Jan. 13, 2005
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COLLEGE PARK, Md. -
The Maryland men's basketball team looks to get back to its winning ways as the Terps return home to play host to Temple and Hall of Fame head coach John Chaney on Saturday. The Terrapins return to the friendly confines of Comcast Center for their final non-conference game of the season at 2 p.m. on ESPN2. Mike Patrick and Len Elmore -- Maryland's all-time leading rebounder (1,053) -- call the action. Elmore is a 1978 graduate of the University of Maryland (English) and is the only player in school history to amass more than 1,000 career points and 1,000 career rebounds. He is one of 15 Terrapin players to have his number honored in the Comcast Center rafters.
Two of the country's most prominent head coaches -- the Terps' Gary Williams and the Owls' Chaney -- meet for the fourth time in history on Saturday, with Williams holding a 2-1 advantage. The Terrapins downed the Owls, 83-66 in 1998 at the Baltimore Arena, and posted an 82-74 victory at Madison Square Garden in 1998 as a part of the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic. Chaney's Owls topped the Terrapins, 73-65, during the 1999-2000 season at Temple's Liacouras Center in Philadelphia. Chaney, who boasts 714 Division I coaching victories, and Williams, who owns 531, are among the winningest basketball coaches in the game with a combined 1,245 victories. Overall, the Maryland-Temple series dates to 1948 and is tied 3-3.
John Gilchrist has averaged 18.0 points, 5.0 rebounds, 4.6 assists and 1.3 steals over the last eight games, all while shooting 56 percent from the field and hitting at a 48 percent mark from long-range. He currently ranks in the Top 10 among ACC players in assists (3rd, 5.8 apg), assist-to-turnover ratio (2nd, 2.1), steals (T-4th, 27) and field goal percentage (T-10th, .500), and is 12th in the league in scoring at 15.4 ppg. Gilchrist, a preseason Naismith and Wooden All-American, is currently third on the squad in rebounding (5.3 rpg, 21st in the ACC).
Sharpshooter and tenacious defender Chris McCray (12.5 ppg, .484 FG pct., .909 FT pct.) completes one of the nation's top backcourts. Versatile forward Nik Caner-Medley (14.9 ppg, 4.9 rpg, .500 FG pct., .750 FT pct.) has benefited from improved physical conditioning in the offseason, and powerful big man Travis Garrison (10.5 ppg, 6.5 rpg) continues to put up solid numbers in the post.
Sophomore Ekene Ibekwe has assumed the Terps' fifth starting position, and is averaging 8.8 ppg as one of five Terrapins close to double-figures all year. Ibekwe's 7.1 rebounds per game lead the squad and rank 10th among ACC players. His 2.0 blocks per game average is a team-best and rates fourth in the league.
Caner-Medley led the Terrapins on Saturday with 21 points, six rebounds and three steals in an 81-66 loss at Wake Forest. The Terrapins, who at one point were down by 29 points, mounted a second-half comeback to reduce their deficit to 13 points, but could not overcome their second-straight Top 5 ACC opponent on the road. Ibekwe contributed a team-high seven rebounds to go along with nine points, and Mike Jones added nine for the Terrapins off the bench.
Terp Streaks & Storylines
The Terps are 108-2 at home against non-conference opponents since the Williams Era began in 1989-90, and have currently won 18-straight games at Comcast Center against non-ACC foes.
Head coach Gary Williams was named one of Washingtonian Magazine's "Washingtonians of the Year" for 2004 in the publication's January, 2005, issue. He joins 16 others on the list, including D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams, who recently brought Major League Baseball back to the nation's capital, and Tim Russert of NBC's Meet the Press. Williams was inducted as part of the inaugural class in the Washington, D.C., Sports Hall of Champions this past September, and will be inducted into the University of Maryland's Alumni Hall of Fame in the spring, receiving the university's greatest alumni honor.
Williams owns a career record of 531-297 overall, making him the 14th-winningest active coach in America. He is 324-169 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.
Williams is only two wins away from tying former Virginia head coach Terry Holland as the fifth-winningest ACC basketball coach in history. Holland totaled 326 wins as the Cavaliers' mentor from 1974 to 1990.
The Terrapins look to regroup after coming off the toughest ACC road trip in 17 seasons. The Terps' daunting task of facing No. 3 North Carolina and No. 4 Wake Forest consecutively on the road had not been equaled since Georgia Tech played at No. 3 UNC on Jan. 30, 1988, and at No. 4 Duke on four days later.
At 85.4 points per game, the Terrapins own one of the most potent scoring offenses in the nation. At the time of the last national ranking (Jan. 10), the Terps trailed only North Carolina and Washington in terms of scoring output.
As a team, the Terps rank among ACC leaders in several statistical categories: rebounding (43.2 rpg, 1st), scoring offense (85.4 ppg, 2nd), free throw percentage (.701, 3rd), blocked shots (6.8 bpg, 3rd), assists (16.9, 3rd), , 3-point field goal percentage defense (.321, 3rd), field goal percentage defense (.401, 4th), steals (11.0 spg, 4th) and turnover margin (+3.85, 4th).
Maryland has made a significant improvement at the free throw line, ranking third in the 11-team ACC with a .701 mark from the line after finishing ninth (.631) in 2003-04. Chris McCray is tied for ninth in the nation and second in the league with a .909 (30-for-33) mark from the line.
Last March, 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 NCAAs since 1994, making the Terrapins one of only five teams in the nation -- and the only school in the ACC -- riding a streak as long.
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
A pair of home conference games follow for the Terps, with Virginia visiting on Jan. 19 (9 p.m., RJ) and NC State making the trip on Jan. 23 (6 p.m., FSN).
