Bad Day For Maryland Basketball – Williams Signs With Agent, Two Women’s BBall Players Leave Program

It’s official – Jordan Williams will hire an agent, entering the NBA draft. WaPo breaks the story, but credit has to go to Ryan Feldman, who reported this last week. Williams will reportedly sign with Andy Miller of ASM Sports, whose clients include Kevin Garnett, Serge Ibaka, and many others.

In two years and 66 games as a Terp, the center averaged 13.2 points and 10.2 rebounds per game. Chad Ford of ESPN says that Williams will be a late first-round pick, and we wish him the best of luck.

A lot of people have questioned Williams’ readiness for the NBA, but it seems like he received a positive reception at the camps this spring. We wish him the best of luck in his career (there are a lot of teams that could use big man depth, and I’m hoping my Lakers pick and get rid of Caracter) and we’ll certainly be following it closely.

Needless to say, this is a huge blow to Maryland’s tournament hopes next year. Without Williams (and Dino Gregory), the Terps’ frontcourt currently consists of James Padgett, Berend Weijs, and Ashton Pankey (unless they can pull off Robert Goff). That’s one player who has woefully underperformed in his career as a Terp, a wiry JuCo transfer with very little going offensively, and a redshirt freshman who has played less than an hour of competitive basketball over the past two years.

It is not, however, the end of the world. Maryland has three great recruits coming in next year in Nick Faust, Sterling Gibbs, and Martin Breunig. Granted, two of them are guards and one of them is a swingman, but all three of those guys have the potential to be studs in the ACC. My proposed lineup for Gary Williams in the 2011-12 campaign:

PG – Pe’Shon Howard

SG – Terrell Stoglin

SF – Nick Faust

PF – Martin Breunig

C – James Padgett

Yeah, it’s a small lineup, but I think Maryland could stand to go with a Villanova-type approach this year. With Sean Mosley, Sterling Gibbs, Mike Parker, Hawk, and Weijs coming off the bench, that gives the Terps a solid nine and a half man rotation (sorry, Berend). I just hope Gary is willing to make a major change in his coaching strategy to better suit his current team.

More after the jump.

In women’s basketball, two of the team’s top players have left the program – Dara Taylor and Diandra Tchatchouang. Taylor, a former McDonald’s All-American out of Delaware, will transfer to Penn State after losing out the starting job to Anjale Barrett this past year while Tchatchouang, a former ACC All-Freshman Selection, will return home to her native France, citing homesickness.

As a freshman, Taylor was one of the more exciting players on the team, and her speed impressed. However, she fell low on the depth chart in her sophomore year and averaged only 1.7 points and 2.2 assists in about 13 minutes per game this season.

After averaging 11.5 points and 5.4 rebounds per game as a freshman, Tchatchouang also saw her production fall off in her sophomore year, averaging 8.7 points and 5.0 rebounds per game. She suffered an ACL injury late in the year – a contributing factor to her decision to return home.