2002 NCAA CHAMPIONS 2006-07 MARYLAND 2004 ACC CHAMPIONS MEN’S BASKETBALL 27 SPORTS 34 • Coaching Staff 2006-07 MARYLAND MEN’S BASKETBALL 1 TEAM Coaching Staff • 35 Coaching Staff 2002 NCAA CHAMPIONS 2006-07 MARYLAND 2004 ACC CHAMPIONS MEN’S BASKETBALL 27 SPORTS GARY WILLIAMS HEAD COACH • MARYLAND ‘68 18TH SEASON AT MARYLAND (353-191, .649) 29TH SEASON OVERALL (560-319, .637) Since returning to the College Park campus in 1989, Gary Williams (Maryland ’68) has led his alma mater’s basketball program from a period of troubled times to an era of national prominence. With 11 NCAA Tournament berths in the last 13 seasons, seven Sweet Sixteen appearances, a pair of consecutive Final Four showings, and the 2002 national championship – the first of its kind in Maryland basketball history – Williams and his staff have literally forged what is now more than a decade of dominance in college basketball’s most storied and competitive conference. Now, with 353 victories as Maryland’s head coach, Williams is the school’s all-time winningest head coach, eclipsing the mark of former Terp mentor Charles “Lefty” Driesell, who amassed 348 victories in 17 seasons from 1969-70 to 1985-86. The Terrapins have averaged 22.8 wins per year since the 1994-95 season. With 560 career victories in 28 seasons overall, Williams is the ninth-winningest active head coach in NCAA Division I men’s basketball. Williams was heralded as the national and ACC Coaach of the Year during the Terps’ 2002 championship run. He is one of just 12 active coaches in America to boast a national title and one of only three in the conference. He has become the fourth-winningest coach in ACC history after transforming the Maryland program into one of the nation’s most formidable, and building a Baltimore-D.C. area following that has consistently resulted in packed arenas. After demolishing attendance records with sellout crowds during the final years of Maryland basketball at Cole Field House, Williams’ Terps have finished in the top ten nationally in each of the last four seasons, ranking fifth in 2002-03 and 2003-04, and sixth in the country in each of the last two seasons. The Terrapins played before 291,961 fans last season, averaging crowds of 17,174 and selling out 15 home contests. • In June of 2005, Williams received the University of Maryland’s highest alumni honor as he, Connie Chung, Renaldo Nehemiah and others were inducted into the University of Maryland’s Alumni Hall of Fame. Williams was inducted into the University of Maryland’s Sports Hall of Fame in 1999. • In January of 2005, Williams was named one of Washingtonian Magazine’s ‘Washingtonians of the Year.’ He joined others such as Washington D.C. mayor Anthony Williams and Tim Russert of NBC’s Meet The Press on the prestigious list. • In September of 2004, Williams joined Washington Redskins great Darrell Green and Washington Sports and Entertainment Chairman and CEO Abe Pollin as the inaugural inductees into the new Greater Washington Sports Hall of Champions. • Williams was one of only five coaches in NCAA Division I to have led his team to 11 consecutive NCAA Tournaments, from 1994-2004. The Terrapins’ 2006 appearance in the National Invitation Tournament marked the 13th consecutive postseason berth for Williams’ teams. • In guiding his 2004 Terrapins to the ACC Tournament title, Williams became the third coach in league history to lead his team to victory over the top three seeds: No. 3 Wake Forest, No. 2 NC State and No. 1 Duke. By overcoming a 21-point first half deficit against the Wolfpack, Williams engineered the greatest comeback in the 52-year history of the ACC Tournament. • He is one of seven college basketball coaches since 1980 to guide his alma mater to the Final Four and was the first since 1974 to lead his alma mater to a national title. • A winner of nearly 70 percent of his NCAA Tournament games while at Maryland, he ranks ninth among active coaches in NCAA Tournament winning percentage overall (26-13, .667), and ninth in wins (26). • With a victory over No. 1 Florida in Gainesville on Dec. 10, 2003, he is the winningest coach in the nation against top-ranked opponents (6). • With his 500th win at NC State on March 2, 2003, the 1968 Maryland grad became the sixth ACC alumnus in conference history to amass as many as 500 coaching victories. • He earned his 550th career win with an 81-55 victory over American University on December 23, 2005. • With 353 wins as Maryland’s head coach, Williams is only the sixth mentor in Atlantic Coast Conference history to pass the 300-victory milestone. • Williams earned his 143rd victory in the ACC with an 86-74 win over Georgia Tech on January 25, 2006, moving past Frank McGuire into third place on the league’s all-time wins list. Williams owns 147 career 36 ACC victories. 