The Terps are Back

Gary Williams is a bad motherfucker. After being left for dead earlier in the season by Kathy Worthington, the Washington Post, the internet message boards, Mumpkins, the scrillas, and various other asundry entities, Coach Gary Williams turned the season around and used every bit of his coaching juices to gain his 13th NCAA Tournament bid as the head coach of the Maryland Terrapins.

It was clinched with the team's third win over a top ten team on the season in Friday's double digit win over Wake Forest in Atlanta in the ACC Tournament. Admittedly, despite nearly knocking off the Deacs a week earlier in College Park, I gave the Terps little chance to win that game. And that's where Coach Gary Williams made me look foolish yet again.

The Terps were staring down a fourth NIT appearance in five seasons just a week ago after their loss at Virginia, but now a few days later the Terps are going back to the Big Dance for the second time in three years. That invitation also guarantees Coach Gary Williams another year at the end of his contract, extending it through the 2013 season. Thank God for that.

But that's not the end of it. Oh no. God has decided to smile on this program for once. Lance Stephenson, a top 5 recruit out of New York City, is strongly considering becoming a Terp next season. Now, everyone that reads this blog already knows him as simply Born Ready. He's already a NYC legend, one who would team with Greivis Vasquez in the backcourt to make next season's edition of the Terps a legitimate Final Four contender.

Born Ready is down to Kansas, Maryland, and the hometown school Saint John's, with the Terps maybe, perhaps holding a slight lead over Kansas with SJU a distant third. If Stephenson were to committ to Maryland in the next few weeks, it would, combined with the recent tournament berth, almost guarantee that Coach Gary Williams' career ends happily. That's the most important thing. Coach Gary Williams has thrown it back in the faces of the haters. Suck on that.