I refuse to believe this is true! doh
From DBR
When Duke shocked UNLV in 1991, the Rebels were fond of a gambler's saying: it's not the winning, it's the collecting. For Duke, while beating Maryland is satisfying, what always follows is just as interesting: the reaction of Terps fans and, at times, Gary Williams.
We've made it a point to distinguish between Terp players, who generally are admirable, hardworking kids, and some lunatic Maryland fans. We've also learned to compartmentalize Gary Williams to an extent, admiring his urge to compete and to spot his kind of player on the one hand while being appalled by his personal behavior on the other.
Wednesday's game was a case in point. In his column, Gregg Doyel alluded to Williams' courtside performance, saying that "so with time running out Wednesday night on Maryland, Terps coach Gary Williams yelled at the Duke crowd -- winding up his arm and thrusting it as he mentioned their mothers in an impolite way."
He also says that "[o]n the Maryland bench, Gary Williams grew more and more frustrated. At one point he threw his pen into the chest of a startled team manager."
Apparently the calmer Gary Williams of last year, the reinvented Gary, has been put out to pasture. And of course, rough behavior is nothing new for Williams. A year or two ago, Statefans.com reported that as he left the court, he flipped the bird to State students and yelled "f**k you! That's six straight!" In the current issue, the Poop Sheet talks about his oft-rumored dating habits and problems with alcohol and motor vehicles (and in fairness says they are mostly in the past). So the idea that he could lose it at Cameron is believable. We asked for some responses, and here's what we got. You can draw your own conclusions:
Our pal Jeremy reports the following, which correlates pretty closely with what Doyel claimed happened:
As you know, I sit across from the benches, so I did not hear what Gary Williams said - but I think I know the incident you are speaking of...
All of a sudden, with just over a minute left in the game (when we were inbounding after the jump ball they caused, right before Daniel got stripped), the students directly across from the Maryland bench started yelling about something. I looked over and saw Gary Williams standing about two feet out onto the court, looking directly at either the people sitting in press row or the crazies that are opposite Maryland's bench. Understand, the game was setting up for an inbound at the other end of the floor, so he is NOT looking at his players or the Duke players, as everyone was down in front of the Duke bench.
When I looked over, he was gesticulating and yelling (it's not hard to read Gary's mouth) "F**k you, you motherf**kers!" And I mean, he MEANT it. Something had him pissed off to the extreme. I know, hard to believe Gary Williams getting fired up during a game...
I have never seen a coach actually yelling like that at someone other than the officials (right before a T or right after an ejection) or his own team or players - whether it was the press or the fans, Williams was completely off his rocker. His team is down five with a minute to go, and he is screaming obscenities at fans or the press?
Anyway, that's what I saw of the incident. Perhaps I have something amiss here, in terms of the rationale or what not - but I saw what I saw: Williams screaming AWAY from the action, and saying some pretty nasty stuff in a pretty violent way.
A Crazy sends this:
Hey guys, I was at the game, sitting basically right behind the Maryland bench. With a couple minutes left, during a timeout, Gary Williams ran about 1/3 of the way across the court and started screaming and gesturing at the Crazies on the TV side. I have no idea what prompted this, do you? I've never seen a coach flip out like that at the opposing fans before, it was totally bizarre.
Observing him during the game was interesting - when a guy on the court makes a bad play, he turns and screams at his bench players; he ******* about EVERY call, as do 2 other assistants who are standing the whole game; he screams at his assistants when the team does something dumb, and he throws the clipboard to the ground when he is mad at them. I can't imagine playing for him would be fun.
Anyway, sorry that this dragged on, but I was hoping you could get back to me about why he went nuts on the Crazies?!?!?!?!
Mike, another Crazy who works with the Chronicle, sent us this:
I am responding to your call to Cameron Crazies. My name is Mike Corey, and I'm currently an associate sports editor for the Chronicle. I am also an avid Crazie--I'm one of the four caped guys that sits center court.
I wanted to let you know that Gary's tirade last night was a shock to us fans. It came unprovoked and out of nowhere. No fan in particular had done or said anything outrageous, and at the time, as the ball was heading down to Duke's end of the court, the fans weren't even taunting Gary with our pair of innocuous cheers: "Sweat, Gary, Sweat" and the simple "Gary!".
So what provoked him is unbeknownst to me and my friends. What he did was take a few steps from the bench, waving his arms at us (he did not flip us off, as has been reported). He yelled, in my estimation, "Oh, f*ck off!" before returning to watching the game. That was about it. None of the media seemed to catch wind of it, nor did all of the fans.
I hope this helps, and please let me know if I can be of any assistance,
and another Crazy
I am a Duke sophomore and a line monitor and obviously a huge basketball fan. I was at the game last night, sitting in the first row on the tv side across from the Maryland bench. Late in the second half, I don't recall the exact time, but the game was quite close, Gary Williams just let go and started cursing off the Cameron crazies. He was gesturing and yelling at the students on the tv side, screaming "f**k you, f**k you all" repeatedly. Someone mentioned that he threw a pen at a manager, and I think that might have happened as well. He was wildly waving his arms and cursing. He was standing well onto the court and was really animated. The TV didn't pick this up because there was a play at the other end of the floor, it may have been foul shots or something; the refs didn't see it either. I was pretty surprised because I've never seen a coach quite lose it like that. I thought it was ridiculous that a well-respected coach would lose his temper like that and curse obscenely at the students of an opposing school. In my opinion, his actions showed a decided lack of class.
Thanks,
Hayden
Justin sends this:
I saw the tail end of yesterday's incident, and I've seen the DBR thread, as well as the ACCboards thread where the Maryland fans are claiming we made it up.
There is proof.
On "Around the Horn with Max Kellerman" today, there was a thirty second discussion about whether or not the panel members hated Duke. Right as they started that segment, they played a 5 or 6 second clip of the incident: it showed Gary out on the floor, flailing his arms at the student section, and you could see the last two "F*CK YOU"s, clear as day. No lip reading degree needed there. I only caught the last "F*CK YOU" when it happened last night, becuase I was just slightly over the half court line on our side and was watching the events on our end, but the tape is really pretty bad. There's no way he can spin himself out of that.
Everyone claims that ESPN didn't show it during the telecast, and therefore it must not have happened, but if I was a producer, there's NO way I would put that on live TV, and frankly I'm surprised they showed the tape at 5 in the afternoon, when school kids are getting home and whatnot.
To make a long story short, you need not rely on student testimonials, because there's a tape out there somewhere.
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