Don,

I know this is a bit premature and someone posted a comment that briefly touched on the subject in your Q&A on 3/14, but I figured I'd ask anyways. I know Gary Williams is currently, and has been very important to the men's basketball program, but do you have any thoughts/suggestions on any possible successors if his position were to open in the next few years? Anyone that you think would be a good fit at Maryland? I know that's a difficult question to answer considering timing and who would be available, but maybe a wish list.

Thanks & this doesn't have to be considered for your next article, I'm just curious as to your take.

Chad

You must be in the tank for Gary.

How difficuclt is it to go from zone to man to man "on the fly" I watch my nephews 10 year old AAU team do it all the time with out a problem and a Gary Williams coached team has a problem with it. Duke does a lot of things well but that because they have a disciplinary as a coach who won't settle for any thing less.

As for point guards, what about Gilchrest, he was a highly touted point guard and did well in his first two seasons. I grant you that after he led the team to an ACC Championship his ego got so large it could fit in the Comcast Center with Gary's over inflated ego. I see a lot of similarities in Gilchrest junior year to Vasquez.

As for Gary going, it has had to been a quick passing thought in Yow's head that was quickly dismissed. Although another year or two of what we've seen the last four years, and the thought may linger.

It will be interesting to see what the Terp Club hauls in this year due to the reseating versus 3 years ago. That could be an indicator of Gary's fate.

What a waste. 2 more transfers, 2 more mistakes who used up valuable resource's and learning time!!!! How come only fans seem to care about thai?

As a MD. grad now living in N.C., I see all terps afraid to shoot the open shot (especially after missing one). You dont see this with the good carolina teams.

After reading Rick Maese's article about the lack of money spent on recruiting by Gary, it's obvious that these guys aren't willing to put in the effort it takes to get the top players.

Vasquez and Hayes are only sophomores, but their play has been spotty at best. Will any of the younger guys replace Vasquez as shooting guard? He may be the most inconsistent player the Terps have ever had.

Don, what do you mean by the football team may have bigger concerns then the basketball program?

So I guess that means we'll add Bowman down low (another JUCO short-term fix for Gary).

Gregory was always a fringe recruit - too bad Gary jumped the gun on him. Hurt both involved. Seems like a nice kid, so I wish him the best of luck.

Hopefully Gary holds the extra ship for that big group of soph's in Bmore. How nice it'd be to keep in state talent out of the big east.

Can't wait to watch a wanna-be Iverson in Maze, and Vasquez in the backcourt together. Are we playing with 2 balls next season?? This isn't getting better anytime soon folks. Let's just hope Mosley and Gilchrist are saviors.

In recent years sometimes the Terps have done great, while other times they have had down years. But even the down years are middle-of-the-pack in the tough ACC.

The direction arrow is up, very likely. The four guys coming in are better than the usual crop, and the Chuckie-Keith combo in recruiting is starting to click. Naturally Gary needs to put himself out there more in recruiting.

Gary's a Terp and is under no pressure to leave. And that's how it should be.

I find it very disturbing that no one seems to think a team in complete disarray and having just accepted a bid to a third NIT in four years is very bad for our basketball program. Certainly I agree that our football program has some serious issues, but my god! The basketball program is in a shambles.

NIT 3 out of 4 years. 1 ACC tournament win in the last 4 years. Failure after failure in recruiting. 0 players graduated. If these arent reasons for Yow to at least contemplate Gary's future then Terp fans might be better off finding another team to root for.

I am 41 years old and have been a passionate terps fan following football and basketball every year as long as I can remember. Gary has always done a decent job in getting the most out of his B level recruiting, Duke and N.C. being A level. With this said, the biggest fault I have with Gary's coaching style is he always seems to play favorites with 1 or 2 players on his teams. These players every year seem to do no wrong in Garys' eyes. Player 1 would be Vasquez. I think this situation with Vasquez is very simular to the Gilcrest era. Gary needs to sit these type of(me,myself, and I) players early on in their careers so they get the message about team ball. It was very clear in the B.C. game that Gary tried this in the 1st half and the reaction he got from Vasquez was that of a 12year old child throwing a tantrum. He basicly shutdown until the last 5 minutes and then tried to do everything on his own, thinking he could single handedly beat B.C. on his own which led to poor shoots, turnovers and careless ball handling. Long story short is Gary should have started this months ago if not last year sometime when Vasquez started his superman act. Embarressing to say the least. No. 2 player would be Eric Hayes. This one is very simple. He is not a starter and does not belong on any starting team in the ACC. May be the MEAC or the Patriot league. His lack of ball handling and defensive skill was so enabling to the team. Evan the color analyst Mike Gimenski commented Hayes looked lost on the floor. As a terps fan, I beg you Gary stop playing favorites, take a lesson from the level A coaches in the league like Mike K. and Roy Williams, play your best players who deserve time on the floor and you may see our freshmen and sophmores develop into bigtime players with confidence rather than player who never reach their potential, and then maybe we could possibly get some Level A players back to the program. Word gets around.

