Gary Williams announced his retirement today. He had a record of 668-380 in 33 seasons. The last 22 seasons, with 461 wins and the 2002 National Championship, were at Maryland.
Williams was a great coach. Stories swirled over the last 4 years or so of him becoming egotistical and bitter, feeling that he didn't get the respect he deserved. That's always going to be a bit of a problem when you coach against Coach K and Roy Williams. Sure Gary had 1 national championship. But Roy has 2, and K has 4. That's just kind of the way it goes. Williams was also dogged about not being a strong recruiter the last couple years, expecting premiere players to "want" to come to Maryland? Is that true or fair, I don't know. State had a great recruiting class last year and went 15-16. You can have a mediocre class that gels well.
So what is his recruiting prowess being based on? McDonald's All-Americans don't automatically yield results. Great classes don't always yield great results, and lesser classes can. So I don't know that that's fair. From the outside they've had some good players. Grevious Vasquez, as much as I couldn't stand him, was one of the ACC's best.
So long Gary. I'll miss your sweat stains and your side lines theatrics. I guess there's still Seth Greenberg at Virginia Tech, but he's kind of B-List in my book.
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