Gary Williams - The Axe is Near Pt. 2

Last week, we talked about the media storm that was swirling around Gary Williams and his supposed beef with the athletics department. Long story short, Williams signed, but released, two talented recruits (Gus Gilchrist and Tyree Evans), and last week he and associate AD Kathy Worthington had a (very) public pissing match over who was at fault.

As expected, this only added fuel to the fire that is the speculation Williams could be out of a job come this off-season.

But this story just took another turn. You see, one of the recruits (Evans) that was at the center of this controversy spoke to Mouthpiece Sports, and his interview is quite damning, at least for one side:



The most relevant quote from the interview is here (see the bolded sentences):

It just felt like it wasn’t the place to be. I love the coaches there, even when I see them I talk to them. I call them and see how they’re doing, see how the season’s going …

They believed in me as a player, and as a person. It wasn’t a place for me where I could call home. There were some people who believed in me and there were some people that didn’t believe in me. I just backed out because of my sake. I just felt like that wasn’t the place for me, a place I could call home. I want to be comfortable somewhere. I feel comfortable at Kent State. I feel like this is my home, like this is a thicker family. Not the players and coaches at Maryland, I knew the players and coaches were going to be my family. I'm just talking about the whole Maryland Terrapin environment. I wanted to call the Maryland area my home. I didn't want to have to be watched, and stuff like that. Because I'm a grown man, and all my mistakes were made when I was a young, immature teenager.

Evans never explicitly says that the administration was the reason he left (he definitely implies it, but also makes reference to the media a number of times). What he does do is adamantly defend Gary Williams and the rest of the Terrapin's coaching staff. It is easy to interpret from this interview that Williams was, without a doubt, not the reason Evans decided to withdraw his commitment.