Doubting Gary Williams and the Maryland Terrapins Hasn't Gone Out of Style

You look at the job Gary Williams did willing his Maryland Terrapins to the NCAA Basketball Tournament and you think that just maybe, you were a little too hard on the Terps this season.

Maybe you looked a little too deep, and only wanted to see a season of bad out-of-conference losses, underachievement in the ACC, and no veritable explanation for any of it.

And just as you think you should write a public apology for what, in retrospect, seemed to be snap judgments, you take that one last grasp at common sense.

And fortunately for you, that last grasp yields a few answers that lets you know that you had—and still have—every right to dismiss the Terrapins as a legitimate team on the local or national college basketball scene.

Yes, the NCAA Tournament committee saw fit to give the Maryland Terrapins a 10 seed in the tournament, and in many ways, they earned it. Michigan State early, North Carolina late, and Wake Forest in the ACC Tournament locked them up as a team that could survive and advance in the national brackets.

But that doesn’t take away from their regular season of overall mediocrity—a season that was the latest in quite a few for Gary Williams and the crew.

This is a team that has been left in the dust by local power conference and mid-major counterparts alike. The Georgetown Hoyas had an abysmal '08-09 campaign, but they also were a team decimated by key starters graduating, and not far removed from a Final Four appearance two seasons ago, and a Sweet Sixteen berth in 2006.

American University has back-to-back berths in the national tournament. Yep, the same American University that beat the Terps last season.

Morgan State University has captured its first NCAA tournament bid, on the heels of their second-straight MEAC regular season championship. Yep, the same Morgan State that secured a 15-seed in the tournament, sponsored in part by a road win over the Maryland Terrapins.

UMBC, George Mason—the list goes on of local schools in the Baltimore-Washington area who have overachieved while the Maryland Terrapins have regressed.

For a while, the excuse of the ACC being a tougher conference held up tight against people attacking the Terrapins' slide. But looking at their late-season push this year, there’s no reason why Maryland should have missed the tournament two out of the last four seasons, while their local counterparts have become regular invitees to the dance.

In the seven years since Maryland won the national championship, the Terrapins have earned more criticism than praise. The recruiting has come under fire, the coaching has come under fire, and this season’s infighting in the athletic department seemed to be the signs of a breaking point for the relationship between Williams and his institutional support.

The Terps deserve full credit for pulling it together and earning a bid, but Maryland certainly shouldn’t be immune to an honest look at their backwards progress as a local or national basketball powerhouse.