Lonny Baxter was recently announced as part of the 2024 Maryland Athletics Hall of Fame class, which doesn’t come as much of a surprise considering his credentials.
Baxter did it all at Maryland, winning a national championship and earning NCAA Tournament regional MVP honors twice. The former 6-foot-8, 260-pound center is seventh in program history in scoring, second in rebounding and sixth in blocked shots.
However, the biggest moment for the group that went on to win the national title in 2002 came in a loss, according to Baxter. The Terps entered the 2000-01 season looking to break through in postseason play after not making it past the Sweet 16 in any of the tournament runs in the previous seven years.
A big March run was the furthest thing from any observer’s mind after Maryland lost five of six contests from late January to mid-February. The final loss was a 74-71 decision on Valentine’s Day against a Florida State team that finished the season 9-21 overall.
The Terps, though, won their final five regular-season games and made it to the Final Four, setting the stage for a national championship the next year. That started against the Seminoles, according to Baxter.
“We were getting booed at home. It was really a [transformational] moment for us. It was kind of a dark period,” Baxter said on Glenn Clark Radio Aug. 6. “I remember how sad a couple guys were. We just went through a little transformation there, and things turned around for us. The next thing you know, we’re playing in the Final Four. But that was definitely one of the defining moments for us. That’s taught me a lot in my life dealing with the adversity I’ve dealt with in my life, always being able to bounce back from certain situations. It’s just something that I’ll never forget.”
The players who brought Maryland to back-to-back Final Fours are forever etched in Terps lore: Baxter, Steve Blake, Juan Dixon, Tahj Holden, Byron Mouton, Drew Nicholas and Chris Wilcox, among others. They were coached by Naismith Hall of Famer Gary Williams, who led Maryland from 1989-2010.
Baxter highlighted Williams’ contributions in bringing the Terps to the mountaintop.
“He didn’t always have the best talent, the big names, but he got the best out of his players no matter who it was — guys like myself, Juan Dixon, we were unknown coming into Maryland,” Baxter said. “Nobody knew who Greivis Vasquez was before he went to Maryland. He was just able to bring the best out of all of his players. He’s just one of those guys that has it. He’s just able to do more with less — his intensity, his fierceness, his competitiveness was just something that transferred to his players at the highest level.”
A native of Silver Spring, Baxter graduated from Anacostia High School in D.C. in 1997, attended Hargrave Military Academy in Chatham, Va., for a year and then arrived in College Park in 1998. He grew up watching Terps legends like Keith Booth, Exree Hipp, Johnny Rhodes, Duane Simpkins and Joe Smith and wanted to follow in their footsteps.
Safe to say he pulled it off.
“I remember watching them and I was like, ‘I want to play like those guys.’ From that moment on, I knew that I wanted to attend Maryland,” Baxter said. “For me, it was always Maryland from Day 1. My recruitment process, when I first talked to Gary Williams I was like, ‘I want to be there.’ Since then, it’s been a dream.”
Baxter will enter the Maryland Athletics Hall of Fame with Patty Corson Robbins (women’s swimming), Jill Fisher-Galli (gymnastics), Patrick Mullins (men’s soccer), Katie Schwarzmann (women’s lacrosse), Alyssa Thomas (women’s basketball), Autumn Welsh Kelly (field hockey) and Lee Zink (men’s lacrosse).
Baxter will join former teammates Blake and Dixon in the Hall of Fame. The induction ceremony will be held at the College Park Marriott Hotel & Conference Center on Oct. 18.
“It’s unbelievable. I’m still in shock. I’m still in awe,” Baxter said. “When Damon Evans … and Gary Williams called me — and we had a Zoom call a couple months ago — I was just ecstatic. Being from this area, as a kid looking up to the program wanting to be there, all this is just a dream come true.”
For more from Baxter, listen to the full interview here:
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Maryland Athletics