OK, you ready for this one, Gary? You've got to do it again.
Not win the national title. But at least stay on top in the ACC with Duke and whomever else tries to be the third in the title chase. Oh, and sure, you've got to stay in the national title picture, not to mention be a regular when it comes to grabbing the players that fit your system and are good enough to keep the Terps as a Final Four player.
Easy? No.
Easier? Yes.
|
“ |
It's all a guess before practice starts. I didn't know Joe Smith would be as good as he was until the first day of practice. That's when we knew. I'm not about to slot guys in any pecking order yet. ” |
|
|
— Gary Williams,
Maryland head coach |
Gary Williams' mantra on the matter? Bring it on.
While Williams' speaking engagements are winding down and the euphoria over the title is fading, one final ceremony remains Nov. 24 to close the fairy tale 2001-02 season. When Maryland opens its new on-campus, 17,100-seat Comcast Center against Miami of Ohio, the Terps will raise their 2002 National Championship banner. Then, it's on to the business of defending their ACC regular-season title.
Maryland's 2002 national title will then become a non-factor once the 2002-03 season tips off. Yes, winning the school's first national championship in men's basketball helped recruiting this past summer, but it won't help these Terps win games.
But Williams, who relishes these challenges, is the first to say the identity of these Terps has nothing to do with the team that beat Indiana 64-52 in Atlanta. Largely, because the 2002-03 Terps haven't established an identity -- yet.
They will soon.
Williams began the process of reloading the Maryland program long before the Terps won it all. The process started 12 months earlier, after Maryland's appearance in the 2001 Final Four.
It was after the Terps lost to Duke in the national semifinals when Williams did the legwork to make sure Maryland remained not only a contender in 2002, but for years to come, by landing his highest-rated recruiting class in 2001. And, although Maryland's incoming freshmen may not become Maryland's best collection of players, the group certainly has the potential. (Remember, Juan Dixon, Lonny Baxter and Chris Wilcox weren't household names when they came out of high school. Yet, Dixon will go down as possibly the best player in school history; Baxter, perhaps, the most unsung with a pair of regional MVP awards; and Wilcox one of the quickest to develop, going from obscurity to the lottery in two seasons).
And Williams? He keeps getting sharper as a coach, too, digging in even harder on the 2003 recruiting trail by locking up impressive post-national title commitments from shooting guard Michael Jones of Braintree, Mass., and center Will Bowers from Severn, Md.
"The Final Four (in 2001) and winning the title helped because we didn't have to explain the program," Williams said. "I want the best and most talented player I could possibly recruit, but I want one who is coachable and who works really hard once he gets here."
The buzz on this fall's newcomers -- the post-2001 Final Four class of John Gilchrist, Travis Garrison, Jamar Smith, Nik Caner-Medley and Chris McCray -- is as good as it has been for a Maryland class. But they've got higher expectations than any crop of new recruits at Maryland. They have to be like Juan and Lonny within two years, not anyone else in their newcomer class across the country.
"If I could get a Steve Francis, Joe Smith and guys like that, then I will. But I want a guy like Juan Dixon, a guy who you don't realize until his sophomore year he's going to be as good as he was, the same with Lonny Baxter," Williams said. "You're not going to get a better player than Juan Dixon. He might be the best to ever play here.
"We've got to keep that level going," Williams said as he packed his boxes of 13 seasons of memories at Cole Field House for the move a few blocks away to the Comcast Center this week. "Are they willing to work as hard as Juan? He got better every year. A coach can tell a player to work on this or that, but he can't be with him over the summer. Juan would do it and so would Lonny. We need that type of work ethic."
Williams had ownership over his four seniors this summer, at least in terms of expectations. He told Steve Blake and Drew Nicholas to work on their shooting and get stronger. When they weren't working on jump shots, both were in the weight room, working on upper bodies that allow their uniforms to drape over their narrow shoulders. The same message was delivered to his two senior forwards, Tahj Holden and Ryan Randle. Both came back in the best shape of their lives, tone and physically fit.
But, if the Terps are going to stay in the ACC race, let alone defend their national title, providing more production on the court won't be the biggest task for the seniors. The four ringleaders must work even harder on providing the same leadership as the departed seniors -- Dixon, Baxter and Byron Mouton -- and that starts by being patient with the newcomers. Instead of jumping right into their offense and defensive sets from the outset like they did last season, the coaching staff's focus will shift to more individual instruction during the first month of practice. Individual workouts during the next six weeks will be geared more toward fundamentals.
