Dr. Gonzo Reporting,
The University of Maryland Men’s Basketball team was dealt yet another recruiting blow yesterday, as the much hyped 6 foot 9 Gus Gilchrist decided to transfer. This coming shortly after losing the skillful and troubled Tyree Evans, who asked out of his commitment letter in May.
Now I’ve bleed Terrapin red my entire life, my earliest MD moments involve the likes of Keith Booth and X-ray Hip. I remember the Joe Smith’s, the Steve Francis’s and I watched as Juan Dixon picked apart every big program on his way to the national championship.
Now we can’t even get a top recruit to stay, let alone lure anyone to come in the first place. Are the academic standards to high or are we to place the blame on the same man who took a program on probation all the way to the top?
Gary has been heavily criticized in the past for his lack of recruiting, it’s been said he often sends his assistants and scouts to talk to and entice players to join.
Maryland’s current record of recruitment has looked like a missing persons list. It goes all the way back to the first Gilchrist, or as some fans thought, or savior. Yet his star fizzled fast, and then he was here one day and gone the next. The following season Chris McCray was kicked off the team. Not to mention that Mike Jones was once considered being one-step behind Lebron. Some of these guys where good recruits on paper, but their character lacked.
It’s hard for me to criticize Gary’s approach, he likes to look for more than a quick fix, and he wants the guys who give four years. Have those guys become extinct? It’s tough to think that another Steve Blake or Juan Dixon is just going to come walking through that door. Maybe it’s time for Gary to get with the times and recruit player for 1-2 years, the current strategy results in spurts of good play, but in the end only produces NIT’s.
Maryland Men’s Basketball used to mean something; it used to mean fighting for the top spot in the ACC.
If some way, some how Gary can right the ship and take this team to the NCAA tournament, with the roster he has now, then it would truly be his best coaching job ever. Better than he won the ACC tournament and better then the team that went to the first final four.The landscape of college basketball is drastically changing, star recruits mean good press for your program and give the guys come up next a reason to take a look at your school. We need to bring respectability back to a reeling program on the brink of losing its greatest asset, Gary Williams.
Now I’ve bleed Terrapin red my entire life, my earliest MD moments involve the likes of Keith Booth and X-ray Hip. I remember the Joe Smith’s, the Steve Francis’s and I watched as Juan Dixon picked apart every big program on his way to the national championship.
Now we can’t even get a top recruit to stay, let alone lure anyone to come in the first place. Are the academic standards to high or are we to place the blame on the same man who took a program on probation all the way to the top?
Gary has been heavily criticized in the past for his lack of recruiting, it’s been said he often sends his assistants and scouts to talk to and entice players to join.
Maryland’s current record of recruitment has looked like a missing persons list. It goes all the way back to the first Gilchrist, or as some fans thought, or savior. Yet his star fizzled fast, and then he was here one day and gone the next. The following season Chris McCray was kicked off the team. Not to mention that Mike Jones was once considered being one-step behind Lebron. Some of these guys where good recruits on paper, but their character lacked.
It’s hard for me to criticize Gary’s approach, he likes to look for more than a quick fix, and he wants the guys who give four years. Have those guys become extinct? It’s tough to think that another Steve Blake or Juan Dixon is just going to come walking through that door. Maybe it’s time for Gary to get with the times and recruit player for 1-2 years, the current strategy results in spurts of good play, but in the end only produces NIT’s.
Maryland Men’s Basketball used to mean something; it used to mean fighting for the top spot in the ACC.
If some way, some how Gary can right the ship and take this team to the NCAA tournament, with the roster he has now, then it would truly be his best coaching job ever. Better than he won the ACC tournament and better then the team that went to the first final four.The landscape of college basketball is drastically changing, star recruits mean good press for your program and give the guys come up next a reason to take a look at your school. We need to bring respectability back to a reeling program on the brink of losing its greatest asset, Gary Williams.