[Assani Fisher]

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Maryland just hasn't been the same since winning the national title, what, six years ago? Not sure what it is ... I do think winning that title changed Gary Williams, though, I just don't get the sense he's as motivated or driven now as he was before. But I could be way off.

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No.you're not way off at all. I love Gary, as he pulled this program from NCAA sanctions and the absolute dumps, got mediocre recruits, and turned them into national champions. But it's widely known around this area that Keith Booth and Chuck Driesell do most of the recruiting visits, rather than Gary. He's just not an X's and O's coach, which has been killing us with these lackluster recruits.

I'm not going to completely bag on him for recruiting, as he did pick up some solid ones (going into college) like Mike Jones, Ekene Ibekwe, etc but he has yet to really land a huge recruit which is an ABOMINATION considering the talent that grows up in-county. In last years McD AA game alone there were 4 players that grew up in this county ALONE. Austin Freeman (now at Gtown), went to school less than 10 minutes down the road from UMD, Chris Wright (Gtown) and Nolan Smith (Duke) played together for a year at St. John's which is in DC before switching schools. Beasley went to Riverdale Baptist for several years (teamed up with Nolan Smith for a year too). Add on the fact that Donte Green (Syracuse) is from right up the road in Baltimore and you have 5 impact recruits from the immediate area.

Looking at 2006, you have another 2 IMPACT players from the same county: Ty Lawson and KEVIN DURANT, who both played right in the area (though Lawson went to Oak Hill later in his HS career). For 2005 graduates, there are a number of players dotting starting lineups all over the ACC that are from either in-county or otherwise extremely close: Marcus Ginyard (UNC), Mamadi Diane (UVA), Nigel Munson (Va Tech,etc. From 2004, UMD thought it had Rudy Gay signed sealed and delivered, but then he went to UConn and starred for them. Who else did they miss out from the 2004 class? Oh thats right Roy Hibbert AND Jeff Green.

Do I expect them to pick up every premier player from this area? No of course not, not even close to that. But that's a HUGE number of OUTSTANDING talents to completely swing and miss on. And the fact that so many of em grew up in the same county, where UMD is the biggest college bball program around, is inexcusable. They were known commodities way before their late years in HS, Gary should have been on em hard. I've heard other reports that Durant wanted to come to UMD but for whatever reason received not much interest from the staff. Maybe Gary doesn't like the idea of recruiting one and dones, which I can understand, but at some point you have to take a look around at the changing landscape of college basketball and get with the times, man.


Ok,so here's the final tally of players from 2004 and later that grew up and lived in Prince George's County:

-Austin Freeman
-Nolan Smith
-Chris Wright
-Mike Beasley
-Ty Lawson
-Kevin Durant
-Roy Hibbert
-Jeff Green

And other players who are either not as huge recruits, or are from Baltimore or NoVa:

-Mamadi Diane
-Nigel Munson
-Marcus Ginyard
-Rudy Gay
-Carmelo Anthony

There are plenty other not as huge recruits, but very solid ones, it's just that Diane and Munson came to mind immediately because they also went to HS with Freeman

This is so frustrating. Instead of Rudy Gay we get Will Bowers (both from Archbishop Spaulding) and instead of Kevin Durant we get Greivis Vasquez (both from Montrose Christian)

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Trust me, I totally understand what you're saying. But has Maryland ever really gotten huge recruits? I mean, I always thought their strategy was more to get the 2nd tier guys who will stick around for 4 years rather than go for the top 10 type of guys. Hell, Mike Jones was probably a bigger recruit than Blake/Dixon/Wilcox, no? I guess Steve Francis might count, but he was a JUCO transfer IIRC.


Now I don't know why Maryland does this...is it because they can't land the top recruits or is it truly their philosophy? It is puzzling to see all of the local talent go elsewhere and to see other close schools like Georgetown land so many top recruits while Maryland settles for second tier guys time and time again.

As for the past few years, if Gilchrist stays 4 years and Mike Jones had turned into a superstar like he was supposed to then things may have been a lot different.



P.S. As you can tell, I'm not certain about my statements about Dixon/Blake/Wilcox etc. not being top recruits...can you inform me more on that(as well as some of the other Maryland players)?

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