Coach Gary Williams

Two members of the state university system's Board of Regents yesterday urged an end to the "unhealthy" infighting between Maryland men's basketball coach Gary Williams and athletic department managers over two former recruits. One board member called the public bickering a "fiasco." Another said flatly, "It just needs to stop." "This stuff has got to get settled because it's hurting everybody," said Tom McMillen, a regent who served in Congress after playing basketball at Maryland and in the NBA. "It's very unhealthy to see these kinds of struggles get into the paper," said McMillen, who frequently attends Terrapins games.

A couple of days after the Terps' latest loss, there's one sentence uttered by Maryland men's basketball coach Gary Williams that just won't go away. "If we continue to play the way we played tonight," Williams told reporters after the Terps' overtime loss to Virginia Tech, "we'll be fine." Georgia Tech @Maryland Tomorrow, 9 p.m., Ch. 54, 1300 AM, 105.7 FM

COLLEGE PARK -- When Maryland forward Landon Milbourne walked into coach Gary Williams' office this past spring, Williams braced himself for the bad news. After a season in which Milbourne averaged 4.8 minutes and was stuck behind former starter D.J. Strawberry, Williams said he thought Milbourne had come to tell him he wanted to transfer. Instead, Milbourne came seeking "any kind of advice, anything he would tell me to make my situation better, just to show him I was interested. I really wanted to play," he said.

COLLEGE PARK -- With Steve Francis departing for the NBA as expected, Maryland will be minus half of the 12 scholarship players it used this season, but coach Gary Williams expects to make a run at a seventh straight bid in the NCAA tournament in 2000."

DURHAM, N.C. -- College basketball teams often reflect the personalities of their coaches. As usual, Duke appears poised and determined. As usual, Maryland is flirting with a late-season meltdown.Another embarrassing loss to Duke tonight, and coach Gary Williams again will face the haunting questions about his ability to hold a team together, his ability to lead Maryland to its first Final Four.If it's February, the Terps must be reeling. A strong performance tonight would diminish the impact of Sunday's stunning loss at Wake Forest.

The recruiting war ended before it even got started.Now the bidding from the major Hollywood studios can begin.Tamir Goodman, a skinny, red-headed Orthodox Jew, is going to play basketball at the University of Maryland."

COLLEGE PARK -- The new guard's name is Steve, and his basketball teams experienced defeat once in the past two seasons. He has a variety of offensive skills, but he's most comfortable running the point and setting up others. He comes to Maryland well-traveled and highly touted, with a reputation that he backs down from no one.Unlike Steve Francis, however, Steve Blake doesn't figure to leave Terps fans futilely asking for more next spring.Francis left for the NBA after one intense season in the Atlantic Coast Conference, but how's this prospect for stability?

BASKETBALL FANS in this state owe a debt of gratitude to the University of Maryland men's team. While the pros canceled the first half of their season (and some aren't sure the Washington team has yet showed up), the Terrapins excited area basketball followers with some of the best college play anywhere. The team made it to the vaunted "Sweet 16" of the post-season, one of only a handful of schools to do so consistently the last several seasons.The Terps learned the hard way, however, that winning breeds greater expectations.

COLLEGE PARK -- Virginia is weak, and Maryland is mad.The Terps play their first road game in the Atlantic Coast Conference at 8 tonight at University Hall in Charlottesville, Va., and the outmanned Cavaliers are a fine target for a team looking to vent the frustration that built up during Sunday's sorry 18-point loss to Duke.Both teams are coming off losses that were the product of faulty offensive execution, and that's where the similarity ends.Virginia (9-5, 0-2), down to six healthy scholarship players, will need all of first-year coach Pete Gillen's wisecracks in what should be its second straight season at the bottom of the ACC.No.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Maryland coach Gary Williams said that the technical foul he was assessed with 3: 38 left in the first half yesterday was for defending the right of his bench players to stand up and cheer.Frank Scagliotta penalized Williams for coming out of the coach's box."We were warned about jumping up and down after we had scored," Williams said. "Geez, I thought we were at a basketball game. I'd like to see the kids be allowed to show their emotion. I know this is big time, I know this is a big game, but I've been in a lot of big conferences.

Misdemeanor assault and breach-of-peace charges against Jordan Williams, Maryland's 6-foot-10, 245-pound basketball freshman, were dropped Monday in court in Bantam, Conn. Williams, 18, and four other young people had been arrested last month after an altercation among themselves outside a mall in Williams' hometown of Torrington. "We're happy this has been resolved," Maryland coach Gary Williams said in a statement. "Jordan is an outstanding person and a student-athlete who is a great representative of our basketball team."

