10Basketoall 1988-89Friday. November 18, 1988
Terns
Wade looks to p'ocB
n.
up pneces
By MARK ANDERSON
Staff Writer
The Maryland Terrapin program
fell and feli hard. But they hired a
miracle worker and he began the
resurrection. Last year, he returned
Maryland to the promised land and
lost only two players to graduation.
So why are the Terrapins picked to
return to the ACC cellar?
That's just one more in a long list
of mysteries surrounding head coach
Bob Wade.
After the program suffered
through the Len Bias drug scandal,
Maryland needed someone to clea
nup the mess left by Lefty Driesell.
Dipping into the high school ranks,
they couldn't have found anyone with
better credentials than Bob Wade.
In II years at Dunbar High School
in Baltimore, he won nine state
championships and claimed three No.
I national rankings. While compiling
an overall record of 272-24 (.919), his
teams from 1981-85 went 119-1.
Thirty-six of his players have gone
on to play major college ball
including Reggie Williams, David
Wingate and Mugsy Bogues.
On the wave of the scandal. Wade
suffered through a 9-17 record in his
first year, including 0-14 in the ACC.
However, he immediately began
righting the program by bringing in
Brian Williams, one of the most
highly recruited big men in the
country. -
Last year, behind Williams, Keith
Gatlin and Derrick Lewis, Wade led
the team to a fifth place ACC finish,
an 18-13 record and a NCAA bid.
The program seemed back on track
toward regaining its spot as an ACC
powerhouse.
However, the undercurrent of
discontent that has surrounded
Wade's tenure began to surface. The
media and fans had been criticizing
Wade's bench coaching since he
began. But now the players were
demonstrating their unhappiness.
causing Wade to lose six of his top
seven scorers.
Besides losing Lewis and Gatlin to
,
Winter Colors De Benetton.
No. Name Pos.
23 '"Dave Dickerson F
21 '"John Johnson G
5 "Mitch Kasoff G
43 Xedric Lewis F .
14 Jesse Martin G
25 "Tony Massenburg F
32 Jerrod Mustaf ... . F-C
22 '"Greg Nared ......... G
42 Walt Williams F
'Denotes Letters Won
Head Coach
Bob Wade (Morgan State, 1967)
Assistants
Ron Bradiey (Eastern Nazarene, 1973)
Jeff Adkins (Maryland, 1985)
Ralph Lee (Xavier, 1986)
graduation, Rodney Walker will not
play, Mark Karver transferred to
George Washington and Steve Hood
took his 7.8 points and 2.5 rebounds
a game to join Driesell at James
Madison. Hood started 21 games, but
found himself in Wade's doghouse
during the latter half of the season.
But the biggest defection was
Williams' surprise decision to return
home to California and attend Ariz
ona. A starter in all 29 games he
played as a freshman, Williams
averaged 12.5 points and six
rebounds per game. More impor
tantly, he was the Terrapins' foun
dation for the future.
Williams' choice was so mysterious
that the ACC Basketball Handbook
spent three pages discussing it and
still couldn't reach a concrete conclu
sion. Williams eventually came out
and said that he "had philosophical
differences' with Wade and "wasn't
developing enough" as a player.
Wade strongly disputed Williams'
charges.
"I thought, and a lot of other
people thought, that Brian grew with
every game we played," Wade said.
"By the last game of the year against
Kentucky he outplayed Leron Ellis,
who was the most heralded player
coming out of high school last year,
and he outplayed Kentucky senior
Robert Lock.
Wgt Year Hometown
200 Sr. Olar, S.C.
170 Sr. Knoxville, Tenn.
175 Jr. Pikesville, Md.
200 So. Temple Hills. Md.
190 Fr. Roxbury, Mass.
230 Jr. Sussex, Va.
225 Fr. GreenbelL Md.
190 Sr. Wilmington, Ohio
190 Fr. Temple Hills, Md.
"I thought he had as good a
freshman year as J.R. Reid or Sam
Ivy."
Because he transferred, Williams
will sit out a season and will now
come out in the same class with
Georgetown's Alonzo Mourning and
Syracuse's Billy Owens.
"I was shocked when Brian said
he wanted to leave," Wade said. wHe
had a very good future at Maryland
and in the ACC, which is one of the
best conferences in the country.
"We tried to tell him he was going
to be a featured player in a great
league for three more years. Had he
stayed and finished with his class, in
our opinion, he would have been in
a great position to be one of the top
seven players coming out of college
his senior year."
