You forgot to mention that Shane Walker transferred out of MD (and I believe is going to Loyola).

We also recruited Henry Sims hard (apparently), but he's going to Georgetown.

We also missed out on Greg Echenique who was our primary big-man target for a while for 2009. He committed to Rutgers and has re-classified for the 2008 season (like Jin Soo Kim).

Oh, and not long ago we were recruiting Steve Goins who opted not to commit to MD.

I apologize in advance for the length of this post, but I believe it is important for us to understand why, perhaps, these recent events have occurred with the Terps' men's basketball program.

As an alum, I'm as big a Maryland fan as anyone, however, this string of events are neither isolated nor appear to be completely random. It would be easy to simply chalk them off to the unpredictability when dealing with teenagers, and generally coddled ones at that. But, if that were truly the case, you would expect to see the same things happening with other (all?) major programs.

Avoiding the knee-jerk and entirely unhelpful "what the h*** is going on in College Park" and the "this program is a disgrace" responses, it still remains for us to determine what the underlying problem is and why it exists so it can be corrected. As someone not directly immersed in the day-to-day activities of the program, I can only speculate as the underlying cause(s). With that said and, again, without totally exonerating Gary Williams whose recruiting travails (or alleged lack thereof) have been thoroughly discussed in many blogs and articles over the past few years, as well as his perceived (real?) past disconnect with the AAU heirarchy, I firmly believe much of the problem originates from the massive assistant coaching turnover his program has suffered since the 2002 NC.

Again, much of recruiting is done by assistants. For every kid who publicly expresses the "love" he received from a head coach during his recruitment, there are far more Michael Beasleys out there. To wit, after originally committing to Charlotte, he subsequently switched his commitment to K-State, not because of Huggins, but because Huggins hired the very Charlotte assistant who had orignally recruited him. To those who might cite Terrence Jennings as a contrary example, aside from his likely non-qualification at Maryland anyway, please recognize both his itinerant history and Louisville's substantially easier admissions standards; as well, do not underestimate Rick Pitino's snake-oil recruiting tactics.

As I see it, it appears the relationships the Terps established with these "lost" recruits were late-developed and, therefore, tenuous at best. There was never any particular "loyalty" developed between these recruits and the program or, more succinctly, to any individual within it. Thus, without any true accountability to an individual, it became significantly easier for these recruits to decommit from a "faceless" program.

The foregoing suggests the prior lack of a long-term and cohesive recruiting plan. Such originates with a strong assistant coaching staff. With what now seems to be a pretty stable and energetic staff, it looks like that plan is now in place. Chuck Driesell and Keith Booth are clearly working hard and making in-roads in this area. Despite being relatively new assistants, they are forging those vital relationships so critical to signing and maintaining top recruits' commitments. The evolvement of basketball recruiting, unfortunately, reflects a college program's increasingly earlier involvement with potential recruits, sometimes as early as their 8th grade and high school freshman years. None of Williams' present staff has been with the Terps that long. Finally, as for Gary Williams' detractors, from what I've read, he, too, has been seen with his assistants hawking many high school gyms over the past couple of years evaluating and recruiting these future top recruits.

Without denigrating the 2006 or 2007 classes, which include a number of nationally recognized Top-100 players, or the 2008 class which still includes 2 Top-100 players in Mosely and Kim (assuming both qualify), I believe the fruits of these efforts should begin to yield a more recognizable return with the 2009 and 2010 classes.

Also, Ken Bowman was in the mix for about three minutes...

anyone know moses malone's phone number. (probably fo fo fo-fo fo fo fo) i hear he has 4 yrs eligibility left

Wow thanks Matt Bracken. Thanks for that. Pretty sure I am going to walk in front of a truck now. Anything else you want to point out? Maybe that Gary clubs baby seals and that Vasquez is getting deported?

Having watched the Maryland terps for years their has been a problem keeping our best athletes in school!Having no money may be the key to the down fall in our college programs around the country. If the students were allowed to recieve some type of money and not know what position they may be drafted in their might be a change in the students leaving school early. Playing sports should be an added job like any other job college students have!

Sam -- Good call on Sims. He committed before I got here. Echenique choosing Rutgers was definitely a surprise. He just wanted to stay in N.J., I suppose. I'm not sure if Goins was actually offered a scholarship.

Terp'nTexas -- Great post. There were tons of mitigating factors this year that just didn't favor UM. You're right though -- all hope is not lost. Kim and Mosley should be good, and the 2009 and 2010 classes could be solid ones.

