11/05/24
May 06, 2011
Maryland basketball coach Gary Williams retires: After sweating through crisp white shirts and expensive suits for more than three decades, Maryland basketball coach Gary Williams is finally ready to take it easy.
posted by BornIcon to basketball at 09:53 AM - 10 comments
An excellent college coach who would have won more championships if he wasn't governed by absolutely brutal administration at Maryland.
posted by cixelsyd at 10:13 AM on May 06, 2011
That loud cheering you hear coming from the North Carolina area would be Debbie Yow preparing to dance on Coach Williams figurative coaching grave
posted by Demophon at 12:10 PM on May 06, 2011
Would that be Durham or Chapel Hill?
posted by flannelenigma at 01:23 PM on May 06, 2011
Raleigh.
posted by NoMich at 01:57 PM on May 06, 2011
Now that makes more sense.
posted by flannelenigma at 02:17 PM on May 06, 2011
Is it true that he torpedoed NC State's basketball coach search? All of the sports radio gasbags around here all state that with confidence.
posted by NoMich at 02:26 PM on May 06, 2011
Is it true that he torpedoed NC State's basketball coach search? All of the sports radio gasbags around here all state that with confidence.
2 possible responses, both are accurate:
1. Absolutely not. Williams is a class act.
or
2. See what happens when a University fails at due diligence in the hiring process? The whole freaking town becomes delusional, not just the nut bag they hired.
posted by cixelsyd at 03:54 PM on May 06, 2011
Dude was a good coach, but . . . Rarely has someone so successful been such a stalwart victim -- the refs, the North Carolina ACC schools and the NCAA were all part of a vast conspiracy to deny his gritty young men their due. (He had a point about the NIT this year, though.) His penchant for blaming everyone else rubbed off on Terps fans, who are among the worst anywhere -- a crowd whose first response to success is not to celebrate their own side, but to chant that the other side sucks.
He was not a cheater, though, and that at least is something to celebrate in this day and age.
posted by Mookieproof at 08:45 PM on May 06, 2011
His penchant for blaming everyone else rubbed off on Terps fans
That's ridiculous. He did this no more than other coaches (much less than many), and the idea that his objections would be the wellspring for the student section's vulgarity is idiotic.
not to celebrate their own side, but to chant that the other side sucks.
Wrong. The fans celebrate their own side, and they chant that the other side sucks.
Turning to reality for a moment, the timing of Williams' announcement strikes me in a couple of ways.
First, the business with the NC State coach search: Debbie Yow's performance at the press conference announcing the new Wolfpack coach made it clear that Mark Gottfried wasn't State's first choice, or their second, or even probably their third. Did Gary's supposed "torpedoing" of their search have an ulterior motive, to make sure that their top candidates might still be around when Maryland went looking?
Second, Gary Williams retired a couple days after Jordan Wiliams announced his departure for the NBA. We can surmise that he either waited to make his announcement until Jordan made up his mind, or waited to decide that he wasn't coming back until Jordan decided to go pro, or he told Jordan he was retiring and that factored into the decision to leave. Of course none of this is particularly big news. For what it's worth, I lean towards the first explanation.
Whatever the case may be, it remains that Gary Williams was a great coach for Maryland; he brought a program from disarray to grandeur in his tenure there, and whatever sniping might come from the sisterfucking partisans of the ACC's backwoods establishment, as a coach he was a class act, admired and respected, not just by every intelligent basketball fan, but by his colleagues in the coaching fraternity as well.
I hope he enjoys retirement; he's certainly earned it.
posted by Hugh Janus at 06:38 PM on May 08, 2011
Sad to see him go. Always was the consummate gentlemen and one hell of a coach.