. I didn’t know that.”
But longtime Terp fan, one-time ballboy and Terp guard Adrian Bowie was more sentimental.
“To be a part of a win is always special,” Bowie said. “Especially No. 400, [that would] make it more special.”
Just as long as Lonergan’s Catamounts don’t ruin Williams’ night, like they plan to.
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