2/23 Terps vs. Canes/ Gary Williams' status debate

[Mackus]

I'll stand by my opinion that anybody suggesting Gary needs to be fired is completely out of touch with reality and the suggestion he should be nullifies any valid criticisms that they may have.

[Lucky Jim]

I'll stand by my opinion that anybody suggesting Gary needs to be fired is completely out of touch with reality and the suggestion he should be nullifies any valid criticisms that they may have.

I'll agree with this. The post above is mostly nonsense.

[Lucky Jim]

Where are all those people defending this as Gary's best season ever, again? He's a joke of a coach. We run no friggin' offense whatsoever. We cannot run a single play to get Eric Hayes, the best shooter on our team, an open look. Someone tell me why he can't be similar to what J.J. Reddick was to Duke for us. Because the system is crap. Duke basically stole D'Antoni's offense and have a bunch of guys even now in Paulus, Scheyer, Singler, etc. that they just run screens and stuff all game long for in a spread offense to get them open shots. We cannot get Hayes one open look. The entire second half basically he was absolutely useless out there. Why does Gary even recruit players like him if he doesn't fit our system at all? Gary's system is clearly fit for guards who cut and drive and run his little screen and curl at the free-throw line, which Eric clearly can't do.

And Gist, I mean, is it partially his fault, sure, he doesn't seem to have the fire and intensity, but could he be any worse coached? Tell the freaking guy to get the hell away from the three-point line and get his @$$ down low! Post up and go up strong and stop with the fade-away crap! And how much can you blame him and Osby if every single time they go down low we can't get them the ball? Our entry passes SUCK! No pump fakes whatsoever, telegraphed every single time, Hayes for a guy that drew comparisons to Steve Blake doesn't have a clue in the world how to pass the ball to near-7 footers...it's a joke.

This team has some good players. All 5 of our starters are immensely talented and I think all could have futures at least as role players in the NBA. Gary just doesn't know how to use this talent AT ALL. The offense he runs is complete garbage, our press on defense--can someone tell me what the hell the point of it is?!! Did it produce more than 1 steal the whole game? I can tell you for sure it led to at least 10 easy points on the other end. If you can tell that's not working, maybe because Hayes is soft and won't knock the damn ball away from the guy, instead letting him dribble right through the double team, whatever the reason, go back into the damn half-court defense where we have two monstrous bigs who can swat away anything down low? This team, again, has potential to be great defensively but is coached by a stupid coach. Sorry, but that's the truth.

I've been saying the same thing all season long. Make the tourney this year or Gary needs to go. The win at NC was nice, but that's about the only nice thing we've had all year, and it's been far overshadowed by American, Ohio, VaTech, and Miami. Now, barring a remarkable recovery and perhaps some good coaching for the first time all season to actually run an offense and not run an absolutely useless press, I've about had it with Gary for sure. He had a chance to turn it around and easily make the tourney and make that two straight years in but instead it's going to be 3/4 in the NIT because he couldn't outcoach VaTech at home and was an absolute moron against Miami. Just awful.

The bolded part is out-of-line.

[glenn__davis]

Ah, Bryan returns. Guess you have to pick your spots.

[BaltBird 24]

The bolded part is out-of-line.

I'd say Gist and Osby have the potential to be very good defenders inside. Milbourne is a fairly solid defender. The only problem is that Hayes and Vasquez have trouble keeping up with the real quick ACC guards.

It wasn't something that was really noticed and I guess we sorta took it for granted for all the years we had the Juan Dixon's, Steve Blake's, John Gilchrist's, Chris McCray's, DJ Strawberry's, etc........ but it really makes you cringe to watch Vasquez or Hayes try and guard and get blown away by the quicker ACC competition.

[Mackus]

I'd say Gist and Osby have the potential to be very good defenders inside. Milbourne is a fairly solid defender. The only problem is that Hayes and Vasquez have trouble keeping up with the real quick ACC guards.

It wasn't something that was really noticed and I guess we sorta took it for granted for all the years we had the Juan Dixon's, Steve Blake's, John Gilchrist's, Chris McCray's, DJ Strawberry's, etc........ but it really makes you cringe to watch Vasquez or Hayes try and guard and get blown away by the quicker ACC competition.

Yeah that lack of quickness hurts defensively. Vasquez is sneakily quick offensively. Maybe quick isn't the right word, but he gets by enough people. Hayes isn't much of a penetrator.

[bryanman8]

The bolded part is out-of-line.

