I honestly didn't think I would be writing this for a long while. In a perfect world Jordan Williams would be returning for his Junior season and helping lead a bunch of rag-tag young Terrapins to another ACC Championship under coach Gary Williams.
Jordan Williams is obviously heading to the NBA, while Gary Williams is going to be grabbing his golf clubs and heading down to Hilton Head to play a round of golf with Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon a little more often than most of us wanted or expected.
Out of no where Gary Williams decided to retire and shocked everyone in the DC area and all of us who have called the University of Maryland home.
Even though I'm a graduate of the university the first think of is not the brick walkways, the shrouds of trees around. I think of basketball, I think of Gary Williams patrolling the sidelines with the most intense look of any man doing his job and doing his job well. The sweat on his brow, the scowl on his face, the way he worked the refs, the way he got 250% out of every player that put on the Maryland uniform is going to be unmeasured by any other coach that sits at his desk next.
Gary Williams is a legend and one of the ten greatest coaches to ever grace the collegiate hardwood. Sure he could be number ten on that list, but every person who is a true Terrapin and loves the program and everything Coach Williams has done for it is going to put them much higher on the list. I won't put him on the same level as John Wooden, but he is damn close in my mind.
The court should be named after him, I know I'm not the first person to write that, to say that, nor will I be the last. I fully expect to be unveiled at the very first home game next season when the team routes Nowhere State University under the new coach.
0 comments:
Post a Comment