Gary Williams Retiring

[accinfo]

insidemdsports is saying that Miller is the guy and he said he has 2 sources who say if he is offered he will "definitely take it" - so we shall see soon.

It is not going out on a limb to say if Sean is offered the job he would take it. I don't think it is clear that anyone has been offered the job yet. Brey, Miller, Barnes, and Dixon were all contacted from Maryland when the job opened to see if they were interested not the other way around. Fans perceptions of who is a better coach then someone else can be very different then people on the inside making these decisions. When Mike Krzyzewski was offered the Duke job it wasn't based on his record at Army but understanding his abilities to balance coaching and academics and looking beyond the obvious results.

People want to discount what a Rick Barnes or Mike Brey has done simply because they haven't had the post season success after coaching for more years then Sean Miller, Jamie Dixon, or a Brad Stevens. I am saying it is more complicated then that. Barnes and Brey have a tremendous amount of respect in the ACC community that most fans don't understand. AAU circles, people like Morgan Wooten, etc. All that said Sean Miller has earned in a short amount of time much respect as well. As I said before any of these guys would be a good choice. Guys like Stevens and Sean Miller have less warts on their resume because they haven't coached as many games as a Brey, Barnes but it doesn't mean they are necessarily a better choice. Gary Williams didn't go to his the Final 4 until he had been coaching 23 years. Maryland will end up with a good coach if it is any one of these guys and I am willing to bet they will have more success on the recruiting trail because they don't have the disdain for it that Gary does.

[ccbird]

Josh Gershon of Fox Sports and Scout.com just tweeted at 12:31 AM:

Apparently Miller was scheduled to be in Vegas this weekend as it was, and now Maryland will be there too.

I don't think not getting Miller would be F'ing up by the Terps, so long as they do what they can do. IF Miller decides to stay at AU by his own choice, we can't he held accountable for that. AU is a fantastic program, and a historic program... and as folks like Vitale have mentioned, he has a lot of reasons to stay, not the least of which is having a top 5 recruiting class this season.

Let's just keep our fingers crossed, after all I've read today Miller is my favorite. Let's see what happens. Fortunately, people connected the Terps keep saying this is going to move very quickly, so hopefully we don't have to wait long.

Well there is obviously a difference between Miller being someplace and us flying to meet him vs him flying into MD. The first option definitely makes it more likely he's just listening and or trying to get more money out of AZ. If he's flying all the way across the country to come here that would lead me to believe he wants to get something worked out here at MD.

[mweb]

Regarding Barnes, why should we expect him to have anymore success with MD than with Texas, which is a very good program? Now Texas has been very good, but I just think Miller has better potential. Barnes is also not regarded as a good in game coach.

[The Rick]

It is not going out on a limb to say if Sean is offered the job he would take it. I don't think it is clear that anyone has been offered the job yet. Brey, Miller, Barnes, and Dixon were all contacted from Maryland when the job opened to see if they were interested not the other way around. Fans perceptions of who is a better coach then someone else can be very different then people on the inside making these decisions. When Mike Krzyzewski was offered the Duke job it wasn't based on his record at Army but understanding his abilities to balance coaching and academics and looking beyond the obvious results.

People want to discount what a Rick Barnes or Mike Brey has done simply because they haven't had the post season success after coaching for more years then Sean Miller, Jamie Dixon, or a Brad Stevens. I am saying it is more complicated then that. Barnes and Brey have a tremendous amount of respect in the ACC community that most fans don't understand. AAU circles, people like Morgan Wooten, etc. All that said Sean Miller has earned in a short amount of time much respect as well. As I said before any of these guys would be a good choice. Guys like Stevens and Sean Miller have less warts on their resume because they haven't coached as many games as a Brey, Barnes but it doesn't mean they are necessarily a better choice. Gary Williams didn't go to his the Final 4 until he had been coaching 23 years. Maryland will end up with a good coach if it is any one of these guys and I am willing to bet they will have more success on the recruiting trail because they don't have the disdain for it that Gary does.

Thanks for the information, it's greatly appreciated.

Some folks on the AU boards are claiming that a decision should be made by Monday, from what you know, do you think it will move that quickly?

[accinfo]

Thanks for the information, it's been greatly appreciated.

Some folks on the AU boards are claiming that a decision should be made by Monday, from what you know, do you think it will move that quickly?

Thanks for the kind words. I would be surprised it would move any quicker then Monday. I don't think you can make a decision like this without a face to face with all of these guys. I don't think you can zero in on just one guy and offer them a job of this magnitude. I am also suspect of these stories about this guy is flying to Maryland or the AD is flying to their location. Most of these meetings are done in intermediate places like airport hubs half way in between where everyone lives. It is more difficult in this high tech world to hide these meetings but misinformation is a very useful tool to do just that. As I said earlier that it is in both sides best interest to not prolong this because if you don't get this job you don't want to hurt your recruiting where you are at now.

[accinfo]

Regarding Barnes, why should we expect him to have anymore success with MD than with Texas, which is a very good program? Now Texas has been very good, but I just think Miller has better potential. Barnes is also not regarded as a good in game coach.

I think you should really look at what Rick Barnes has done at Texas again. Barnes has made the NCAA tournament 16 years in a row, 3 at Clemson, 13 at Texas. He has been to the Final 4 and two Elite-8's. That is not bad. 151-57 in conference record. What am I missing here?

