Dec. 21, 2004
Toys For Tots Night
Your Maryland Men's Basketball team is proud to announce that they will be teaming up with The Toys for Tots Foundation this Holiday season. Prior to this Thursday night's game between the Terrapins and American University, the U.S. Marines will be collecting toy donations for the Toys for Tots Foundation. Maryland basketball encourages all fans to bring toy donations to Thursday's game at the Comcast Center. Collection areas will be located on the North and South entrances on the Plaza level. Come out and cheer on the Terps and help those less fortunate this Holiday season.
American Game Notes in PDF Format
Download Free Acrobat Reader
COLLEGE PARK, Md. - The Maryland men's basketball team (No. 24 AP, No. 21 USA Today/ESPN), which sits in a tie atop the ACC standings after Sunday's conference victory over Florida State, takes on local squad American University on Thursday, Dec. 23 at Comcast Center. Maryland looks to extend its current win streak to three games during its current homestand when the Terps and Eagles clash at 8 p.m. The pre-Christmas contest will be televised live on Comcast SportsNet, with Joe Beninati and Glenn Consor calling the action.
ACC Player of the Week and 2004 Tournament MVP John Gilchrist, who currently leads the Terps in scoring (15.3 points per game), assists (7.3 apg) and steals (22) and is currently tied for the team lead in rebounding (6.4 rpg), 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 (14.3 ppg, .562 FG pct., .958 FT pct.) returns to complete one of the nation's top backcourts, while versatile forward Nik Caner-Medley (13.8 ppg, 4.9 rpg) and powerful big man Travis Garrison (9.8 ppg, 6.4 rpg) return in the post.
Sophomore Ekene Ibekwe has assumed the Terps' fifth starting position, and has proven himself more than capable of handling his share of the inside duties. His average of 10.1 ppg makes him the fourth Terrapin with a double-digit scoring mark on the season, and Ibekwe's 6.3 rebounds per game are third on the squad. His 1.9 rejections per game lead the Terrapins and are tied for fifth in the conference.
Maryland enters into the matchup with its Washington, D.C., opponent after gritting out a 90-88 overtime victory over Florida State in its first ACC contest of the year. Gilchrist was one of several heroes for the Terps, earning his conference player of the week honor after posting a double-double with 21 points and a career-high 13 rebounds. He drained the game-winning free throws with 6.6 seconds to play, added eight assists and committed only two turnovers. Six Terps scored in double-figures for the third time this season (JSU 11/19, GW 12/5), including McCray (14) and Ibekwe (13). Sophomore guard D.J. Strawberry netted five of his 11 points in overtime, making one of his four key steals and adding clutch free throws and a transition dunk. Rookie forward James Gist played a career-high 31 minutes, totaling 11 points, grabbing a career-best seven rebounds and rejecting four shots. Big man Will Bowers tied a career-high with 14 minutes and grabbed a career-best five rebounds, while Mike Jones made the most of his five minutes of action, connecting on a clutch 3-pointer with 47 seconds to play in overtime.
Gary Williams began his head coaching career 26 seasons ago at American University. The Eagles' coach from 1978 to 1982, he led the squad to a 72-42 (.632) record in his four seasons on the bench, the East Coast Conference Championship and a NIT berth with a 24-6 season in 1981 and another postseason NIT appearance in 1982. Williams is now the 14th-winningest active coach in America with an overall record of 528-295. His 321 victories at Maryland place him sixth all-time among ACC coaches.
Terp Streaks & Storylines
The Terps are 104-2 at home against non-conference foes since the Williams Era began in 1989-90, and have currently won 14-straight games at Comcast Center against non-ACC foes.
Maryland has made a significant improvement at the free throw line, leading the 11-team ACC with a .710 mark from the line after finishing ninth (.631) in 2003-04. Junior Chris McCray paces all conference players with a 1.000 (23-for-24) mark from the line.
As a team, the Terps rank among ACC leaders in several statistical categories: rebounding (42.5 rpg, 1st), free throw shooting (.710, 1st), assists (18.5, 2nd), 3-point field goal percentage defense (.292, 2nd), blocked shots (7.1 bpg, 2nd), scoring offense (86.2 ppg, 3rd), field goal percentage defense (.386, 4th), margin of victory (+15.1, 5th) and steals (10.9 spg, 5th).
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, making the Terrapins one of only five teams in the nation riding a streak as long.
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 over the Top 25 in 2003-04 -- the most since its 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 528-295 overall, making him the 14th-winningest active coach in America. He is 321-167 in his 16th season 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).
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 Terps return to action after the Christmas holiday on Dec. 28, when they play host to the Liberty Flames in non-conference action. The first-ever meeting between the two schools will take place at 8 p.m. and will be televised live on the Raycom/Jefferson Pilot Network. The game will air locally on UPN-20 (WDCA) in Washington, D.C., and WB-54 (WNUV) in the Baltimore area.
