Foxsports: Sources: Maryland's Williams retiring - (updated 5/8)

[abdcskins]

Goodbye Gary. Thanks SO much what you did for Maryland. He was an amazing motivator who got the most out of his players. The fans loved him for his fiery and never give up attitude. He may have struggled recently and didn't land top tier recruits but you can't deny his skills as a coach.

And anyone who doesn't think Maryland is a top 20 position is completely wrong period. Facilities, league, prestige, and pure amount of talent in the backyard (i.e. DC Metro Area, Maryland, Virginia high schools) make it so.

On another note, I am shocked that Jordan Williams is leaving. He is a mid 2nd round pick at best.

[jthor99]

False.

Duke, UNC, Kansas, Texas, UConn, Syracuse, Louisville, St. John's, Georgetown, Pittsburgh, Ohio St., Kentucky, Florida, Arizona, and UCLA are all better jobs than MD and I'm sure there are another 5-10 programs I could name that are better than MD.

I would agree. It's hard to argue with people on this board when they refuse to take there MD emotion out of the argument. I think you could add Villanova to that list

[Kosher Ham]

Pitt and Syracuse are not better jobs than UMD.

[Lombardi's_kid_brother]

I think hes referring to the campus...which is average. nothing special (coming from a current UMD student)

Which matters to recruits pretty much not at all.

Maryland is in a leagut that is on tv every night and it has an NBA caliber gym. It should be a top ten team every year.

[bushwack]

Pitt and Syracuse are not better jobs than UMD.

I could see an argument for Pitt, but there's no chance that UMD is a better job than Syracuse. Boeheim has turned that program into one of the best in the nation, and is a contender year in and year out, the same can't be said for UMD.

[mjah]

On another note, I am shocked that Jordan Williams is leaving. He is a mid 2nd round pick at best.

I'm not so surprised, really.

This seems like a good year to be a 2nd rounder with an outside shot at going 1st round. It looks like there's a thinner field for his type of player this year than next year will see, and he might figure that he can only play himself up so much between now and then while risking injury, etc.

[Lombardi's_kid_brother]

I don't think Syracuse is a great job at all. Once Boheim leaves, it will be a Marquette-level program. What is your recruiting base there?

St. Johns and Georgetown can be good jobs if you have the right relationship with the Administration. Navigating that Catholic/Academic minefield is never easy.

Pitt is now a Top 15 job just because of the gym and what Dixon has built there. It "feels" like a big-time program.

Florida and Ohio State are good jobs, because those schools are sports-mad (Texas is the same way). But at all three, you can win the national title and the alums will care more about the Spring Football game. You can win and make money, but you are always going to be the second most important person on the campus.

Maryland should be a Top 15 job. Gary has led the program go to seed a bit, but any young coach would want to castrate someone for the position.

[Goingforburgundy]

I would agree. It's hard to argue with people on this board when they refuse to take there MD emotion out of the argument. I think you could add Villanova to that list

Programs do not equal jobs. Given the right coach there is so much potential at maryland.

Easy recruitment to the area

The actual talent in the area is probably Top 3 in the Nation

Under Armor trying desperately to get like Nike at Oregon. (Shoe deals for potential NBA players?)

Good Pay im sure.

Great Facilites

Great Fanbase

[Lombardi's_kid_brother]

I could see an argument for Pitt, but there's no chance that UMD is a better job than Syracuse. Boeheim has turned that program into one of the best in the nation, and is a contender year in and year out, the same can't be said for UMD.

You are confusing the coach with the job. Butler is a great job right now if your name is Brad Stevens. The next coach at Butler is going to be miserable.

Syracuse is a great job because Boheim is a great coach who recruits his balls off. The next coach is going to be stuck in the snow, hoping that the best player in Rochester signs with him. Like I said, it's a Marquette-level job without Boheim.

Fact: Duke was a **** job prior to Coach K.

All you need to know about what can happen to "the best program in the country" is Indiana. I would say that at the moment there are maybe four NCAA basketball jobs that are "great" in and of themselves. In other words, you could put a corpse in the job and it should be a Top 20 program:

UNC

Kentucky

UCLA

Kansas

[Goingforburgundy]

I could see an argument for Pitt, but there's no chance that UMD is a better job than Syracuse. Boeheim has turned that program into one of the best in the nation, and is a contender year in and year out, the same can't be said for UMD.

They go for the coach but how many people would want to go to Syracuse afterwards?

[Lombardi's_kid_brother]

Because that essentially applies to Virginia Tech as well, minus the tradition.

It applies to UVA.

VT/UVA aren't top 10 jobs, and having one national championship and a few Elite 8s/Final 4s in your past doesn't push you from VT/UVA status to where you think UMD is.

Explain to me how VT is a 20 minute ride from DC AND Baltimore AND PG County. Moreover, explain to me how you are going to get a kid from Baltimore to move to Blacksburg?

