April 2, 2002

By DAVID GINSBURG
AP Sports Writer

ATLANTA - It's time to strike this line from Gary Williams' file: can't win the big one.

For that matter, remove that description from the entire Maryland program.

Here's a new title for the Terps: national champions.

After decades of torment and near misses, Maryland pulled out a close game to defeat Indiana 64-52 Monday night for its first title.

A sleepy-eyed Williams accepted the championship trophy Tuesday morning.

"This will look good in my living room," he joked.

The memento of Maryland's greatest season will go to the school, but in truth, it's for every Terrapin fan and for every player who never got as far as this team.

"There's been so many great players at the University of Maryland," Williams said. "Hopefully they feel a part of things that happened last night."

Williams said he got back to the team hotel at 2 a.m., had a chat with his daughter and then went to his room at 3 o'clock. But he couldn't sleep, so he packed his bags for the trip home.

In their ninth straight appearance in the NCAA tournament, the Terrapins finally went the distance. Before Monday, however, Williams had been a victim of his own success.

Getting into the tournament wasn't good enough for Terps fans anymore. For Maryland, March had become maddening.

"You see other schools are very happy about getting to a Sweet 16," Williams said. "We've had to live for the last couple years with the idea that if you don't win it all, you haven't had a great year, even if you win 25 or 26 games."

Well, this was a great year, by any definition. The best Maryland ever had.

"All little kids have dreamed of being in this situation," sophomore Chris Wilcox said. "It's just unbelievable."

Particularly because of the team's past. After coach Lefty Driesell brought the Terrapins from the depths of the Atlantic Coast Conference to respectability, the cocaine-induced death of Len Bias in 1986 sent the program into a tailspin.

Driesell resigned and his replacement, Bob Wade, went 36-50 before being replaced by Williams in 1989. Williams took the Terps to the NIT in his first season, but he then had to run the program in the wake of severe NCAA sanctions stemming from the Wade era.

"I hate to even think about it, because there was so much doubt about the place of the basketball program at the university," Williams recalled. "We had to work all those things out before we could even think about having a good basketball team."

After a few tough seasons, the Terrapins became regulars in the NCAA tournament. Last year, they reached the Final Four for the first time.

This season, they won it all. But Williams said Tuesday that he didn't feel particularly vindicated.

"I've never coached with the idea that you had to win the national championship to be considered a good coach," he said.

Maryland (32-4) did it behind its three seniors - Juan Dixon, Lonny Baxter and Byron Mouton.

"For our seniors to go out as champions is a great thing," Williams said. "You couldn't ask for a better situation for your seniors to play their last game for the national championship - and win."

The three didn't perform in a fashion that will earn them a place in NCAA championship lore. Dixon, the leading scorer in Maryland history, went more than 20 minutes without a point. Baxter was 3-for-10 from the field in the first half, and Mouton finished with just one basket.

Yet Baxter, limited to only four points in 14 foul-plagued minutes against Kansas on Saturday, finished with 15 points and 14 rebounds.

The 6-foot-8 center took care of the lane, while Dixon worked the perimeter to score 18.

It was a formula that produced 31 wins before Monday night, and a team-record 32nd came against a game but outmanned Indiana team.

"They just made the plays that championship teams make," Hoosiers guard Tom Coverdale said. "You've got to give them credit."

It was a concession that usually comes out of the mouths of the Terrapins.

Not this time.

Now, Maryland can no longer be referred to as the best program never to win a championship. No longer can Williams, now in his 24th season, be called the best coach never to win a title.

It was a long time coming.