This one's about The Maryland Terps basketball program and their recent success since 2002.
"It is at once Maryland's shining moment and fading glory, the year everything came together for the Terrapins and everything stopped progressing. Maryland won that national championship in 2002 on Dixon's moxie, Mouton's selflessness, Lonny Baxter's bulk and Gary Williams' ability to turn a bunch of less-heralded recruits into champions. "
From that high, there is no place to go but down. The lure of the NBA, coupled with the fickle whims of teenagers, makes college basketball dynasties harder to come by than $2 gas.
But Maryland's slide down the ladder toward irrelevancy appears to have hit its most critical step. The Terps have made one NCAA tournament appearance in four years and have become the sort of once-in-a-season highlight team (see: upset of North Carolina, 2008; win at Duke, 2007) that feeds at the bottom of the ACC.
Williams, once lauded for resurrecting Maryland from the depths of NCAA probation, now enters his 20th season dogged by questions about himself, his program and his status with the university administration.
"Is this a big year? Absolutely," said Kent Greenway, coach of the Richmond Squires AAU team, a power in the D.C.-Baltimore-Virginia hub. "People are questioning how good of a coach Gary is, how good of a job the team is doing recruiting and whether the AD wants [Williams] out. This is a very, very important year."
Yet, in a season with conceivably so much on the line, Maryland starts with only 10 scholarship players. Shane Walker transferred, would-be recruit Tyree Evans never got past the administrative smell test and heralded rookie-to-be Gus Gilchrist elected to transfer to South Florida, where he hopes an appeal will restore a year of eligibility.
That leaves the Terps with a frontcourt that averaged 4.4 points and 4.0 rebounds last season in a league that has a stacked North Carolina roster, a hungry Duke team and a blossoming Miami program.
Worse than what Maryland has on its roster -- what some contend is unmined talent that could be better than other people think -- is the lack of juice the state university has in a region where talent is ripe for the picking.
"There's no reason they're not getting some of these guys," said Curtis Malone, co-founder of the powerful D.C. Assault AAU team. "It's a great campus, a great facility, great conference. Gary is a good coach. There's so much talent in the Baltimore-D.C. area, they should be getting more kids to stay home. I can't put my finger on it."
Maryland went 19-15 in 2007-08. The Terps sold out all of their home games and finished tied for fifth in their conference. Senior James Gist, an unheralded player out of high school, just joined the San Antonio Spurs as a second-round pick.
Nothing to be ashamed of there.
But there are statistics, and then there are statistics, and in college basketball, one matters most: NCAA tournament appearances. Maryland has been three times since that national title but hasn't managed to get out of the first weekend since 2003.
Source: ESPN.com
Writer: Dana O'Neil.
Thoughts on the Maryland program and their recent success ?
