Williams Garners ACC's Top Coaching Honor
3/11/2002 7:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
March 11, 2002
COLLEGE PARK, Md. - Atlantic Coast Conference sportswriters honored Maryland basketball coach Gary Williams today as the 2002 ACC Coach of the Year. For Williams, it is the first such honor of his career. It is the third by a Maryland coach in the 49-year history of the conference.
Williams has guided Maryland to a 26-4 record, the ACC regular season championship and a No. 1 seed in this week's NCAA Tournament. The Terrapins will open play in the East Region on Friday evening at the MCI Center in Washington, D.C., against the winner of Tuesday's Alcorn State/Siena opening round play-in game.
For Williams, the award highlights a two-year run that includes the school's first trip to the Final Four and its first ACC regular season title since 1980. Williams, a 1968 Maryland graduate and starting point guard, guided his alma mater to the best regular season in Maryland history in 2002. While earning the East Region's top seed in this week's NCAA Tournament, Maryland sustained a top-five ranking in 16 of the last 19 Associated Press polls.
Completing his 13th year at Maryland, Williams is 268-143 as head coach of the Terrapins. He is 475-271 in his 24th college season overall, including stops at American, Boston College and Ohio State. He is the winningest NCAA Tournament coach in Maryland history and one of just seven coaches nationally to guide their teams to nine straight NCAA Tournament appearances. He has led the Terrapins to 20-win seasons in six consecutive years.
"It's an honor, especially in the ACC, to win the coach of the year award," said Williams. "It's always based on players and your assistant coaches, and how everyone comes together as a team. Everybody in our program should feel a part of the award. I take pride in our team. A coach of the year award is really a nice thing and I am proud of it, but it is very much a shared award."
Said senior All-American Juan Dixon, "I love his style and I just love him as a person," Dixon said. "We understand one another and he knows where I'm coming from and I know where he's coming from. I'm going to miss playing for him."
