Nov. 18, 2004
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COLLEGE PARK, Md. -
The Maryland basketball team (No. 15 AP/No. 16 USA Today/ESPN) opens its 2004-05 regular-season schedule against Jackson State of the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) in the first-ever meeting between the two schools. The game will air live on Comcast SportsNet, with Steve Buckhantz (play-by-play) and Glenn Consor (color analyst) calling the action.
Prior to tip-off, the Terrapins will lower a banner from the rafters of Comcast Center, commemorating their 2004 ACC Championship. Last season's ACC Tournament title was the third in school history (1958, 1984, 2004) and the first for a Maryland team in 20 years. The Terrapins were just the third team in the history of the ACC to knock off the top three seeds in the conference tournament.
The Terrapins return 11 letterwinners and four starters from what was statistically the youngest team in the nation in 2003-04. ACC Tournament MVP John Gilchrist, who led the Terps in scoring, assists and steals a season ago, has been named to the preseason Naismith, Wooden and Rupp National Player of the Year Award Watch Lists and Dick Vitale's All Rolls Royce Team. Sharpshooter and tenacious defender Chris McCray returns to complete one of the nation's top backcourts, while versatile Nik Caner-Medley and powerful big man Travis Garrison return in the post.
Sophomore forward Ekene Ibekwe rounded out the Terps' starting five in Maryland's two exhibition games -- a 100-85 victory over hot-handed NCAA Division II power Bryant, and an 89-60 win over two-time defending Canadian national champions Carleton University. McCray led five double-figure Terps in scoring across their exhibition schedule, averaging 15.5 points per game while shooting .611 (11-of-18) from the field, .600 from long range and 1.000 from the free throw line. Ibekwe averaged 15.0 ppg and a team-leading 7.5 rebounds, while Garrison (14.0 ppg), Caner-Medley (11.5 ppg, 6.5 rpg) and Gilchrist (10.5 ppg) are in double-digits as well.
Williams is the 16th-winningest active coach in America with an overall record of 522-293. His 315 victories at Maryland places him sixth all-time among the winningest ACC Coaches. Williams was inducted into the greater Washington, D.C., Sports Hall of Champions in the offseason and will be given the University of Maryland's highest alumni honor this spring when he is inducted into the Alumni Hall of Fame.
The Terps are 12-3 in season openers under Williams (9-0 in home openers) and are 101-2 at home against non-conference foes since the Williams Era began in 1989-90.
Jackson State compiled a 12-17 record a season ago, and senior guard Antonio Williams-Parker and senior forward Kelly Ross are among the top returners for Tevester Anderson's Tigers. Williams-Parker scored 14 in a 62-51 Tiger victory over Spring Hill College (Nov. 9) in exhibition action this preseason. The Tigers also defeated VASDA (Nov. 12), 97-74. Senior forward Ernest Hassell scored 24 points with six rebounds in the Jackson State win.
Terp Streaks & Storylines
Last March, head coach Gary Williams led his Terrapins to the 2004 ACC Tournament championship, giving Maryland its first ACC title since 1984. The Terrapins became one of only three teams in ACC Tournament history to knock off the top three seeds when they downed No. 3 Wake Forest (87-86), No. 2 NC State (85-82) and No. 1 Duke (95-87 (ot) en route to an automatic bid and No. 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament. The Terps reached the NCAA Second Round and finished the season with a 20-12 record.
Maryland continued a current school record with a berth in last season's NCAA Tournament. Williams returned to his alma mater in 1989 and has guided the Terrapins to 11 straight NCAA Tournaments since 1994 -- a run that includes seven Sweet Sixteen appearances, Final Four showings in 2001 and 2002, and the 2002 NCAA Championship. Maryland is currently one of only five schools in the nation riding a streak of 11 straight NCAA Tournament appearances.
The young Terrapins of 2004 earned the ACC's automatic berth by winning Maryland's first conference tournament title in 20 years. Maryland was 14-11 (5-9 ACC) on Feb. 28 following a home loss to Wake Forest before reeling off five-straight victories. The Terps won the last two regular-season ACC games vs. Virginia and No. 16/19 NC State and posted the trio of ranked wins in the ACC tourney over the No. 15/14 Demon Deacons, the No. 17/20 Wolfpack and No. 5/4 Duke. In all, Maryland earned seven victories on the season over the Top 25 in 2003-04 -- the most since their school-record national championship run in 2002 (9) -- and played the second-toughest schedule in the nation. The Terps extended a school record of consecutive 20-win seasons to eight (1996-97 to 2003-04), winning six of their last seven games in 2004, and five straight headed into the NCAA Tournament.
Williams owns a career record of 522-293 overall (.640), making him the 16th-winningest active coach in America. He is 315-165 (.656) in 15 seasons as the head coach at Maryland and only six coaches in college basketball history have captured as many victories as the leader of a program in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Williams totals 26 NCAA Tournament victories -- ranking ninth among active coaches -- and is 22-10 at Maryland for a .688 NCAA winning percentage.
As a sophomore, John Gilchrist was the first player to lead the Terps in scoring (15.4 ppg) and assists (5.0 apg) since Walt Williams in the 1990-91 season, and the first point guard to lead Maryland in both categories since John Lucas in the 1973-74 season.
Gilchrist averaged 24.0 points per game, 5.3 rebounds and 6.3 assists through three ACC Tournament games to become Maryland's third-ever tourney MVP (Albert King, 1980; Len Bias, 1984). He shot at a .634 clip from the field and .643 from 3-point range, with incredible efforts against Wake (16 pts, 6 asst, 5 rebs), NC State (30 pts, 7 asst, 4 rebs, 4 stls, 1 TO) and Duke (26 pts, 7 rebs, 6 asst).
Mike Grinnon, the Terps lone scholarship senior in 2004, played key minutes in the Terps' ACC title game vs. Duke, including making 2-of-2 free throws in overtime to help the Terrapins hold on for the victory. Grinnon, the only member of the 2003-04 squad remaining from Maryland's 2002 national championship team, cemented a place of distinction in the Terrapin record books - he is the only player in school history to have won both the NCAA and ACC Tournament titles.
The 2003-04 season marked the second consecutive year the Terps established a new single-season record for home attendance total and per game average. A total of 287,200 spectators for an average of 17,950 fans per game made the trip to Comcast Center in 2003-04. The Terps logged 16 full sellouts in 2003-04 to set another school record. Maryland's home average of 17,950 ranked fifth in the nation for the second straight year.
In August, the 2004 ACC Champs embarked on a 12-day, five-game summer tour of Italy. The Terrapins posted a 3-2 record, averaging 98.6 points per game and a margin of victory of +13.0 ppg, downing a pair of professional Italian teams and posting a landslide victory over world-famous Kiev (Russia). The Terps visited Rome, Florence, Venice and Lake Como, exploring influential centers of culture and art while getting the chance to bond as a team.
On Deck
The Terrapins next meet Mercer on Tuesday, Nov. 23 at 8 p.m. at Comcast Center. The game airs live on Comcast SportsNet.
