Gary Williams has experienced lows before –just not like this.
A rift between Williams and the athletic department became apparent Tuesday night, when the head coach questioned a high-ranking member of the athletic department after the team’s fourth loss in five games.
Earlier in the day, Kathy Worthington, Maryland’s senior associate athletic director, addressed Williams remarks about the loss of two recruits — South Florida forward Gus Gilchrist and Kent State guard Tyree Evans — as “inaccurate.” Gilchrist was on the team last year, but transferred during the summer, and Evans was denied admission to the university because of his past legal troubles.
Williams said Monday: “It wasn’t my fault that [Gilchrist and Evans are] not here. You know, that was somebody else’s call.”
Tuesday night, cornered by a half-dozen beat writers in the Maryland locker room, Williams responded to Worthington’s claims, saying: “She’s never won a national championship. She’s an assistant AD. She doesn’t speak for me.”
It’s been first public display of what often has been rumored around College Park: There is a communication and philosophic difference between the Williams and the athletic department.
“I coach here,” Williams said. “I’ve got to live here. That’s the way it is. I’ve coached here for 20 years, long before anyone else was here. Nobody was here 20 years ago.”
Maryland has lost four of its past five games, and entered Atlantic Coast Conference play off a loss to Morgan State — its first to an in-state team since the Terrapins fell to Coppin State in Williams’ first season in 1989.
After the Terrapins lost to Duke by 41 points on Saturday in its most lopsided defeat in 46 years, they squandered an 11-point lead in the second half en route to a 76-67 setback to Boston College.
“We let them run their offense and they came back,” sophomore guard Adrian Bowie said. “It’s tough losing at home, especially with a big lead like we had in the first half. We just have to communicate better. We don’t talk to each other on defense enough in the second half, and it shows.”
Still, Williams said what he’s endured with the Terrapins (13-7, 2-4) for the past five days pales in comparison to when he arrived in College Park, when NCAA-levied sanctions banned his team from postseason play and appearing on TV.
“The most challenging was my first four years here when we didn’t have any players, because of the sanctions,” Williams said. “We’re in a situation where, we know we have some quality wins, we know we can beat good teams. We just have to do it now. We haven’t been able to do it in a couple games where I thought we should have own. That hurts you.”