"It's going to be hard on the seniors because the guys coming back have to stay motivated after winning a national title," Williams said. "We're not going to be as good early. But we do have a chance to be very good."
|  |
| Gary Williams started building for this upcoming season with a stellar 2001 recruiting class. |
Maryland wasn't just a preseason top five team a year ago, but a prohibitive favorite to get back to the Final Four. Dixon morphed into a legit candidate for national player of the year honors and won the ACC honor over Duke's Jay Williams, who took home the national award. Baxter was a nightly force down low, while Wilcox started as a sixth man and turned into the final piece of the championship puzzle. Mouton provided senior leadership on and off the court, while Blake and Nicholas played supporting roles to perfection.
This year, Blake has as much experience running the point as any guard in the country and Nicholas should be ready to become a starting shooting guard. Holden and Randle should anchor an even bigger frontcourt. But the questions include whether Smith can step in and be the impact small forward he's being billed as by the Maryland staff; whether Caner-Medley is strong enough to take the pounding as a small forward; whether Garrison can score inside; and if Gilchrist or McCray will provide dependable points from the perimeter.
And who will be the defensive stopper like Dixon? Let alone who will fill the tough-guy role Mouton played so well?
"It's all a guess before practice starts," Williams said. "I didn't know Joe Smith would be as good as he was until the first day of practice. That's when we knew. I'm not about to slot guys in any pecking order yet. I've told these guys to get in the best possible shape by September, not wait until October 11. That way they can compete in pickup games and be in good enough shape to start practice."
Like the Terps themselves, the new identity of the Comcast Center is also a question mark. Creating the same environment as Cole Field House will be a work in progress. It certainly won't be the hot box that Cole became the last few seasons.
"The students will be in the first 10 rows around and in one end zone," Williams said. "Hopefully it will be a tough place to play. Maybe the air conditioning won't work on some game nights."
Big addition for Western Kentucky
Western Kentucky coach Dennis Felton has a new name for Nigel Dixon. No longer is he Florida State's "Big Jelly," but rather Nigel "Theme Park" Dixon.
"I'm trying to get it to stick," Felton said. "He's from Disney World (Orlando) and this is a new place so he should have a new nickname."
Taking the 6-foot-11, 350-pound Dixon was apparently a no-brainer for Felton, even though Dixon has only one season of eligibility remaining. Felton said he normally isn't interested in transfers for one season, but he needs a big man to bridge 7-1 senior Chris Marcus to 7-2 freshman Michael Doe.
"We lose the bulk of our frontcourt and this will prevent us from completely starting over," Felton said.
Dixon will help Marcus this season, giving him a comparable big man to go against in practice. Marcus dwarfed his teammates in recent seasons, at least in girth, and needed someone to bang with in practice. And why did Dixon bolt on new Seminoles coach Leonard Hamilton?
"Nigel really wanted to redshirt to give him an extra year to develop," Felton said. "He wants to enhance his chances, and by transferring he gets the redshirt year. Not sure he would have had that option at Florida State."
"Theme Park" scored in double figures in six of his final seven games last season, averaging 13 points and nine boards for the Seminoles during the stretch.
Weekly Chatter
Iowa lost another role player when 6-6 rising redshirt freshman Marcellus Sommerville bolted a few days before school starts Monday. Sommerville redshirted last season and was one of the players Steve Alford was high on a year ago. But Sommerville wouldn't have played much last season behind Luke Recker if he had not redshirted. Instead, Sommerville is heading off to junior college where he might eventually land at Bradley. He'll have three years of eligibility once he is eligible after playing a year of junior college basketball. He's the seventh player to leave Alford's program since he took over in March of 1999. His departure leaves Iowa with 10 scholarship players, including three freshmen. The Hawkeyes haven't lost a star player yet, and until they do under Alford, it's premature to raise the red flag on these defections.
The e-mails have been coming in from schools in the Colonial Athletic Association, Sun Belt and the Southern Conference with gripes about being left out of the Bracket Buster Event in February. Once again, there could have been spots for UNC-Wilmington (CAA), Louisiana-Lafayette (Sun Belt) and either Davidson or Charleston (Southern) if the tournament organizers didn't go so deep in the Horizon (three teams), Missouri Valley (four), MAC (four) and WAC (four). Skimming the top 1 or 2, at the most, from the Big West, Atlantic Sun (when it's Georgia State), MAC, Horizon, MVC, Sun Belt, WAC, WCC, A-10, CAA, Ivy (when Penn or Princeton are really good), MWC and Southern made more sense. The 18-team event will be on Feb. 22 with one predetermined game, Tulsa at Gonzaga.