Wade admitted that the program
was in "rough" shape after Williams'
decision. That sea only became
rougher when senior Rudy Archer
was ruled academically ineligible. The
former junior college All-American
averaged 12.7 points and 5.5 assists,
which would have made him the
Terps' leading returnee in both
catagories. Wade was counting on
Archer to lead the team this year from
the point guard spot.
Teyon McCoy, the other expe
rienced guard, decided to redshirt this
season, despite being expected to take
Hgt.
6-6
6-4
6-1
6-9
6-4
6-9
6-10
6-4
6-8
LaSJuLirEKSATOS
over for Archer, This leaves . no
natural point guard for Wade.
Another senior, John Johnson,
who Wade is counting on for lead
ership, also expressed displeasure
during the offseason.
"A lot of people didn't do as well
as everybody thought they would last
year," Johnson said. "I think we
expected to have a better season than
we did. I was just a lack of commun
ication between Coach Wade and the
team. We didn know our roles as
players. Some people didn't know if
they were supposed to shoot or not."
In the midst of this, Wade still
managed to pull in what most say
is the second best recruiting class in
the ACC. His connections helped him
recruit 6-10, 225-pound Jerrod Mus
taf and 6-8, 190-pound Walt Willi
ams, both from the Washington D.C.
area. He also landed 6-4 Jesse Martin
from Massachusetts.
Mustaf averaged 22 points, 15
rebounds and four blocks a game in
helping DeMatha win the Washing
ton city high school championship.
He made nearly every high school All
America team.
Wade has said that Mustaf can play
all five positions on the court, hit the
15-foot shot and has good inside
strength and vision.
"Jerrod's a very gifted young man,"
Wade said. "He gives us tremendous
versatility. He can play with his back
to the basket and facing it, and he
can run and put the ball on the floor
like a point guard. I'd say he's in the
mold of a Danny Manning."
Wade also had high praise for
Williams, who turned down North
Carolina to stay close to home.
"He's a Reggie Williams type,"
Wade said. "When the game is over
you don't realize he has scored 25
points and has 10 rebounds because
he is very quiet, like Reggie. He passes
well and is able to get his shot off
in a crowd."
In his senior year, Walt Williams
averaged 22 points, 10 rebounds, five
assists, five blocks, and four steals a
game. That was good enough to earn
him Washington's Metro Player of
the Year over Mustaf, according to
two publications.
"IVe seen him bring the ball down
the floor, fill the lane, and play with
his back to the basket," Wade said.
"He gives us a lot of versatility at
the small forward and shooting guard
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spots where we needed some help."
Maryland's success will hinge on
the play of the freshmen, who Wade
feels can have an immediate impact,
and the rediscovery of several players
who became lost in the shuffle last
year.
With the loss of Archer and
McCoy, inexperienced senior Greg
Nared will take over the point guard
spot. Nared played only 3.4 minutes
a game last year, averaging less than
a point a game and shooting 18
percent from the field. He has yet to
prove that he can play college ball.
This shifting leaves the shooting
guard spot to Johnson. Last year,
Johnson lost his former starting spot
.
and saw his playing time plummet to
just 8.1 minutes a game.
Freshman Martin will provide
backup, along with junior Mitch
Kasoff. Martin averaged 19 points,
13 rebounds and four assists his
senior year. However, he played
mainly with his back to the basket,
which could slow his transition.
Senior Dave Dickerson will prob
ably start at small forward, but look
r twMi: i L i r i ;
ior wiiiiams 10 see a ioi oi piaying
time. The 6-6 Dickerson started all
26 games two years ago, averaging
8.3 points and 5.6 rebounds. Last
year, he started only six games and
fell to 4.5 points (still making him
the second-leading returning scorer)
and 2.1 rebounds, but did shoot 54.5
percent from three-point range.
Dickerson, a captain, said, "We
don't want to look back and dwell
on the ups and downs that weVe had
as a team. We want to put that behind
us and work on improving ourselves
for this year."
In the middle of this chaos, junior
Tony Massenburg stands as the lone
constant. The 6-9 Massenburg will
play either center or power forward,
depending on Mustaf s development.
Wherever he plays, Wade can count
on a quality year.
Massenburg became eligible in the
second semester last year and scored
25 points against South Carolina in
his first game. A power player with
20-foot range, he went on to average
10.1 points and 5.3 rebounds per
game.
See MARYLAND page 18
SOUTH SQUAREMALL
.