36 • Coaching Staff 2006-07 MARYLAND MEN’S BASKETBALL 1 TEAM • With 147 career ACC victories as Maryland’s coach, Williams surpassed Frank McGuire (North Carolina and South Carolina) last COACHES GUIDING season as the third-winningest ACC coach in terms of conference victories. Only McGuire, Dean Smith (364, North Carolina) and Mike THEIR ALMA MATERS Krzyzewski (264, Duke) have more ACC conference wins. TO NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS NATIONAL PROMINENCE Phog Allen, Kansas 1952 For Williams, now in his 18th season, the accomplishments of the Jim Boeheim, Syracuse 2003 past 13 years have been particularly sweet for a coach whose roots with Bud Foster, Wisconsin 1941 the program extend to his playing days in the late 1960s, and whose Howard Hobson, Oregon 1939 earliest seasons as head coach were tormented by NCAA sanctions Ed Jucker, Cincinnati 1961, 1962 he inherited. The two-time Final Four architect and ACC championship Branch McCracken, Indiana 1940, 1953 mentor is himself a Maryland alumnus, who found glory for a program Vadal Peterson, Utah 1944 whose history is filled with a myriad of some of the most prominent Norm Sloan, NC State 1974 names in college basketball annals: Shue, Lucas, Elmore, McMillen, Fred Taylor, Ohio State 1960 Albert King, Bias, Buck Williams and Walt Williams. Gary Williams, Maryland 2002 Guiding his Maryland team to the 2004 ACC title remains a poignant Roy Williams, North Carolina 2005 source of pride for Williams and all of the Terrapin faithful. Coaching the most youth-filled team in college basketball to an incredible weekend COACHES GUIDING THEIR of success, in a year where the ACC was rated the nation’s most competitive conference, is not an accomplishment soon to be forgotten ALMA MATERS TO THE by Maryland’s fans or the coach himself. The weekend featured three FINAL FOUR SINCE 1980 hard-fought, instant-classic contests. In the end, the Terrapins emerged Jim Boeheim, Syracuse 1987, 1996, 2003 victorious, with their first tournament title since 1984 and only the Lou Carnesecca, St. John’s 1985 third in the storied history of the Maryland program. In only three days Guy Lewis, Houston 1982, 1983, 1984 – three days that were the result of a season’s worth of determination, Eddie Sutton, Oklahoma State 1995, 2004 diligence and lessons learned – the Terps were transformed from a Gary Williams, Maryland 2001, 2002 team teetering on the edge of the NCAA bubble to a No. 4 seed in the Richard Williams, Mississippi State 1996 national tournament. Roy Williams, North Carolina 2005 The excitement of the 2004 ACC Tournament conjured images of the Terrapins’ NCAA title run only two years earlier. Williams followed a remarkable 2001 Final Four season by compiling the most wins in Maryland history, going 32-4 in 2002. He engineered the school’s best regular season ever (25-3), its first outright ACC regular season title since 1980, its first No. 1 seed in an NCAA Tournament, and a return to the Final Four. He earned billing as the league’s coach of the year for the first time in his career and later was honored with various national awards, the Victor Award and the New York Athletic Club’s Winged Foot Award as the coach of the national champions. Capping his personal ascent to college basketball’s highest pinnacle, Williams added author to his resume in summer 2002 by completing an autobiography entitled Sweet Redemption, with award-winning journalist David Vise. The book captures the essence of Williams’ arrival at Maryland, the Terps’ re-building efforts, their return to the NCAA Tournament in 1994 and their tournament climb ever since. The rise of the Maryland program has run parallel with Williams’ ascent among the most notable in the collegiate coaching fraternity. Williams was one of only five coaches to boast a string of 11 consecutive trips to the NCAA Tournament from 1994-2004. He has produced more than 20 wins in nine of his last 12 seasons, and a school-record eight straight from 1996-97 to 2003-04. Williams’ 15 career 20-win seasons places him eighth among active coaches. Williams, 353-191 at Maryland, boasts a 560-319 overall record including four years at American (1979-82), four at Boston College (1983-86) and three at Ohio State (1987-89). In 28 seasons as a Divi- sion I head coach, Williams has coached in 14 NCAA Tournaments and guided nine different teams to the NCAA Sweet Sixteen. One of 26 coaches ever to take three different schools to the NCAA Tournament, Williams has guided teams to the NIT or NCAA Tournament at each of • 37 Coaching Staff his four coaching stops.