UVA's problem has always been the fact that it gets its head up it ass about its academic reputation when it comes to athletics. UVA could be Stanford and it chooses to be, well, UVA.

UMD is not currently a Top 15 program. But, like St. Johns, it should be.

---------- Post added May-5th-2011 at 09:25 PM ----------

Here is the way to consider the UMD job.

What does your team look like if you consistently get the top-ranked recruit out of DC, Baltimore and PG County each year? All you need to do at Maryland is have a butterfly net outside your front door.

[skinfan2k]

espn had a article saying how PG county is the best county in the country for bball? do you know how many nba players are from this area? its scary good

[abdcskins]

I'm not so surprised, really.

This seems like a good year to be a 2nd rounder with an outside shot at going 1st round. It looks like there's a thinner field for his type of player this year than next year will see, and he might figure that he can only play himself up so much between now and then while risking injury, etc.

I guess I'm not too surprised either because there has been speculation, but nonetheless if he had stayed one more year his game would've improved significantly and thus his draft stock would've too.

He's a pudgy undersized forward who is not that athletic. He has no jump shot and can't make a free throw. I can't see too many teams getting excited about him. If he goes in the first round I would be absolutely amazed.

False.

Louisville, St. John's, Pittsburgh, Arizona are all better jobs than MD and I'm sure there are another 5-10 programs I could name that are better than MD.

Not a chance those are better programs than Maryland, nor are they as desirable for coaches to go there. I agree with those other schools you mentioned.

Consider the talent Maryland has in its backyard. Montrose Christian, DeMatha, Oak Hill Academy....so many good players not even at those schools. The facilities are top 10 in the nation without a doubt. The fans are tremendous. The prestige is there. The pay is there. Top 20 basketball program to coach at without a doubt.

[Lombardi's_kid_brother]

Gary would not line AAU coaches pockets either.

Unfortunately Alumni and Metro area fans are okay with kicking principles to the curb for a chance to win.

I think that was Gary being the self-righteous, Bobby Knight-esque dick he turned into in his later years.

I don't think Boheim and Roy Williams are paying off AAU coaches. But they do have relationships with them. Gary treated AAU coaches and high school coaches like drug mules - whether they deserved it or not.

[abdcskins]

espn had a article saying how PG county is the best county in the country for bball? do you know how many nba players are from this area? its scary good

I'm just gonna name some recent players from the area....

Michael Beasley, Rudy Gay, Ty Lawson, Kevin Durant are all top tier players. Then there are second tier players who excelled in college like...

Roy Hibbert, Joey Dorsey, Keith Bogans, Josh Boone, Dante Cunningham, Malcolm Delaney, Donte Greene...and a bunch of other players I'm forgetting.

The DC Metro area is one of the most fruitful high school basketball areas IN THE COUNTRY.

[Lombardi's_kid_brother]

espn had a article saying how PG county is the best county in the country for bball? do you know how many nba players are from this area? its scary good

Anyone who knows basketball knows that you go to New York then Chicago then maybe Detroit or Philly and then PG County if you are looking for the top players. You could build a wall around Baltimore and DC and just recruit PG County and have a consistent Top 20 program and if you got lucky and hit on the DUrant-level player that seems to come out every four years, you compete for a national title.

---------- Post added May-5th-2011 at 09:37 PM ----------

I'm just gonna name some recent players from the area....

Michael Beasley, Rudy Gay, Ty Lawson, Kevin Durant are all top tier players. Then there are second tier players who excelled in college like...

Roy Hibbert, Joey Dorsey, Keith Bogans, Josh Boone, Dante Cunningham, Malcolm Delaney, Donte Greene...and a bunch of other players I'm forgetting.

The DC Metro area is one of the most fruitful high school basketball areas IN THE COUNTRY.

Aren't Sam Young and Jeff Green PG County products?

---------- Post added May-5th-2011 at 09:40 PM ----------

I can see Wright and even Dixon thinking you have a better chance of winning a national title here. The only question is probably the money. The Atheltic Department at Maryland has been acting weirdly as of late. I just don't know what the dollars are going to be.

[abdcskins]

Aren't Sam Young and Jeff Green PG County products?

Indeed they are. Jarrett Jack is as well.

For the record I was naming players from the DC Metro area. But undoubtedly a lot of those guys are from PG County.

[Lombardi's_kid_brother]

Maryland has a perception problem that stems from the bull**** that Lefty preached for 20 years, the nightmare that Gary inherited, and the weirdness of Gary's last decade.

It's a program that could very easily be on a UNC level but has had some horrible incidents and some eccentric coaches.

---------- Post added May-5th-2011 at 09:43 PM ----------

Indeed they are. Jarrett Jack is as well.

For the record I was naming players from the DC Metro area. But undoubtedly a lot of those guys are from PG County.