Temple is expecting senior Alex Wesby to earn back his fourth year of eligibility and play in the upcoming season. Meanwhile, unless they alter a few games, the Owls might not play at home until Dec. 28 against Indiana. The Owls have a game scheduled against Wisconsin on Dec. 26, but the Badgers would rather not fly on Christmas Day and are trying to move the game. Temple is also trying to find a date for a home game against Rutgers. Otherwise, it's on the road for a brutal schedule at Charlotte, Penn State, Illinois in Chicago at the United Center, Villanova and Penn in the Palestra in the tripleheader Dec. 7 (Villanova vs. LaSalle and Drexel vs. Saint Joseph's are the other two games). Temple has one brutal back-to-back road swing at Wake Forest, Dec. 1 and then at South Carolina, Dec. 2, to open the Gamecocks new arena. But it's not the first time a team has played consecutive games in two different cities. Boston College played at St. John's on a Saturday and then at Vanderbilt on a Sunday three seasons ago. The Owls do have one high-profile home non-conference game in February when N.C. State returns a game Feb. 15.
Bowling Green is another mid-major school that simply can't get a non-conference home game. The Falcons have only one Division I home game, against Oakland of Michigan. Bowling Green coach Dan Dakich said he's likely picking up two non-Division I home games to fill the schedule. It's a desperate move that won't help the Falcons if they're in position for an at-large berth. Bowling Green is on the road against Detroit, Michigan, Alabama in Mobile, Northwestern, Cleveland State in the Rock and Roll Shootout (with Boston College and Kent State in the other game in Cleveland) and in the Bracket Buster Event (Feb. 22). Meanwhile, the Falcons lost their best freshman when 6-4 Erik Crawford decided to transfer, but not without some fanfare. Crawford solicited money from Bowling Green fans for an all-star tour to Australia, coached by Lamar's Mike Deane. Getting the money is allowed for trips like this but bolting afterward is a no-no in the ethical department. "We wouldn't release him until he gave all the money back," Dakich said. And he did, all $3,500 of it, according to Dakich. "His mother understood that we were going to demand that." Crawford (3.7 ppg, 2.0 rpg) told Dakich he wants to transfer closer to his Oakdale, Minn., home and apparently Northern Iowa (a possible destination) is a lot closer for him than Bowling Green, Ohio.
Xavier isn't ducking teams in probably the Musketeers toughest non-conference schedule in years. Xavier is doing what it should with a top 25 team -- going out and playing top 25 teams. The Musketeers are in the Preseason NIT with a potential second-round game against Stanford. If the Musketeers get past the Cardinal then they could meet Florida, Kansas, North Carolina or Rutgers in New York. Xavier plays a neutral site game against Mississippi State at Madison Square Garden, the annual Cincinnati game -- this time at the Shoemaker Center -- Purdue, Miami (Ohio), Ball State and Creighton at home before at Alabama (Jan. 4). These games will showcase two of the best players in the nation at their respective positions in forward David West and guard Romain Sato.
The odd departure of Cal junior point guard Shantay Legans comes as a shock to the Bears, but it was even more critical that Cal got 6-10 Gabriel Hughes to come back to school. Hughes threatened to transfer to Fresno State among others (that's where Legans could land). Hughes would have left the Bears with a major void in the middle, especially after they failed to get Israeli Yaniv Green to stick to his commitment instead of staying in his native land to play professionally. Releasing Kennedy Winston to Alabama didn't help the inside game, either. Cal picked up 6-9 forward Jordi Geli Vilardell from Spain to give them another body in the post. Amit Tamir was the only legit returning forward, forcing Cal to lean on its guards to rebound. Having Hughes (2.1 ppg, 1.5 rpg) and Geli Vilardell won't scare Pac-10 opponents, but at least they have post players to clog the middle.
Drexel had to bow out of the Rainbow Classic in Honolulu because the Dragons couldn't find appropriate dates for other non-conference games. Drexel struggled to get home games and play only two true home games (not counting Philadelphia games at the Palestra against Saint Joseph's, Penn and a road game at Villanova). Drexel could only get Colgate and D-II Philadelphia Textile School to come to Drexel. The Rainbow Classic is still trying to find two more teams to complete its field. San Diego wants to be in the tourney, but has a home-and-homer series with Nevada that it's trying to adjust to no avail.
South Carolina is out of the Guardians Classic because of issues related to its new on-campus arena. That means the once 16-team tournament will be downsized to eight teams. The two hosts -- Notre Dame and Creighton -- will likely go to Kansas City with the two losers in their four-team tournaments. The teams will then crisscross in Kansas City (Notre Dame playing the team Creighton beat and vice versa) with a likely Notre Dame-Creighton final in Kansas City Thanksgiving weekend. The six other teams in the field are Alabama State, Belmont, IUPUI, Brown, Furman and Texas-Arlington. The final four in the first year of the tournament last season was Iowa, Memphis, Missouri and Alabama. Meanwhile, the BCA Invitational could get reduced from eight teams to four, assuming Nevada or Colorado State can host the event. If not, then there is a chance the event is in trouble for this season.
