Gary Williams May Be on the Way Out: Fear the Firing

Gary Williams is one of the classiest coaches in basketball. And it is going to get him fired.

I frequently speak about the business elements of collegiate sports. Because of the wildly different rules and play of college basketball, people tend to forget that college basketball is still a business. If you think otherwise, you have just been caught in the guise of “amateurism” as well.

Coaches are paid to win; lesson done.

Williams should be in a position marked “un-fire-able,” but instead he sits on a monster hot seat, despite achieving national success. Why? Because it's all about business. And that business involves the biggest cog in the machine: recruiting.

Maryland is the only team that I can remember since the late 1990s that has won a national championship and not seen a boost in recruiting. And I refuse to blame that solely on recruits looking in another direction.

Yes, there are teams like UNC and Duke who have had their names established for years, and will never stop getting recruits. But those aren’t the teams I am alluding to.

Arizona wins the big one in 1997. It is Lute Olson’s first rock. But that championship ignited recruiting. The departures of Mike Bibby and Miles Simon paved the way for Richard Jefferson and Gilbert Arenas.

Michigan State takes the crown in the year 2000 and finds themselves back in the Final Four two more times over the next five years.

UConn’s rise in recruiting is also quite compelling. El-Amin and Hamilton beget Caron Butler, who gets them to the Elite Eight and in turn begets Okafor and Gordon and another national championship.

In the last six seasons, the University of Maryland has failed to put a team on the court that was even remotely close to the caliber of the 2002 national champions.

And even though Gary Williams has forever been touted as a man who cares about the education of his players, and a coach who frequently looks past the high school all-Americans to find talent, something has to give here. Maryland is literally the only team since Arkansas in 1993 to win it all and still see no serious success since.

And this is where the business side kicks in.

When Gary Williams has had a shot at top-tier high school recruits (especially recently) they have all bailed. And I attribute a lot of that to the fact that Williams is not interested in one-and-done cases.

In an age where teams like Memphis and Ohio State don’t appear to care about a player’s commitment to the school—as long as they can dominate a game—Williams is losing the battle by keeping it traditional. Due to the David Stern one-year rule, it is now the players, not the coaches that have the power. Williams has refused to accept that.

And if top-tier recruits continue to “fear the turtle,” Coach Williams might find himself looking for a new shell.