Jordan Williams, the University of Maryland's prize 6-foot-10, 245-pound basketball freshman, is due in court next week to answer assault charges in his hometown of Torrington, Conn. Williams and four other defendants, all between the ages of 16 and 19, are charged with both third-degree assault - an "A" misdemeanor - and breach of peace in connection with an incident that occurred at an area mall near midnight Aug. 8. Torrington police offered no details, saying warrants are sealed. An unidentified person who answered the phone at the Williamses' home in Torrington said the family had no comment.

KANSAS CITY, MO. -Moments after Maryland's 17-point loss at North Carolina on Feb. 3, coach Gary Williams privately challenged his players. In the locker room of the Dean E. Smith Center, Williams put in writing his belief that the Terrapins would beat the Tar Heels in the rematch at Comcast Center. Then he asked his players to do the same. "Whoever else believed, needed to sign their name," junior guard Eric Hayes said. All the Terrapins scrawled their names on the board. Eighteen days later, they rallied from 16 points down and beat then-No.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -The day before the Maryland men's basketball team began NCAA tournament play, it held a public practice at Sprint Center. With a couple of hundred fans looking on, the atmosphere was loose and informal, and coach Gary Williams spent most of his time chatting with acquaintances. This would never be mistaken for a real practice, evidenced particularly well when Williams called over his lone senior, Dave Neal, and the two exchanged a few friendly words and shared a laugh.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -It was the night of Jan. 31, and Eric Hayes was being tactful. But it wasn't easy. Maryland's earnest guard, the son of a high school basketball coach, seemed dazed as he sat at his locker contemplating the first game of the season in which he didn't start. "It just may take a little while to get used to that," the junior said delicately. Armed with six weeks of hindsight, Hayes and the Terrapins no longer need to tiptoe around the subject of his not starting. Coach Gary Williams' move to replace Hayes with freshman Sean Mosley is widely seen as an important component of Maryland's late-season push toward an NCAA tournament berth.

COLLEGE PARK -On a brisk evening, as rain soaked the ground and a mist masked the horizon, a breeze passed through campus. It seemed to touch everyone. "It was one of the best moments of my life," said junior guard Greivis Vasquez, who's prone to extremes but didn't seem to be overstating his emotions this time. "Once I saw Maryland get up there, I threw my clipboard down, jumped up and screamed as loud as I could," said Dave Neal, the team's emotional backbone and lone senior. "It was a great feeling for me," coach Gary Williams said.

ATLANTA -The Maryland men's basketball team filed out of the Georgia Dome dejected. Reaching the semifinals of the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament was no consolation. "I don't feel good at all. I'm a winner," junior guard Greivis Vasquez said after the Terps' 67-61 loss to Duke yesterday. "I wanted to win the whole tournament." The disappointment is understandable, but the team returned to College Park last night with a couple of things Maryland hasn't had lately on Selection Sunday: hope and a reasonable expectation that it will be included in the 65-team NCAA tournament field.

ATLANTA -Steve Bisciotti is talking Maryland basketball. He's offering a statistical argument for why the Terrapins under coach Gary Williams should be considered the third-best Atlantic Coast Conference team behind North Carolina and Duke the past 10 years. The way he talks - passionately, his voice rising - it's clear that Bisciotti, besides owning the Ravens, is about as devout a Terps fan as there is. But it's more than that. Bisciotti, who planned to watch the Terps in the ACC tournament here tonight, has also become a confidant and important ally of Williams.

COLLEGE PARK -The chants began before the Miami game Jan. 31. "We love Gary," fans at Comcast Center shouted. "Gary, Gary, Gary." Maryland coach Gary Williams has long had a sizable fan base. Since the coach's highly publicized infighting with the athletic department last month over two former recruits, his supporters - as well as his critics - have grown increasingly vocal in public forums such as message groups, blogs and talk radio. Today's Virginia Tech game presents another opportunity for fans to vent - louder than usual - their strongly held feelings about the coach.

Maryland basketball coach Gary Williams received a ringing endorsement from the school's athletic director on the eve of the Terps' Atlantic Coast Conference road game against No. 3 North Carolina. Debbie Yow, who has been coping with the loss of her sister Kay, the highly respected North Carolina State women's basketball coach, who died of cancer Jan. 24, said yesterday that she wanted to address "crazy rumors that are floating around related to the job security of Coach Williams." Williams was in a sharp exchange with the athletic department last week over the loss of two recruits just as Maryland (14-7, 3-4)