Gary Williams Up Close
The night after a stunning 66-65 loss to Baltimore’s Morgan State, I spent a few minutes with Coach Williams.
Up close and personal, he seemed tired. Nattily dressed in some real cool Under Armor, he strolled into the Greene Turtle at Germantown. He was there to do his weekly radio show on the Maryland Radio network.
I spoke to him on the side about his long-time associate Joe Harrington, who now has an administrative position with the basketball office.
We also briefly chatted in regards to the relationship between Under Amour and the University. I mentioned that he seemed to have more public relationships with football folks than basketball guys.
I thought that it would be appropriate for Gary to be the poster guy for UA. He could be their John Thompson (as he relates to Nike).
There were enough naysayers around and tough questions about basketball. For either good or bad, Gary and Maryland are a long term deal. In my opinion, it is fantastic that Gary still goes out and visits with the fans.
He brought Maryland basketball back from a death penalty sanction from the NCAA. Even if the teams are not what they once where, far more folks quietly appreciate having Gary at Maryland than those that voice their negative views.
After an hour of talking basketball and a quick dinner, legendary Coach Gary Williams walked out into the cold January night by himself. Started up his golden Toyota 4Runner and headed towards Potomac.
You could not tell if he was heading into a still victorious future or just driving into the dark.
Unfortuntaely, I believe Gary was heading down a very, very dark road. I watched Gary on tv tonight talking about being 11-3 heading into ACC league play starting tomorrow versus Georgia Tech. Gary didnt want to talk about the loss to Morgan State, but about wins over Michigan and Michigan State.
As a Terp fan Im scared to death about the next 16 games. Can we win 9 more games (20 wins) this year and make the tournament? Can we win 8 games and go 8-8 in the ACC? Can we even win 5 or 6 games and finish over .500 for the season. Im not sure, but Im afraid to look at our record come early March.
I just hope I can take the next few months of Terps basketball and not break anything in my Living Room. I hope Im surprised come March and that I dont see Gary call Dupree an a**hole on tv too often. Go Terps!