Beasley, Durant, Hibbert and Green are all PG county, I know.

College sports to me i really simple. If you are in a prime recruiing area, you recruit the hell out of your backyard and let the chips fall where they may.

When Paterno finally dies, the Penn State job is going to be seen as the greatest job opening of the past 30 years. And the idiots on ES are going to say, "Bah...it finishes in third or fourth place in the Big Ten every year." And then I'm going to have to explain to those idiots that it's in the fifth or sixth best state in the country in terms of recruiting, it has the best facilities in the country, and it's on tv every week. The problem there is that Paterno fell asleep in 1997, woke up briefly in 2005, and may have been clinically dead for the past three years. Ohio State has been picking his pocket for 20 years. The right coach there would lock down PA, lock down NJ (the way Paterno did in the 70s and 80s), and poach enough talent out of Ohio to make OSU sweat.

Maryland is the same way. If I ran that program, the only reason I would ever leave DC, PG County, or Baltimore is if I thought I had a shot with a Derrick Rose type.

And, seriously, I want one of you numbskulls to name five advantage Syracuse has over Maryland. Have any of you people been to Syracuse? It snows in July there and the city looks like the backtrop to a post-apocalyptic thriller. It has Boheim and a really ugly arena with a ****ty shooting backdrop.

[BRAVEONAWARPATH]

espn had a article saying how PG county is the best county in the country for bball? do you know how many nba players are from this area? its scary good

Here's the article you're referring to.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?id=3775073

Actually, the two most recent No. 2 picks in the NBA draft are just the lead curl in an unprecedented wave of talent that hails from Prince George's County, a predominantly African-American area of 841,315 that shares a border with DC. Nine players with roots in Prince George's (PG to insiders) have played in the league in the previous five years, and though only six are currently on rosters, that number should soon crack double digits. Fifteen locals suit up for BCS conference schools, including UNC's Ty Lawson, Duke's Nolan Smith, Pitt's Sam Young and Georgetown's Austin Freeman and Chris Wright. In the past three years, the county has produced six McDonald's All-Americans—more than any state except California, which has 43 residents for every one of PG's. "This place is unique because of the level of talent and commitment to the game," says Hoyas coach John Thompson III. "People here are highly knowledgeable about basketball, and kids start learning at a very young age."

[SkinsTerps26]

Maryland has ELITE facilities, top 3 recruiting hotbed in the country, add dc/baltimore, and you have arguably the best in the country within an hour DRIVE. Maryland has Under Armour pledging money and complete support in its apparel and brand. Kevin Plank is UMDs biggest booster when it comes to what he can personally do with this program. Add to the fact that you in a top media market in the country, in a top conference for hoops (despite its recent setbacks), and a tradition as a BASKETBALL school.

Top 15 job in the country, and COACHES consider it a top 10 program behind the bluebloods (UNC/Kansas/Kentucky/UCLA and include Duke)

Right now the coaches CALLING kevin anderson include Jay Wright, Jamie Dixon, Mike Brey, BRAD STEVENS, and Sean Miller (to whomever said AZ was a "better job" than UMD has no idea what they are talking about)

Maryland is a ****ing SLEEPING GIANT. Believe me.

Now, the problem is Maryland never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity. This is the most important hire in the history of the university as it comes to athletics. Most likely, they make the wrong mistake. I'm hoping Sean Miller or Brad Stevens are there. Everyone knows Mike Brey will walk from south bend if called, Jay Wright will definitely think strongly about it.

[BRAVEONAWARPATH]

http://www.testudotimes.com/2011/5/5/2156374/jay-wright-at-top-of-marylands-wish-list-miller-also-interested

Jay Wright at Top of Maryland's Wish List, Miller Also Interested

Um...wow. I swear that two months ago I thought Maryland would be looking low-high-major or high-mid-major when Gary's job opened up. Like Anthony Grant or Gregg Marshall or something. Instead, we now have the revelation that UMD is a top ten job in the country in most smart people's mind. Who woulda thunk it?

Anyway, that's led from a Grant-Marshall-Darrin Horn type search to a Jay Wright-Jamie Dixon-Sean Miller type search. Yeah, good trade.

Miller, who's my favorite candidate of the bunch, is a rising star in the coaching world. Per Terrapins insider - remember, fear Yandabell - he'd be interested if Maryland called. I'm guessing they'll call.

But the same guys also say that Maryland would be even more interested in Jay Wright, the current head man at Villanova. He has a penchant for underperformance at times, but he recruits well and has lead a revival of that program that few saw coming.

And hey, John Feinstein says go the **** after Brad Stevens.