How in the world can you defend him after that? Was the press working AT ALL? Did it create anything whatsoever for us? Teams (besides us, at least) aren't stupid. They know how to break a press. What would happen is we'd get two defenders waving their hands around one guard, he'd put the ball on the floor and blow right by them so we'd have two of our defenders out of the play for the get-go, and they'd push the ball down the floor with their advantage and get an easy dunk. We could have SHUT THEM DOWN if we just stayed back and played half-court defense. Their supposed best offensive player had what like 4 shots? We had them pretty well locked-down in our half-court set. They got easy buckets on awful transition plays when they'd go right through the press that we were using for absolutely no reason when it wasn't working at all.

3/4 straight years of NIT for the University of Maryland. Does that sound right to you? How many years does the championship pass last for? I expect Maryland to be a perennial-top 20 team; a powerhouse if you will, especially given the amount of talent in this area, the prestige of this school, and the attraction of the facilities. Instead, we've been mediocre at best and completely embarrassing at worse. What, would you rather he resign or something? I don't care how it happens, but we need a new coach.

[BaltimoreTerp]

Ah, Bryan returns. Guess you have to pick your spots.

Wonder where HE was after the Carolina game.

[BaltBird 24]

It sounds pretty ludicrous to criticize Williams as a "stupid" coach and attack his defensive decisions when we are holding teams to the lowest FG% in the ACC despite playing only like 6-7 deep. That isn't unusual BTW. MD is routinely one of the best defensive teams. Williams clearly teaches defense extremely well.

I don't think he's totally wrong in suggesting that Williams should consider changing his defensive decisions. To me, he's still coaching as if he has DJ Strawberry, John Gilchrist, Chris McCray type guards out on the court. Vasquez, Hayes, Bowie, and whoever else we run out there aren't that level player. Hopefully Sean Mosley can step in and change that.

[bryanman8]

It sounds pretty ludicrous to criticize Williams as a "stupid" coach and attack his defensive decisions when we are holding teams to the lowest FG% in the ACC despite playing only like 6-7 deep. That isn't unusual BTW. MD is routinely one of the best defensive teams. Williams clearly teaches defense extremely well.

That's not coaching. The team clearly is talented defensively. Boom and Gist both have two of the best defensive bodies in the ACC and are capable of shutting down any bigs. Milbourne plays very good D on the Wing, and Vasquez is very capable as well. You really think Gary is to thank for teaching Osby and Gist to get their big hands up and swat the ball?

We lost the game today in large part due to Gary's inexplicable decision to press when it was not working at all, in addition to his inability to help us not be the only team in the ACC that doesn't know how to make an entry pass and our complete failure to run an offense of any legitimate type.

It's all about wins and losses. I'm appreciative of the opponent FG% and knew about it the whole time but I'd attribute that far more to the talent of this team and Boom's ability to block anything within 5 feet of the hoop. When you get beaten by teams like American, Ohio, VaTech, and Miami, though, you can tell that there's a lot more to that number. His main failure is definitely on the offensive side, but I'd say that his decisions on how we would play defense today were, in a word, nothing short of "stupid."

[BaltimoreTerp]

Where are all those people defending this as Gary's best season ever, again? He's a joke of a coach. We run no friggin' offense whatsoever. We cannot run a single play to get Eric Hayes, the best shooter on our team, an open look. Someone tell me why he can't be similar to what J.J. Reddick was to Duke for us. Because the system is crap. Duke basically stole D'Antoni's offense and have a bunch of guys even now in Paulus, Scheyer, Singler, etc. that they just run screens and stuff all game long for in a spread offense to get them open shots. We cannot get Hayes one open look. The entire second half basically he was absolutely useless out there. Why does Gary even recruit players like him if he doesn't fit our system at all? Gary's system is clearly fit for guards who cut and drive and run his little screen and curl at the free-throw line, which Eric clearly can't do.

And Gist, I mean, is it partially his fault, sure, he doesn't seem to have the fire and intensity, but could he be any worse coached? Tell the freaking guy to get the hell away from the three-point line and get his @$$ down low! Post up and go up strong and stop with the fade-away crap! And how much can you blame him and Osby if every single time they go down low we can't get them the ball? Our entry passes SUCK! No pump fakes whatsoever, telegraphed every single time, Hayes for a guy that drew comparisons to Steve Blake doesn't have a clue in the world how to pass the ball to near-7 footers...it's a joke.

This team has some good players. All 5 of our starters are immensely talented and I think all could have futures at least as role players in the NBA. Gary just doesn't know how to use this talent AT ALL. The offense he runs is complete garbage, our press on defense--can someone tell me what the hell the point of it is?!! Did it produce more than 1 steal the whole game? I can tell you for sure it led to at least 10 easy points on the other end. If you can tell that's not working, maybe because Hayes is soft and won't knock the damn ball away from the guy, instead letting him dribble right through the double team, whatever the reason, go back into the damn half-court defense where we have two monstrous bigs who can swat away anything down low? This team, again, has potential to be great defensively but is coached by a stupid coach. Sorry, but that's the truth.

