Twenty years later, Maryland men’s basketball’s 2004 ACC tournament championship is still impactful to the legacy of the program.
The architect of that victory, former Terps coach Gary Williams, was honored along with many of the players from that team during Maryland’s game against Illinois on Feb. 17.
“We had kind of an up-and-down year. We weren’t real consistent, but we had moments where we were pretty good,” Williams said on Glenn Clark Radio Feb. 16. “We had lost some really key backcourt guys the year before … and whenever you lose your backcourt — that experience, how to play situations, all that comes down to your guards a lot of times. So, I was very concerned with that. But John Gilchrist came on and he was a very strong tough point guard and he obviously had the three best games in his career in the ACC tournament.”
Gilchrist, who earned tournament MVP honors by averaging 24 points per game, carried the Terps to victories against Wake Forest, NC State and Duke. He scored 30 points against NC State in the semifinals and 26 against Duke in the title game.
Travis Garrison, D.J. Strawberry and Mike Grinnon also stepped up in the biggest moments to help lead Maryland to the ACC championship. Grinnon making two key free throws late in overtime was an unexpected development in the ACC title game, however.
“How about that? Mike never shot a pressure free throw until those two free throws and he swished both of those free throws,” Williams said. “And he also guarded JJ Redick the last possession of regulation that Duke had.”
The 95-87 win against Duke gave Maryland the 2004 ACC championship, one of only three ACC tournament titles in program history. While the Terps have had many great teams in the past, ACC championships were hard to come by.
“You look at the history, [in 1958] Maryland won. Bud Millikan was the coach and the league had just been formed. In ’84, Lefty Driesell’s team won. And then we won. That was it in the ACC,” Williams said. “Look at all the good basketball teams that Maryland had during Lefty’s time and my time. The national championship team, Final Four team did not win the ACC tournament. Part of that is that the league is so good. To win three straight [games] three consecutive days is hard.”
Looking back on it, Williams realizes the historical significance of what the 2004 team did.
“Lefty had a lot of success, but to win that tournament, that was something that [had] proven very difficult to do. When he got it, we talked a little bit [about] how important that was,” Williams said. “… You talk to Maryland alumni, a lot of the older alumni back then in 2004, that was as important to them is winning the national championship. It really was.”
Yet time moves on and things change. The game is not the same as when Williams was coaching. In fact, Maryland is not even in the same conference. The Terps made the transition from the ACC to the Big Ten ahead of the 2014-15 school year.
Williams wasn’t critical of Maryland’s move. He understood why the move happened and the financial incentives that came with it. The biggest challenge Williams sees for coaches nowadays comes with NIL and the transfer portal.
“Nowadays, your team is year to year. We had the opportunity during that period to build a program. Very few guys even thought about transferring. Now transferring is looked at as not a negative. It’s what players do. They find out their worth with the NIL and all those things and go into the transfer portal hoping somebody will bid on them,” Williams said. “In other words, transferring is based on a lot of times how much money I can get at another school rather than it’s a better playing situation or the coaching staff I like better.”
While this may be the biggest challenge coaches face, Williams still believes if the right coach is backed by a supportive group of boosters, that coach can be competitive in recruiting and keep players in the program.
Williams has faith that Maryland has the right man at the helm to navigate the current environment in head coach Kevin Willard.
“I think he’s tough enough for the job and that’s important now. The basketball is important, but you have to be tough enough for the job. And I think Kevin can do that,” Williams said. “Plus … he’s young enough where he can wrap around this whole NIL transfer portal process.”
As for the present, the Terps have hit some speed bumps during the 2023-24 season. Williams believes that this is all part of a learning curve for the younger players on the team. Even now, the Terps can show signs of growth that could be advantageous in the future.
“People thought, ‘Well, those freshmen are going to come in and they’re going to play great.’ Well, very few freshmen come in and play great their first year,” Williams said. “It takes time and I think you’re starting to see signs that some of the freshmen at Maryland are starting to play better now. And I think that’s going to be a key down the stretch.”
For more from Williams, listen to the full interview here:
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Maryland Athletics