Found March 12, 2008 on Legend of Cecilio Guante: Yardbarker Blogger Network
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Hmm, just six March's ago the Terps won the National Championship. Those Terps were led by 3 future NBA'ers (Steve Blake, Chris Wilcox, and Juan Dixon), and everyones favorite "guy who shot his gun off too close to the White House," Lonnie Baxter. People actually feared the turtle. At that time, Gary Williams and his squad were in the middle of an 11 year run of NCAA appearances, and an 87 game non-conference home winning streak. It would be a stretch to say the Terps were dominant, but they were pretty damn good. Fast forward to today, and the only turtle fearing to be seen is in the N.I.T. What the hell, why? How can a program go from national champs to N.I.T. junkies in six years with the same coach?

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Comments (10)
  • fr0arenas
    Placard_complete_small
    Unfortunately they needed more than just beating Carolina to get their ticket punched to the dance. Now they have to win the ACC tournament OUTRIGHT to go. Good Luck with that Gary!
  • KatKat
    Placard_complete_small
    I dunno, the Heels may be fearing the turtle a little, still. Bad match-up.
  • celticsblog
    Placard_complete_small
    Syracuse too has hit some lower times. I think these schools are just in need of some good luck in the recruiting pool.
  • EScribe
    True on the Cuse, they got worked in the 2nd half by Nova yesterday. But Boeheim's clubs are up and down a little bit. I expect a down year or two every five years at Syracuse. Also, how did a 24-11 Syracuse team with a 10-6 record in the Big East (tied for 5th), not go to the Big Dance last year?
  • travisusc2010
    I was wondering the same thing. They still come out with a lucky win every now and again but now its like they fell off the face of the planet
  • kgoon1590
    Thanks for the link.

    Yeeeaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh, I often wonder this myself...
  • EScribe
    No prob Kgoon, I'm willing to bet you wonder about this a lot more than I do...... I hope Gary is wondering too.
  • bfphantom
    College hoops is so fickle. I mean, six years ago is two recruiting classes ago. That's a lifetime. And that's really what happened. The Nik Canner-Medley recruiting class, the one that followed up Blake et al, was a bust. Those guys never panned out for whatever reason. But last year they were solid (getting a No. 5 seed in the Dance) and they are in a bit of a transitional period right now.

    But let's also look at this realistically: Maryland is not an elite college program. They are second tier all the way. They have a great history, have some banners, etc., but they are not Indiana-North Carolina-UCLA-Kansas, etc. Maryland is more like an Illinois or a Syracuse. Once a decade they'll make a serious run and the rest of the time it's just 20-win seasons and second-round exits.
    • kgoon1590
      I wouldn't mind so much if we actually did get to 20 wins and MADE the dance. I love the Terps and I love what Gary has done for the program. I'm not even advocating his firing. But missing the tourney 3 out of the last 4 years isn't really acceptable for our program. He should think hard about what he's going to do in the next two years, and I wouldn't be surprised if they are his last - after all, he is getting older: Retirement is a viable option.
  • misterj
    The problem is that Gary Williams is very impersonal. He believes that he and not the players make the championship teams work. Hello, without the hired guns you go nowhere. The number 24 rated player from maryland won't come. The 25th player is suposed to come, but we will wait and see. Problem two. Coach Williams couldn't recruit sugar to play with kool aid.
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