I've been saying the same thing all season long. Make the tourney this year or Gary needs to go. The win at NC was nice, but that's about the only nice thing we've had all year, and it's been far overshadowed by American, Ohio, VaTech, and Miami. Now, barring a remarkable recovery and perhaps some good coaching for the first time all season to actually run an offense and not run an absolutely useless press, I've about had it with Gary for sure. He had a chance to turn it around and easily make the tourney and make that two straight years in but instead it's going to be 3/4 in the NIT because he couldn't outcoach VaTech at home and was an absolute moron against Miami. Just awful.

Let's see. You spend half the post complaining about how the players aren't doing what you want, then you manage to tie their play on the court (which is not under the control of the coach) to our "stupid" coach. Then you criticize his offensive system, which unless something changed is the same "no friggin' offense" that won us a national championship, an ACC championship, two Final Fours, and all those Sweet Sixteens.

And I must have missed when they canceled the rest of the schedule. They must have realized the futility of continuing to play and gave up which, since it is an amazingly stupid and unintelligent thing to give up when you still have a chance, must be Gary Williams' idea. Or something like that.

[JohnD]

Bob Wade is available.

BTW, what Mackus says is so full of truth it should be in the bible.

[BaltimoreTerp]

That's not coaching. The team clearly is talented defensively. Boom and Gist both have two of the best defensive bodies in the ACC and are capable of shutting down any bigs. Milbourne plays very good D on the Wing, and Vasquez is very capable as well. You really think Gary is to thank for teaching Osby and Gist to get their big hands up and swat the ball?

We lost the game today in large part due to Gary's inexplicable decision to press when it was not working at all, in addition to his inability to help us not be the only team in the ACC that doesn't know how to make an entry pass and our complete failure to run an offense of any legitimate type.

It's all about wins and losses. I'm appreciative of the opponent FG% and knew about it the whole time but I'd attribute that far more to the talent of this team and Boom's ability to block anything within 5 feet of the hoop. When you get beaten by teams like American, Ohio, VaTech, and Miami, though, you can tell that there's a lot more to that number. His main failure is definitely on the offensive side, but I'd say that his decisions on how we would play defense today were, in a word, nothing short of "stupid."

Wait...so the defense (consistent through the years) is not coaching and all from the players...yet the offense is all on the coach and not on how the players play?

Yeah, that makes perfect sense. Especially with the rest of your argument.

Gary Williams is definitely the stupid one here.

[BaltBird 24]

Really? I find that interesting... since today was one of the few times we have pressed all year...

Find it interesting, since MD came into today holding 39 straight opponents to under 50% from the field.

Not saying that they don't still play good defense, just that they can't play the type of high intensity, press defense like they played the previous few seasons. This is probably the least athletic team Gary has coached in a long, long time.

[bryanman8]

You are a pathetic human being.

All of you, except Baltbird, basically, are jokes...the blind ass-kissing that goes on for Gary Williams is unbelievable. I wasn't aware that winning one championship makes it blasphemous to ever say that the guy isn't working out here anymore, although it is clear as night and day.

Seriously, are you all happy with what Gary's given this program since the championship? Hey, I love what he did for the school as well. He pulled them out of an awful period, had some great success, which culminated in a national championship, which will forever be his legacy. Everyone goes over the hill at some point though. He peaked, he enjoyed moderate success after that, and then it's been a complete downfall, to the point where he deserves a chance to save some other faltering program where maybe he'll be rejuvenated and decide to actually recruit for once and study college basketball today and figure out how to run a real offense since, as great as that offense was with Dixon and all, it's been figured out today. Yes, you heard that right, BTerp...it is possible for an offense that was good with some great players back in 2002 to not be good anymore. Sometimes, you need to reevaluate yourself. NFL coaches do it every single year. Gregg Williams watched a ton of tape after his defense dropped to 31st in the year last season and rebuilt his system completely en route to finishing top 10 in defense. Gary hasn't done any self-evaluation since that championship, clearly, because things as spiraling downwards to the point of disgracing this program with a home loss against American.

If you're all happy with 3 out of 4 years in the NIT, good for you. I've opened my eyes and can see now that as great as Gary Williams has been for this program, and as much passion (or anger, however you look at it) he has during the games isn't representative of the work he puts in because he can't recruit and his system is completely futile nowadays.

I don't think I'm a pathetic human being because I can see that this program has gone to the sh*tter. I think you need to open your eyes and realize that Gary isn't nearly as Godly as you think he is.