Max -- I forgot about Bowman. He just didn't have the grades. I don't believe he's signed anywhere.

Jeff -- Too funny. I'm sorry to bring you down. Like I wrote in the beginning, the Terps just suffered a ton of bad luck this year. I mean, Gilchrist leaving is just crazy, and obviously no fault of GW's or anyone at Maryland. I guess it was just that kind of year on the recruiting trail.

Although he didn't commit, Jai Lucas was a major recruiting target for the Terps for a looooong time before he committed to Florida.

Hey Matt, don't know what you are drinking, but where are you seeing anybody "solid" in the 2009 class? We have blown all the opportunities we had with all of the locals, 10 of which are Top 100 in Rivals?.

That ship has sailed.

It's 2010 or bust which means that unless freshman are going to be the next Fab 5, and keep in mind Gary has had only 2 players in the All-Freshman Team since 94-95, it will be 2011 before we have a shot at recovery.

Do you realize that it is 2008 now?

GARY HAS TO GO WE NEED NEW BLOOD AND FRESH DESIRE!!

Y'all mark my words: Gary should be asked to step down at the end of this season, i.e. he'll be given the proverbial offer he can't refuse. In all seriousness though, his contributions to this program cannot be overstated. He took a program in complete dissarray and made it a perrenial powerhouse and national champion. In my book, if you do that (and do it clean like he did), that gives you a 10-year exemption at your alma-mater. That would put him here through 2012. However, the incoming frosh class would be "scheduled" to graduate in 2012. Here's the perception we are faced with: (1) Gary doesn't like to recruit. He prefers to be the closer, rather than the main guy, (2) His current staff doesn't do a as good a job recruiting as the staff of the 90's did. (3) They're chasing the wrong guys because their recruits either renage or don't qualify (not talking about some more like 100%) Here's the facts that we are faced with: (1) This team should be a perenial top 25 team, with a presence in the top 10 every 3-4 years. (2) The reality is that they will be a doormat next year, performing at the first year levels of both Bob Wade and Gary, when he started here. To be honest, Gary's legacy deserves better. He's a Hall of Fame caliber coach who we will forever be indebted to. He can't resign now, because it's both too late on the recruiting front and you wouldn't want to tarnish the incoming coach with a bad program. The best move would be sometime in August, for Gary to announce this is his last season. Name the court Gary Williams Court at Comcast Center. Start the search process to bring in a grade A coach, to restore the team to respectability.

TerpAndy -- For '09, I'm thinking the options are Dante Taylor (first and foremost), Cadarian Raines, Mouphtaou Yarou ... maybe even Andrew Fitzgerald? Granted, none are givens, but there are guys out there. If this year has taught us anything, it's that players will emerge.

If Gary would get his head out of his a$$ he actually might find his way on the recruiting trail. He is a stubborn old school guy that doesn't adapt to the players he recruits.

We really need a fresh face at College Park! Remember that he did not do a good job recruiting before the National Championship year. He got lucky with Joe Smith, Loni Baxter and Juan Dixon because no one else wanted them. Name one player Gary recruited that he actually had to beat another coach out who wanted that same player.

Gary took this program from the depths of Bob Wade to the height of a National Championship.....and has now returned it to the depths of where he found it (although without the sanctions). As far as quality of players, we're right back there. If Mosely doesn't qualify, we're looking at 9 kids. At least his first team had a true super star in the Walt the Wizard Williams. That team would crush this year's team.

So, let's make this productive. Who would you want to be the next coach?
Oliver Purnell - former assistant and has done a great job at Clemson
John Lucas - former Terp great with NBA coaching experience (not sure he has any interest)
Jon Calipari - He probably wouldn't want to deal with our admission's dept
Chuck Driesel - a legacy, but is he ready?
Or just taking the latest mid-major coach to make a big run in the tournament?

All I know is I'm done watching Gary scream at his sub-par players and asst coaches all game and watch we are not even considered by every top recruit -local or national.

I'm no Gary Williams apologist, but to claim that he is over-the-hill and/or needs to be replaced or that the program is presently in as bad or worse shape than when Williams first returned to Maryland is just moronic. The post-NC teams' results have been disappointing, but no Terps' regular season ACC conference record since then has fallen below 7-9. Throughout, the Terps have remained competitive within the conference. There have been no 2-14, 3-13 or 4-12 seasons as have been recently suffered by UNC, BC, Wake Forest and Georgia Tech.