Arizona freshman Chris Rodgers will appeal his standardized test score and remain on campus during the appeal process. Meanwhile, sophomore guard Will Bynum had an exceptional summer, averaging 37 points in the Chicago pro-am, according to the Arizona staff (sometimes stats in summer league are shaky). The staff raved about sophomore Salim Stoudamire's summer, too, after he scored well in a Portland Pro-Am. Forward Isaiah Fox has recovered from minor knee surgery after returning from the team's Australia trip in May. He should be ready to go for practice.
Wisconsin's Kirk Penney got valuable minutes when he played for the New Zealand national team during the 2000 Olympics and he's getting a similar run in Indianapolis next week. Penney averaged 21.1 points in seven exhibition games, including a game against Germany in which he had to guard the Mavs' Dirk Nowitzki.
East Carolina and the College of Charleston have put off their planned exhibition scrimmage for at least a year while the Pirates play two traditional exhibition games. The scrimmage was conceived between the two head coaches, brothers Bill and Tom Herrion, of East Carolina and Charleston, respectively. The scrimmage would have been at East Carolina, although both brothers agree the scenery in Charleston would be a better weekend trip.
Washington State assistant coach Gary Stewart chose his hometown over a recruiting position, leaving the Cougars to go to UCLA to be the in-house administrative assistant. The Cougars are interviewing for a replacement to be a recruiter, although the timing isn't too cool with July recruiting completed and September reserved for follow-up home visits. The Cougars, likely picked for last in the Pac-10, at least spent the summer bonding. The entire team was in Pullman for the summer and is committed to turning their close losses last season into a few more wins to get into the Pac-10 tourney. Point Marcus Moore could be one of the best point guards West of the Mississippi.
Indiana is correcting a television-induced problem on its court. Fans complained that the state goes in the wrong direction because the cameras are on the East Side of Assembly Hall. The floor was being refurbished this summer so the logo is being flipped. Meanwhile, the school is still studying a mascot for the school nickname "Hoosiers", but it will unveil new uniforms with a return to the traditional Crimson and Cream, making the uniforms darker than the red hue Indiana has worn for years.
Individual workouts started at North Carolina on Thursday and the talk was about Jackie Manuel's frame. Coach Matt Doherty said Manuel added 10 pounds of muscle, which made him even quicker off a first step in running and jumping tests. Raymond Felton and Rashad McCants, the two guards who will be rotating in or next to Manuel in the backcourt, were just as consistent in workouts as they were during the summer playing on campus. The pair of freshmen guards took a break in early August to play in a 19-and-under tournament in Knoxville, Tenn., -- which they won. Meanwhile, freshman forward Sean May is on the shelf for a few weeks with tendonitis in his knee and classmate Damion Grant is unavailable for workouts because of a nagging Achilles tendon injury.
Michigan State is one commitment away from wrapping the next two classes. That's right, the Spartans are on a serious roll, getting three commitments for the class of 2003 (SG Shannon Brown of Maywood, Ill., PG Brandon Cotton of Detroit and center Drew Naymick of North Muskegon, Mich.) and two for the class of 2004 in point guard Drew Neitzel of Wyoming Park, Mich., and power forward Marquise Gray of Flint, Mich. Meanwhile, the one late commitment from the class of 2002 could turn out to be one of the best newcomers for the Spartans. Erazem Lorbek, the 6-8 forward from Lithuania, was the MVP of the 18-and-under European Championships in Germany this summer and then competed in the 20-and-under championships in Lithuania. Lorbek turned down pro offers to go to Michigan State. The Spartans looked to Lorbek once they decided against pursuing Florida newcomer Christian Drejer. The Spartans thought he was going pro in Europe but Drejer decided to go to a U.S. college. The Spartans had a legitimate in with Drejer because he played with Magic Johnson's all-star touring team, the Great Danes, a few summers ago.
Illinois is one of three finalists -- with Villanova and Seton Hall -- for Blair Academy's (N.J.) Charlie Villanueva and that means the Illini are becoming more of a national program under Bill Self. Getting involved with a New York-area talent is significant for the Illini. "We can recruit nationally," Self said. "Obviously we have good prospects in the area so we don't need to, but we've gotten to the point that our staff is well received outside the area."
Ohio State coach Jim O'Brien promoted long-time assistant Paul Biancardi to associate head coach, a move that should position Biancardi to get a head coaching job in the near future. Michigan State's Tom Izzo did the same with assistant Brian Gregory last year.
Andy Katz is a senior writer at ESPN.com. His Weekly Word on college basketball is updated Fridays throughout the year.