I agree with Ryan. An Iverson wanna-be like Maze combined with a John Gilchrist wanna-be Vasquez is going to be a spectacular sight. By spectacular, I mean spectacularly poor decision making and ball handling.

I have no ill will towards Gregory and Hayes, but hopefully they both will transfer because they just can't help at this level of competition. I also hope that Gary doesn't just dish out those two scholarships to the first players that will accept them.

Mosley and Gus Gilchrist are going to be the keys for this team going forward.

Yet another disappointing year for the Terps. I couldn't agree with Mark's comments, when is Gary going to stop playing favorites. Gary needs a reality check....Vasquez isn't a good shooter and his numerous TO's have hurt the Terps so many times this year. Vasquez had that ONE break out game at Illinois last season and ever since, Gary has anointed him king. Vasquez has "potential", but in my opinion Gary needs to sit him down and have long talk about what a "team" means. I know Gary won the national title, but im beginning to doubt his coaching and recruiting abilities over the past several years. Do you see things changing next year, or is MD doomed for another mediocre season next year?

I am SOOOO tired of hearing about the bad graduation rate. First, transfers and kids going pro ruins a graduation rate. Secondly, however, and MUCH more important, last year's team graduated four seniors (of six) and all 3 seniors this season will graduate. The graduation windows are always for a small period of time. Secondly, Maze is among national leaders in scoring AND assists AND assist-turnover ratio. I have NO idea if he'll be able to play in the ACC, but nobody else on this board does either. I wouldn't knock him unti he gives you a reason to.

Hey Mark you said some true things in your statements, and your right it does seem like GW has some favorites but they all seem to be of the point guard variety. GW style of coaching seems to be something that does not inspire confidence in players. Freshman sometimes come in with good skills but soft egos especially when they find out that the things they did in AAU and High school ball they can't do on division I teams, so if you can't enhance the confidence within freshman it will take them longer to develope and you will see alot more of the mistakes then progression. GW teams seem fragile becasue they play like they are afraid to make a mistake because they will get yanked off the floor. Thats what happens when you get that many freshman at one time like they did last year. One more thing I have to say we do a lot of comparing from coach K to GW in coaching and recruiting, and it seems like he sets the standard of excellence for the ACC in basketball. On this years team he has no big man presence at all and MD did, he started a couple of freshman, and MD did as well but coach K got more out of his freshman than we got out of our starters. Kids are standing in line to go to Duke even when Duke has as little as two scholarships, we had six available and knowing that kids will come if they know there is a chance that they will play. I didn't see MD seriously recruiting not one top ten guy(NOT ONE). If GW wants to get better then you need to recruit better, as far as division I goes your school represents the whole state of MD, he needs to be the dominant recruiter for the state of MD but not one time have you been that in your coaching career at MD.

All the Hayes haters (sounds like you are among them, Don) need to first of all stop looking for a scapegoat. Secondly, they need to recognize that Hayes was the overall most effecient offensive player on the Terps this season (see http://www.kenpom.com/sr.php?team=Maryland).

Not only is Hayes plenty good enough to play in the ACC, he's already better at this point in his career than a number of previous Maryland guards who turned out pretty good (Sarunas Jasikevicius and Drew Nicholas would be the most obvious examples, not to mention Mike Jones, DJ Strawberry, and others). Or a non-MD example: Hayes is better than Greg Paulus was as a soph.

I could provide plenty of evidence that we want Hayes on our team, but too many people see what they want to see. It's too bad his late-season slump gives the haters fuel for their ignorance. If you want to argue he should see less time next year, I'll give you that...but to say that he "can't help at this level of competition"? That's a joke.

Here's one question I know you can (should) all grasp: who will be an outside shooting threat next season if Hayes leaves? (hint: it won't be Mosley or Maze if that's what you're thinking)