That is not to say that UM's obvious slip from its prior decade-long perch as one of the conference's and nation's elite teams is not a concern. But, as far as recruiting, the Terps' 2002 and 2003 recruiting classes were both nationally recognized Top-5 classes; for any number of reasons they never developed. A program cannot instantly recover from such a setback. Last year was the first year without players from those classes and, retrospectively, an 8-8 season was probably as good a result as should have been expected from this very young and depth-challenged (front line) team. Nonetheless, the home losses to Ohio and American were both alarming (but, ask Kentucky about Gardner-Webb.)

Finally, over the years, Williams has beaten out other schools for a myriad of top recruits: Keith Booth, Terrence Mathis, Chris Wilcox, Steve Blake, Steve Francis, Danny Miller, Mike Jones, John Gilchrist, Nik Caner-Medley, Ekene Ibekwe, James Gist, Eric Hayes, Greivous Vasquez, Cliff Tucker, Braxton Dupree and, now Sean Mosley (you cannot measure recruiting status in hindsight to subsequent performance.) He has also successfully recruited, but lost, other kids who did not qualify (i.e., Lawrence Moten, etc.). Such a list could easily include this year's cast of Maze, Bowman, Evans, Darden, Jennings and, perhaps, Cameron. Of course, he has also lost out on a number of high-profile recruits, many local, over the past few years. Hopefully, and as discussed within my prior entry, this will be addressed in the upcoming years.

Did I miss something, or have we been told WHY Gilchist wanted out?

Kentucky didnt care about garner webb while they were dancing believe me. GT has had 3 nba first round picks and wake currently has the best player in the nba who played college in the past 5 yrs. and they keep landing more future pro's. BC has only been in the acc a few yrs, and I hope we are never compared to them in BBALL. 3/4 yrs we have failed as a team, failed to make the tournament. we are slowly but surely joining the ranks of michigan, arkansas, etc. places that were at the height of college bball, but didnt adapt

easywriter01 -- Gilchrist (and his trainer) are saying he wants a chance at 4 years of eligibility, instead of the 2.5 he'd get at Maryland. Now, will the NCAA grant this extra eligibility? Color me skeptical. Who knows what's really going on behind the scenes.

Gary was lucky to win a championship. He almost lost his job a year earlier when they lost at home to FL State. He happened to have basically all seniors, wilcox excluded against a very week ACC league. All UNC, and Duke's studs left early. he year after they won the tourney, they had the new arena, and the status (perception) of being an elite program. Gary dropped the ball - and continues to do so. His run is OVER. Need to buy out his contract asap. He doesn't want to recruit and that is the biggest part of the job. Give Chuck his shot - It's his time to shine. Gary turned around the program, but all he does is yell and scream, he doesn't produce wins and doesn't graduate ANYONE! Are you listening Debbie Yow??

Also, personally i think the University should be working with the fridge to help assist him in losing weight. The guy is a class act, great coach, graduates his players. He is a hard worker that obviously needs intervention. I believe it is UMD's job to get him on an exercise routine, and healthy diet. PLEASE DEBBIE YOW - STEP UP AND MAKE IT MANDATORY!

just miya o'pinion

what a terrible, terrible series of events...

i'm sorry, you can't look at that and say that Gary Williams and administration are doing their job. you can't. and the players we have are struggling to develop.

Another recruiting debacle by Gary Williams and the Terps.

Maryland will be lucky to qualify for the NIT next year. There is absolutely no depth underneath, and the "Dynamic Duo" of Vasquez and Hayes is probably one of the most unathletic backcourts in America...

I thought my alma mater, Indiana, was in trouble next year since we are only returning 2 players, but we would wipe the floor with Maryland's current roster.

It's gonna be a lonnnng year.

