Official Maryland Terps Thread 4.0

Wizardspride · Post #1501 » by **Wizardspride** » Tue Apr 1, 2025 2:33 pm

?t=-vQydhZFEQsw8FNz2BOutg&s=19

?t=udOHbDKz_f5evWQ_fXVvgQ&s=19

Kanyewest · Post #1502 » by **Kanyewest** » Tue Apr 1, 2025 3:40 pm

prime1time wrote:
prime1time wrote:
DukeLecker wrote:Maryland basketball is so awkward to me. The program is good, with a pretty good history. But their fans act like it’s a great program with a storied history. Maryland is Georgia Tech with a banner. Villanova is a much better job plain and simple and they put all its energy into making the basketball program great. Marylands ADs have taken the basketball program for granted and treated it as second rate for 2 decades, and the product has suffered and the fans barely support the team now, yet still act like it’s a strong tier two program.

Rumors came out that Willard was a Villanova candidate before the tournament and the drum was going to beat loudly regardless of his responses. If he deflected the questions and said, “I’m focused on this team,” the speculation would have been rampant notwithstanding. People moan that he lied, but what was he supposed to say? “yeah, I’m leaving after the tournament, so let’s see how far we go.” Huh? He was in a no win situation. Couldn’t say he was leaving for something better, couldn’t just deflect because the questions would keep coming.

I also don’t understand people saying UMD met his demands so he’s obligated to stay. Why didn’t UMD make it a better program before he was already one foot out the door? UMD stepping up last minute is a disingenuous public relations move to save face. It’s like when the Lerners offered Harper a contract that was too low, and too late, but gave the façade they tried.

Willard probably is a grease ball, but in the Willard / Maryland fiasco, I attribute three quarters of the blame to UMD for being uncommitted to their true core as a basketball program and a portion to the over sensitive fans who’ve forgotten than the team has made two sweet 16s in 20 years. In part because their second round opponents were 12th seeded Hawaii and Colorado State on a buzzer beater.

Now that Willard’s gone they can hire a cheap upstart and continue to allocate their revenue share to football so they can make their annual trip to the Mayo bowl. Yippee!

What did you get out of this post?

As to your actual post, the entire thing is just a bunch of straw men. Who says Willard is obligated to stay? Why would any fan want a coach to stay at a program where he doesn't want to be. The issue isn't that he's obligated to stay but rather that he was never going to stay regardless of what Maryland did or offered. In fact you made this very point.
Why didn’t UMD make it a better program before he was already one foot out the door? UMD stepping up last minute is a disingenuous public relations move to save face

If this is the perspective of Willard then why say that you're negotiating with the school? Why say that the press conference where you trashed the school was to advocate for the players?

Read on Twitter

he said he was staying, he's fighting for some changes

Coaches leave all the time in College sports. But show me another time when the coach through the school that currently employed under the bus and then lied to create a false narrative. He was never going to stay. We could have spent that time looking for new candidates and getting all of our ducks in a row, instead we wasted it negotiating with a guy who knew he was gone weeks ago. That's the issue I have.

As for your point about the Mayo Bowl, it's obvious that you are living in 2015 and 2025. No one at Maryland cares about the bowl. We care about having a viable athletic department. Football drives revenue so it must be invested in. You may not understand the meaning of this sentence right now but 10 years from now the difference between a school like Maryland and a school like Villanova will be massive.