Okay, so Stevens is probably stupid. But the others make sense. And if you're wondering how, exactly, Maryland is in contention with all these big name candidates, check out this post. And then read this:

Recruiting-wise, this is sleeping giant. ... The job will be extremely attractive to an elite group of middle-aged coaches, many of whom have secretly mused about the Maryland job behind the scenes. The Maryland job is regarded as a gem. Combine the facilities with the recruiting grounds and the fan base and one has to believe that Maryland will land a worthy successor.

And then this:

Coaches widely consider it to be one of the nation's best jobs because of its natural recruiting base.

"The right guy there will kill it," a source told CBSSports.com. "If they get the right guy, they'll win really big."

I think this is the exact opposite feeling N.C. State fans got - they thought their job was awesome and then the media crapped on it. We thought our job was average and now the media is telling us it's amazing. Ahhh...it's like warmth.

Oh, wait. Gary Williams retired a few hours ago. Dammit.

But more on that later. For now: wishlist. Go.

[Goingforburgundy]

Ill see what I can find out about Sean Miller conning here.

[DarrellsMyHero28]

Explain to me how VT is a 20 minute ride from DC AND Baltimore AND PG County. Moreover' date=' explain to me how you are going to get a kid from Baltimore to move to Blacksburg?

[/quote']

Uhhhh because Tech grabs guys from DC/Bmore on a regular basis. We have a brand new basketball practice facility (which is absolutely phenomenal) and a program that has been more competitive than UMD in recent years.

I don't think, were Seth Greenberg to get fired, that Virginia Tech would be a well sought after job, but you guys are WAY overrated how important UMD is.

[BRAVEONAWARPATH]

Uhhhh because Tech grabs guys from DC/Bmore on a regular basis. We have a brand new basketball practice facility (which is absolutely phenomenal) and a program that has been more competitive than UMD in recent years.

I don't think, were Seth Greenberg to get fired, that Virginia Tech would be a well sought after job, but you guys are WAY overrated how important UMD is.

According to various reports, OTHER coaches are WAY overrating how important MD is also. :2cents:

[BRAVEONAWARPATH]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/maryland-begins-the-search-for-gary-williamss-successor-as-head-coach/2011/05/05/AFYMZe2F_story.html

Maryland begins the search for Gary Williams’ successor as head coach

Pittsburgh’s Jamie Dixon, Arizona’s Sean Miller, Notre Dame’s Mike Brey and Villanova’s Jay Wright are expected to be high on Maryland’s target list as the school looks to replace Gary Williams, Maryland’s winningest coach who unveiled his plans to retire Thursday.

Thanks in large part to Maryland’s impressive facilities and the Washington area’s deep pool of high school basketball talent, the school’s head coaching position is widely considered among the nation’s top 15 to 20 college basketball jobs, a vacancy that will attract a strong pool of candidates. And Maryland is expected aim for a high-profile successor to Williams.

College basketball sources across the country and those close to Maryland’s athletic department said the focus of first-year Athletic Director Kevin Anderson should initially center on Dixon, Miller, Brey and Wright.

Dixon and Anderson have a strong relationship that stems from Anderson’s tenure as athletic director at Army. Dixon’s sister, Maggie Dixon, was the women’s basketball coach at Army before dying from heart failure in 2006.

Dixon has amassed a 216-60 record in eight seasons at Pittsburgh, and the Panthers went 31-5 in 2009.

Sources said there is mutual interest between Maryland and Brey, who has deep roots in the area. One source close to the Maryland athletic department and to Brey said Brey wants the Maryland job.

Maryland already has reached out to representatives for Brey, the Chicago Tribune reported Thursday afternoon, and Brey has a contract extension in the works to remain with the Irish, a source told the newspaper.

Brey, this past season’s Big East coach of the year, has a 238-120 record in 11 seasons at Notre Dame. But Brey has made just one round-of-16 appearance (2003) during his tenure, and the Fighting Irish were upset by Florida State in the second round of this year’s tournament.

Born in Bethesda, Brey graduated from DeMatha and George Washington, and later returned to the area as an assistant for five seasons under Morgan Wootten.

Two years ago, Miller, then Xavier’s head coach, was expected to be a top candidate for the Maryland job had then-Athletic Director Debbie Yow fired Williams after the 2009 season, according to a source with knowledge of the relationship between Yow and Williams.

After the 2009 season, Miller went to Arizona, where he has quickly rebuilt one of the premier basketball programs in the nation. Under Miller, unheralded recruit Derrick Williams blossomed into one of the nation’s best players, and Arizona was a three-pointer away from reaching the Final Four this March.

Maryland is also expected to target Villanova’s Wright, who has led the Wildcats to seven NCAA tournament appearances in 10 seasons, including a Final Four appearance in 2009. Williams is expected to be involved in the hiring of the new coach to some extent, a source said.

Others who could be in the mix include Gonzaga Coach Mark Few, who has been a friend of Gary Williams for some time, Minnesota Coach Tubby Smith and Virginia Commonwealth Coach Shaka Smart.