I totally agree that Gary has provided UM and the basketball program a lift when it was in the defts of disparity during the Bob Wade period. Gary has taken the program to a level where it is competitive and has luckily experienced a national championship. All of this is to his credit because no matter how you swing it he was at the helm during this period of time. I applaud him for this and as a 30 year terrapin club member and maryland fan since 1966 when I attended College Park, I thank him for his hard work and persistance. However, I do think that each of us has certain qualities and limitations that are inherent in our personality. With these in mind, I feel that we have reached a precipace with the program and the positives and negatives of the man and his personality. Gary has been a participant and a major contributor to the establishment of the program to a level of national recognition to the point where he won a national championship. He even surpassed the left hander with the dream season. However, similar to Lefty , Gary has not maintained that level of excellence and has become complacent in his attitude. Some programs at this stage progress to a higher level and reach new heights as the UCLA's, and NC's have. They reach a level where the program is viewed as elite and it becomes routine for these programs to have student athletes begging to be participants in their programs. As John Wooden did, and Roy Williams has done, these programs choose from the best and pick and choose there student athletes, not the other way around. In John Woodens case, it was the man and the program. In Roy Williams case it is the program and the view of the man is still up in the air. Gary won the national championship, but failed to bring higher quality recruits (no matter whether they were nationally ranked in the top 30 or not) that would have enabled him to keep the ball rolling and maintain this level. In hinesite Lefty lost out more then we know when Moses spent only 1 week at College Park. Likewise Gary may have lost more then he knows by recruiting the players he did in the 2 or so years after the national championship. This process no matter how you look at it is a numbers game. If you recruit 10 top 30 recruits and get 2 or more each year, then there is a compounded effect and each year the number of top recruits becomes evident and the consistancy in program excellence is the result. Duke has done this and Maryland has not. Gary's attitude of not consistantly recruiting and landing top student athletes is evident and reflects the results that have occurred. There is no reason why this well established university and program should not be allowed to move into a new era and elevate its status. It is time for Maryland and Debbie Yow to take the plunge and move this program to a higher level. Unfortunately, I am not sure that Gary Williams and his personality warrants him being given any more chances to do this. It is time to move forward and elevate this well deserved program to a new level. As all of us have many mixed emotions concerning maintaining the current basketball administration or moving in a new direction with a new coaching staff, particularly due to the fact that new is not necessarily better, but it does appear to be as good a time as any to move in another direction.

GW is no longer part of the solution, but part of the problem. Really, if I had a child looking to play D1 basketball, I would not want someone yelling at them all the time. The recruiting has been disappointing for which Gary has to take the responsibilty. It just seems, even though he goes through the theatrics, the the fire in his belly is long out. Chuck has the fire, Chuck knows recruiting and Chuck knows basketball.

As far as I'm concerned, Gary Williams can stay as long as he wants. Watch the Terps finish in the top half of the ACC this year. Gary works best when he's the underdog. Go Terps.

Don't get me wrong, Maryland didn't deserve to be invited to the NCAAs last year. And, perhaps, given their talent, they have likely underperformed when compared to prior Gary Williams'-coached squads. To this last point, I wholly agree that the post-NC players (and teams), unlike earlier editions, have not developed. But, Kentucky did not deserve a bid last year either. Yes, the one-and-done Wildcats went dancing last year...on the strength of an inflated conference record (8 wins over sub-.500 teams.) That 6-7 OOC record alone should have disqualified them too.

As far as GT, WF and BC, the point was not who's now playing or starring in the pros, but that each of those programs has recently suffered one or more tragic (significant record drop-off) seasons after posting a dominant season. The Terps, on the other hand, despite being incredibly mediocre, sometimes maddingly so, have not suffered the same fate. Likewise, Maryland has never sunken to the levels of either Michigan or Arkansas (the latter of which made the tournament last season and was viewed as a dangerous "out.")

Arguably, mediocrity is worse than simply bottoming-out, as the latter more easily justifies a change. But there's been too many unpredictable circumstances that have factored into the 3/4 non-NCAA years. Without discussing how far those teams would have advanced, I do not doubt that for 2004 and 2005, Maryland would have made the tournament had it not lost Strawberry (to injury) and McCray (to grades), respectively. If so, then we'd only be discussing, if at all, a single non-NCAA appearance (last season) with a team whose roster was dominated by freshmen and sophomores. And to compare, Syracuse's post-2003-NC run has not been any more respectable than Maryland's, but no one seems to be calling for Boeheim's head.

Finally, as far as replacing Williams as coach with Chuck Driesell, aside from the fact that none of us has any say in same, such a suggestion at this point in time is just nonsense. Driesell is young, energetic and, by all accounts, knowledgable, a hard worker and with a bright future ahead of him, but he has much to learn before he will be ready to lead a Maryland at the desired level in the ACC and nationally. To illustrate, if you accept the idea that none of the present players is a "top" recruit, then he has not yet demonstrated his recruiting abilitites. Right now, his primary signed player was Shane Walker, his own former player, and a project, who has now transferred. Driesell was, of course, instrumental in securing Jennings' short-lived commitment. Let's see what he--and Williams--do over the next couple of years in this area.

It looks like Maryland has granted Sean Mosley a special academic exemption without the necessary SAT, three cheers Mosley is in. Maryland BBall nation can all let out sigh of relief