[mweb]

I think you should really look at what Rick Barnes has done at Texas again. Barnes has made the NCAA tournament 16 years in a row, 3 at Clemson, 13 at Texas. He has been to the Final 4 and two Elite-8's. That is not bad. 151-57 in conference record. What am I missing here?

I've looked into it and said they've been very good. But he hasn't won a title or gotten to a title game and like I said he is not considered a good in game coach. Miller is obviously younger and I think he has stronger potential. He can probably recruit about as well and coach better in games.

[OregonBird]

It is not going out on a limb to say if Sean is offered the job he would take it. I don't think it is clear that anyone has been offered the job yet. Brey, Miller, Barnes, and Dixon were all contacted from Maryland when the job opened to see if they were interested not the other way around. Fans perceptions of who is a better coach then someone else can be very different then people on the inside making these decisions. When Mike Krzyzewski was offered the Duke job it wasn't based on his record at Army but understanding his abilities to balance coaching and academics and looking beyond the obvious results.

People want to discount what a Rick Barnes or Mike Brey has done simply because they haven't had the post season success after coaching for more years then Sean Miller, Jamie Dixon, or a Brad Stevens. I am saying it is more complicated then that. Barnes and Brey have a tremendous amount of respect in the ACC community that most fans don't understand. AAU circles, people like Morgan Wooten, etc. All that said Sean Miller has earned in a short amount of time much respect as well. As I said before any of these guys would be a good choice. Guys like Stevens and Sean Miller have less warts on their resume because they haven't coached as many games as a Brey, Barnes but it doesn't mean they are necessarily a better choice. Gary Williams didn't go to his the Final 4 until he had been coaching 23 years. Maryland will end up with a good coach if it is any one of these guys and I am willing to bet they will have more success on the recruiting trail because they don't have the disdain for it that Gary does.

What are the odds that MD ends up w/none of these guys? Brey, Barnes, Dixon, Miller, surely there is at least one guy in there who simply wants to leverage this into an extension or a better deal at their current job.

[Hooded Viper]

Not sure if he has strong insider contacts but Chick Hernandez says that MD is leaving to meet with Miller and that he is the top candidate.

[JohnD]

Chick has strong contacts. You can trust him. (Never met him either, just saying, his sources have come through in the past)

[The Rick]

Not sure if he has strong insider contacts but Chick Hernandez says that MD is leaving to meet with Miller and that he is the top candidate.

When it comes to the Terps, Chick Hernandez is as reliable as it gets.

[Hooded Viper]

Chick has strong contacts. You can trust him. (Never met him either, just saying, his sources have come through in the past)

Awesome! I would love Miller!

[Sports Guy]

I hope MD signs Barnes!

[section18]

Some Twitter comments from late last night and early this morning; The last one at the bottom seems the most logical. He could skip the clinic or go to MD after the clinic.

From a source close to Sean Miller, I am getting word that he is on a private plane headed to Maryland. If true this is moving fast !

2011 Maryland signee Sterling Gibbs: "It should be really interesting. I'm gonna wait to see what happens." Gibbs and Faust are the big names coming in 2011...we hope.

This will not be an easy decision for Sean Miller if Maryland comes hard after him. He's got it going in Tucson, but has always loved MD.

While the country talks about Sean Miller and Maryland, the Arizona coach is hosting a stud in 2013 shooting guard Chris Thomas.

Sean Miller is en route to the state of Maryland as you read this. #donedeal

4 hours ago via web Favorite Retweet Reply

I haven't seen a single Maryland-centric guy say Miller isn't top choice. Ball's in his court at this point.

6 hours ago Favorite Retweet Reply

Maryland sources are saying that he's far and away the top guy.

The Maryland job is terrific. Doesn't mean you should leave Arizona for it. But if you ranked jobs, Maryland > Arizona. CBS Sports

Arizona made it to the Final 8 this year.

Maryland AD Kevin Anderson on whether court renaming would occur next season: ""Absolutely. I would almost be quite sure of that."

"He nearly got one of the top players in the country being almost 3,000 miles away. I can't imagine what he would do if he was at Maryland," said Damon Handon, one of [Quinn] Cook's coaches on D.C. Assault. ...

"He's a great recruiter," Handon said. "If he was at Maryland, he'd be involved with all the top guys in the area."

Baltimore Sun on Miller's Recruiting

UPDATE 12:30 AM: Finally some news that makes sense. This via Fox's Josh Gershon:

According to sources, Sean Miller will meet with Maryland on Saturday in Las Vegas.

So there we go. He's coaching a clinic in Vegas with a bunch of other high-profile guys, so it makes sense for that to be the meeting point. Unfortunately, though, he isn't coming to College Park, which makes things a little less interesting.

Either way, this is now the story, and it's the only one that actually makes any sense at all. He could still come to MD after the clinic.

[The Rick]

I think we will either love or hate KA when this is over. Not a lot of people were fans of the Edsall hire, but he does have credentials having built UConn from the ground up and MD being his dream job. But as the reports continue to roll in about the perception of MD basketball being a top job in the country, anything less than an established bonafide top notch coach will be unacceptable, IMO.