Oct. 31, 2001

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - After 22 years of trying, Gary Williams finally made it to his first Final Four last season. This year, the fiery 56-year-old hopes to take it a step further. The Maryland grad (Class of '68), one of just six coaches to lead his alma mater to the Final Four, has what might be his most talented team in College Park. In the latest edition of The Sporting News' One-on-One, Williams talks about Juan Dixon, Ralph Friedgen, Butch Cassidy and more.

Check out the complete story and the Maryland basketball preview on The Sporting News' college basketball website.

TSN: We here at The Sporting News thought long and hard about picking your team preseason No. 1. Would that have been the right choice?
GW: I would like to be, to be honest with you. But I think Duke deserves it because they won the championship last year and they return enough guys.

TSN: What kind of charge did you get out of the fans at Midnight Madness, when you grabbed the mike and started talking national championship?
GW: You know, that's the time of year you say things that you might not say after that. But the students were there. We had 14,000 people there. I said, "Last year, our goal was to get to the Final Four. Having done that, our next goal would be to win the national championship." That was the exact quote. It's OK to say that. Now, we have to work hard and see if we can get there. I've always believed in setting goals that are realistic -- and until we got to the Final Four, that wouldn't have been a realistic goal, in my mind.

TSN: This is the last year you'll play your home games at Cole Field House. What are you going to miss most about the place?
GW: I don't think there's any better place to play a basketball game. On game night, this place is unbelievable because it's so loud. Nobody worried about acoustics when this thing was built. It was built into a natural little valley. It's just straight -- all four sides. There's no post, there's no second deck. Every seat's unobstructed. The problem is it's an old building. When there's no games being played here, it looks like an old building, which it is. There's a lot of problems with heating and plumbing and all those things. But I'll miss it. When you walk out of the tunnel here from the locker room for a big game, you can really feel the noise. It just goes right through you when you walk out on the court.

TSN: Can you possibly have the same kind of home-court advantage at the new arena?
GW: We're going to try to. The students are going to sit completely around the court, which we don't really have at Cole, and we'll have one end zone that will be all students, too. This is a more modern arena, so the stands are more slanted toward the court. It's a steeper type seating arrangement, so the people are actually closer to the court than they are at Cole.

TSN: Give us your most memorable Cole moments.
GW: As a player, we beat Duke here in overtime one year. As a coach, we've beaten some teams here when they were No. 1 in the country. But I guess the most memorable game here was the championship game in '66 between Texas Western and Kentucky. That game is probably as significant as any game ever played in college basketball. And this is the only on-campus facility that's still in use and has had two Final Fours. They had it in '66 and '70, when UCLA beat Jacksonville for the national championship.

TSN: How is Juan Dixon so effective for being so skinny?
GW: He's strong. He's thin and strong is what he is. If you remember Michael Cooper, who played for the Lakers -- that's who Juan reminds me of. I've bumped into him a couple times at practice. He hurts a little bit. He's very deceiving in terms of his strength. He's got really quick hands defensively -- he gets his hands on a lot of balls -- and he's kind of a rover on defense, which allows him to come up with a lot of steals. And any time Juan can get the open court in transition, that's his game. We really try to run to get him where teams can't key on him. It's hard to key in transition defense.

TSN: Do you ever worry about getting too worked up on the sidelines?
GW: No. I've been doing this for a long time. I've been a head coach for 24 years. You have your image -- every coach does -- and if that's my image, that's OK. You just coach your personality. Any coach has to be open and honest with the team. They know me, I know them.

TSN: Does your doctor have anything to say about that?
GW: I've got great blood pressure.

TSN: There were some poorly timed reports last year that you were considering the UNLV opening.
GW: That was fabricated. I quickly denied that the hour after I heard it.

TSN: So how do you suppose a story like that gets started?
GW: People leak names on jobs sometimes just to make the job look better. It happens. Not much you can do about it.

TSN: Where were you when that tornado hit campus last month?
GW: I had just left. It hit about 5:45, and I got out of here at 5:15. That's the first tornado seen in College Park in 75 years. I mean, we just don't get tornadoes in this area very often. It was incredible. It damaged a lot of trees on the perimeter of the campus. It just kind of jumped, it hit campus and unfortunately, the funnel caught the one car and threw it over a dormitory and killed two students. Then it hit another mile into campus and bounced and kind of went north on Route 1 from here. It was just really tragic that the one spot it touched was the wrong spot.

TSN: You know Maryland athletics about as well as anyone. How remarkable is it to you what your new football coach has done this season?
GW: It's been great. This is my 13th year and before this year, the most games they'd won is six. It's just been such a long time since people have been excited about football. It's great to watch our alumni. You always have a lot of crossover. Like at Ohio State, you had people that really loved basketball during basketball season and football during football season. So that's great.

TSN: You a football fan?
GW: Yeah, I am. I've been fortunate to coach at Boston College when Doug Flutie was there and then at Ohio State. It doesn't get bigger than Ohio State football. Now down here, Ralph (Friedgen) has really got it going.

TSN: What's in your CD player these days?
GW: I've got the newest U2 CD in my car.

TSN: Got a favorite book?
GW: There's a pressure defense book written by Dr. Jack Ramsay. I grew up outside of Philadelphia, and I used to go to the Palestra and watch St. Joe play when Jack Ramsay was coaching there. I always liked the way his teams played and that was one of the first books I got when I became a coach. I look through it every once in a while just as reminder of some things I'd like to do.

TSN: Who's the best high school player you ever saw?
GW: Kobe Bryant.

TSN: Try to recruit him?
GW: No, we heard he wasn't going to spend any time at this level.

TSN: Favorite movie?
GW: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

TSN: When's the last time you talked to Steve Francis?
GW: He was here the day of the tornado.

TSN: Does he get back much?
GW: He took two courses here this summer. He's from Tacoma Park, which is five miles from our campus. He's great with our players -- not just playing against them in the summertime but talking to them about a lot of things. It always helps when a guy that's been through the system comes back and says, "This is what you have to do." It's better than some coach telling the players, believe me.

TSN: Did you know he'd be so good so soon?
GW: I wish he would have stayed another year because he was so good and it was his first year of major college basketball, but it was a good move. If you can go second or third in the draft like he did, that's a great move financially. He's got that personality. You can tell guys to do a great job with the media or make sure you smile when the camera's on, things like that. He just has that. That came with Steve Francis. And in addition to that, no one has better legs at that 6-3 size than Steve Francis. He's got incredible legs. But to go with that, he's got this personality, this ability to bring people into his circle. He's a great leader is what he is. I'm not surprised that they call him Stevie Franchise down in Houston.