Maryland Basketball and Gary Williams

Although I'm a lifelong Terps fan, I've remained mostly quiet on our mens basketball team's recent struggles and in regards to Gary Williams himself. For whatever it's worth, I think Gary had taken recruiting for granted but I also think he's been working hard most recently to improve in this area. Certainly, the recent turnover on his staff didn't help things on the recruiting front. Coach Williams has done a commendably good job with the hand that he and his staff have dealt him. Considering they play in the tough ACC, they've gotten average to above-average performance from mostly average players over the past 7 years. Of course, that's not good enough for most of us.

The irony with these recent struggles and with the growing criticism of Gary Williams is that, as long-time Maryland fans will recall, Lefty Driesell spent many years with top recruits but was often criticized as a mediocre coach. Lefty's situation (remember the now-famous "I can coach" quote?) stands in direct contrast to Gary William's. I expect Gary any day now to scream "I can recruit!"