March 15, 2004
Complete Release in PDF Format
Download Free Acrobat Reader
"On a national scale there is great recognition of the program that is in place at Maryland and the work they've done. I'm not sure there is anybody playing better basketball than Maryland right now in the entire country."
-- Bob Bowlsby, NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Committee Chair
COLLEGE PARK, Md. -
The 2004 ACC Champion Maryland basketball team (No. 19 AP/No. 21 USA Today/ESPN) makes its 11th-straight NCAA Tournament appearance, playing as the fourth seed against 13th-seeded UTEP in the first round of the Phoenix Regional. The Terrapins, who join only four other schools with as many consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances, take on the Miners in Denver's Pepsi Center on Thursday at 10:40 a.m. MT/12:40 ET.
Maryland (19-11) makes its 21st NCAA appearance overall and its second ever as the No. 4 seed (1998, West Region Semifinals). The Terrapins own a 34-19 record in NCAA Tournament action, having reached the Sweet Sixteen or better in each of the last three seasons and seven times since 1994. The Terrapins enter the 2004 NCAA Tournament on a five-game win streak and fresh from capturing the first ACC Tournament title of the Gary Williams Era - the third in school history (1958, 1984, 2004). Tournament MVP John Gilchrist and All-ACC tourney selection Jamar Smith led the sixth-seeded Terps to wins over No. 3 Wake Forest, No. 2 NC State and No. 1 Duke, marking only the third time in the history of the conference that a team knocked off the top three seeds en route to the tournament championship.
The Miners (24-7) make their first NCAA showing since 1992 and their 15th in school history. UTEP, formerly Texas Western, captured the national championship in 1966 - when the Final Four was played on Maryland's campus at Cole Field House.
Terp Streaks & Storylines
Maryland continues a current school record with a berth in the 2004 NCAA Tournament. Head coach Gary 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 earned the ACC's automatic berth by winning Maryland's first conference tournament title since 1984. Maryland was 14-11 (5-9 ACC) on Feb. 28 following a home loss to Wake Forest before reeling off five-straight victories - in the last two regular-season ACC games vs. Virginia and No. 16/19 NC State and posting 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 has earned seven victories on the season over the Top 25 - the most since their school-record national championship run in 2002 (9) - and owns an RPI of 18 and played the third-toughest schedule in the nation. The Terps have won six of their last seven.
Williams owns a career record of 521-292 overall (.641), making him the 16th-winningest active coach in America. He is 314-164 (.657) 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 25 NCAA Tournament victories - ranking ninth among active coaches - and is 21-9 at Maryland for a .700 winning percentage after once again leading the Terps to the Sweet Sixteen last season.
Maryland's roster features a combined nine freshmen and sophomores, two juniors and lone senior Jamar Smith. The Terp freshman and sophomores have combined to start 114 games - the most of any team in the ACC.
The 2003-04 Maryland squad appears to be the youngest Williams has coached since the 1993-94 season. That year, with a five-man freshman class that included Keith Booth, Joe Smith and current Terp assistant coach Matt Kovarik, the Terps posted an 18-12 record en route to the Terps' first Sweet Sixteen appearance of the Williams era. The 1994 NCAA Tournament appearance was the first of Maryland's current streak of 11 straight. The 1993-94 Terps posted an 8-8 ACC record.
Sophomore John Gilchrist looks to become the first player to lead the Terps in scoring and assists 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).
Smith, the Terps' lone senior, finished the regular-season second in the ACC in rebounding (8.9 rpg) and double-doubles (11). The Terps' third-leading scorer at 12.9 ppg, he has increased his production from last season by 7.0 ppg - good enough for third among ACC players. He ranks among league leaders in blocked shots and field goal percentage, and was a first team All-ACC Tourney selection with three-day averages of 19.7 ppg and 8.0 rpg.
The ACC Tournament champion Terrapins jumped back into the national Top 25 on March 15, earning their highest rankings of the year at No. 19 in the AP and No. 21 in the coaches poll. Maryland had been ranked in 77-consecutive AP polls prior to the start of the 2003-04 season, and made a two-week mid-December appearance before climbing back in on Monday.
Maryland looks to further a current school-record streak of 20-win seasons to eight with its next victory.
The Terrapins have squared off with UTEP twice in school history (0-2), both before Williams' return to his alma mater for the 1989-90 season. The Terps fell in the Sun Carnival Tournament in 1967, and again in 1988 at the Sun Bowl Tournament.
On Deck
A victory would earn Maryland a matchup with either the No. 5-seeded Syracuse Orangemen (21-7, 11-5 BIG EAST), the defending national champions, or the 12th-seeded BYU Cougars (21-8, 10-4 Mountain West).
