Rebuilding Process Begins at Maryland Under Williams

There was a symbolism of sorts to the reconstruction and refurbishing that began recently in the basketball offices at the University of Maryland, symbolic not only because the Terrapins are in the midst of starting a new season, but because they are also starting a new era.

New Coach Gary Williams already has put his stamp on a team that finished 9-20 last season under former coach Bob Wade, but the ink has yet to dry.

The kind of team Williams hopes Maryland will become in the months ahead is much the same as the teams he has had during the past 11 years at Ohio State, Boston College and American University--hard-nosed overachievers with a passion for defense and a penchant for upsets.

“They’ve worked hard. That’s all you can ask for,” said Williams, 44, a Maryland alum. “They’ve shown some improvement (since the start of practice) in terms of intensity. If we’re going to be competitive this year, we’re going to have to work as hard, or harder, than any other team we play.”

The legacy Williams inherited when he took the job in June, a month after Wade was forced to resign, was that of a team that often played down to the level of the competition when it came to weaker, non-conference opponents and rarely won a game it wasn’t supposed to.

Though Maryland has more talent left over than when Wade came in four seasons ago, this year’s team is not typical of the ones Williams has coached in the past.

“Our teams have been more guard-oriented,” said Williams, who played the point for three years at Maryland during the mid-1960s. “This year, the predominance of our talent is in the frontcourt.”

Junior point guard Teyon McCoy is a good long-range shooter, but he does not penetrate the way Michael Adams did at Boston College or Jay Burson did at Ohio State. Sophomore forward Jerrod Mustaf, who added 20 pounds of muscle over the summer, still has a habit of pulling up from 17 feet rather than clearing a path for himself to the basket.

Sophomore swingman Walt Williams, 6-foot-8, certainly the most flexible player on the team, has yet to figure out if he’s a forward who can shoot outside or a guard who can climb for back-door dunks. And senior forward Tony Massenburg, once he returns from his two-game penalty for selling Atlantic Coast Conference tournament tickets, has to become for Maryland what Tom Hammonds used to be for Georgia Tech.

In a word, consistent. The same can be said for Maryland.

“We’re going to have to keep getting better,” said Massenburg, who, along with reserve forward Rodney Walker, is expected to return Tuesday. “We can’t slip back, like we did last year. Coach Williams won’t allow it.”

Williams won’t allow a lot of things. When sophomore guard Jesse Martin started missing classes during the preseason, Williams suspended him indefinitely--the suspension was lifted Wednesday--despite a lack of backcourt players with any college experience.

When the Terps started feeling cocky last week after beating a weak Venezuelan National team by 32 points, Williams quickly brought them back to reality. Though pleased with the improvement his players had shown from their first exhibition game, Williams wore a pained look the next day.

“I do get on edge,” he said. “You can’t afford to waste a day.”

But what Williams will allow, and even encourage, is for the Terps to run and shoot and not look over their shoulders. That kind of attitude already has paid off in the improved play of junior center Cedric Lewis and in the confidence McCoy displayed in the first exhibition game.

“A lot of the players seem more relaxed,” said McCoy, who has missed much of the last two weeks with a pulled groin muscle. “They don’t have the pressure that was on them before. Coach Williams tells us, ‘You’re going to make mistakes, but the important thing is to learn from them.’ ”

Said Lewis: “Coach Williams gives us a lot of confidence. He says, ‘There’s nothing you can’t do if you work at it.’ ”

It doesn’t mean the Terps will challenge North Carolina and Duke for the ACC championship. It could mean that Maryland might surprise some teams along the way.

“People have to be realistic,” said Williams. “We won one game in the ACC last year and were picked to finish last this year. If we keep everyone healthy, which we haven’t been able to do so far, that will help us.”

Williams has refused to make predictions, for he is not quite sure how much talent his players have, and how much of themselves they will leave on the court.

“I don’t know how good we are,” he said.

So, for now there are no grand dreams, just little ones. In time, they will grow as the Maryland basketball program, like the offices upstairs, is reconstructed and refurbished under the watchful eye of Gary Williams.