This post is sponsored by Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races.
Break out the brackets! The NCAA men’s college basketball tournament tipped off Tuesday evening in Dayton, Ohio, with the First Four and begins in earnest just after noon Thursday.
You can watch the tournament at ESPN Bet Sportsbook at Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races in West Virginia, which is more than an hour’s drive from D.C. It offers 40 televisions and a three-sided jumbotron with a 250-inch LED screen and of course table games, slots and terrific restaurants.
Hall of Fame head coach Gary Williams will be at ESPN Bet Sportsbook at Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races on Thursday to watch March Madness.
Williams coached at the University of Maryland for 22 seasons, guiding the Terrapins to 14 NCAA Tournament appearances that included seven trips to the Sweet Sixteen, a pair of Final Fours and the 2002 NCAA Championship.
WTOP’s Dave Preston caught up with Williams for his thoughts about this year’s local teams in the field as well as Williams’ own March memories.
Listen to the full interview below or read the transcript, which has been lightly edited for clarity.
Dave Preston: What was it like to sit through that as a head coach, especially the occasional years where you guys were on the bubble?
Gary Williams: Well, I remember our first year, and it’s funny, Duane Simpkins was our point guard and American U.’s going to the NCAA this year. Duane’s had a great year. But I remember sitting there in the player’s lounge, waiting to hear and we weren’t guaranteed by any means of making the tournament. And when we heard it, it was amazing. These big, tough guys were crying because we made it, and I was right there with them.
So it’s an emotional day if you’re around that bubble area and you think you’re good enough to be in the NCAA, you’ve beaten teams that are good enough to be in there, and they make it, and then all of a sudden, your name hasn’t come up yet. It’s a tough day. It really is.
Dave Preston: This just in, I forgot that the SEC is a basketball factory — 14 teams! Now I know that there were years back in the day when the ACC just had nine schools, you could have made the case for seven, maybe even eight, or the Big East as well. How incredible is this that the SEC, only two schools don’t get in?
Gary Williams: Yeah, now that the SEC is a basketball conference, it’s really interesting. And I think what happened they realized that with the NIL coming on board, and those schools do so well financially from football, it was very easy in terms of finances to put enough money into your program to be some of the best teams in the country that really hadn’t been that concerned with basketball before.
So that’s what you’re seeing. And I think this is all part of the new landscape. And a conference like the ACC, for example, all of a sudden, they’re rated maybe the fifth best conference in the country, and I think the NIL and the transfer portal is something that the ACC was a little slow in adopting to, and it’s really changed the basketball landscape of the ACC.
Dave Preston: Maryland is a No. 4 seed. They’ll play Grand Canyon Friday in Seattle. Your initial impression with the seed, with the opponent and with the location?
Gary Williams: Well, I thought Maryland could have been a three seed very easily. Obviously, they got hurt at the end of the game there against Michigan, losing on the last-second shot. But a four seed is a great accomplishment. Grand Canyon is kind of a unique school in that they’re a relatively new university. Jerry Colangelo, who was head of the Phoenix Suns for a long time, head of USA Basketball, had a lot to do with Grand Canyon becoming a university. And they’re dangerous, that’s for sure. Plus, you’re playing out west.
I think there’s something about Maryland going out west. I believe we went four or five times out west for the first round. And it’s tougher on you because the travel, the fans have a lot more problems trying to get to the game, things like that. But this time of year, you are what you are, and Maryland’s a very good basketball team. They’ve proven it. You look at their losses, all been by a few at the end of games and things like that in the last couple months. So I think they’re in a great position to do well. And there’s no easy way to go. That’s for sure. Florida’s in the bracket, and I think Florida might be playing the best of any team in the country right now.
Dave Preston: What did you find was the key to getting through that first weekend? Because it’s one thing to make the field, but it’s another thing completely, to get through not just one but two rounds in the big dance.
Gary Williams: Yeah, I thought we were fortunate from one aspect. We went into the tournament relatively healthy every year, and that’s really big. You see some teams. Cooper Flagg’s the best example, how healthy will he be? Probably for Duke, it wouldn’t bother them, at least the first game. But we were healthy. And then secondly, we did a good job of just focusing on that first game.
A lot of people want to look past the first game if you’re the higher seed, and say, ‘Well, you’ll win that one. And don’t worry about it.’ Well, you play some of these teams in that first-round situation when you’re the higher seed and they have nothing to lose. I mean, they just come after you, and they play their best game of the year, maybe against you. So I think as long as you focus on that first game, then you got a chance to advance to the Sweet 16.
Dave Preston: You mentioned Duane Simpkins earlier, the American University head coach. Eagles advance to the first four this week in Dayton. As somebody who coached him at Maryland and somebody who used to coach at American as well, how proud are you to see somebody that you developed way back when, somebody whose living room you walked into and tried to get him to come to Maryland? How awesome is it to see him succeed at this level?
Gary Williams: Well, it’s great. Duane paid his dues. He was an assistant coach for a long time, didn’t get an opportunity to be a head coach. And now that he has that opportunity, he’s certainly taken advantage of it. And I think it’s great for the area to see college basketball with American in there. Mount St. Mary’s is in there, Maryland, the whole thing. And this is considered a very good basketball area, especially high school basketball in this area is tremendous. And you have to back it up with the college game. And I think the teams that are there have done a good job this year.
And Duane was a very smart point guard. We started, his freshman year, we started two freshmen and three sophomores. Duane was a sophomore point guard and did a great job for us to get us to the NCAA tournament. And, plus, Dwayne’s probably tired of me yelling at him from when he played for me, so I’m sure he’s pointing to this and saying, ‘See, coach, I really knew what I was doing.’ So it’s great to see.
Dave Preston: Looking at the field: Auburn, Duke, Houston, Florida, the No. 1 seeds. You talked a little bit about the Gators earlier, but what other teams jump off the bracket at you that you think, OK, this team has a good shot to be playing in San Antonio with the Final Four?
Gary Williams: Well, when you look at it, I think there’s a couple teams, obviously, that can really play. Kansas will be interesting. There a seven seed playing at 10-seed Arkansas. That’s (John) Calipari itself. The thing with Kansas, (Bill) Self has a lot of experience, obviously, so does Calipari. So if one of those teams got hot, and neither, Kansas didn’t have a great year. But you look at that experience in those situations to see what they can do.
And I look at Wisconsin this year out of the Big 10, which I’ve watched pretty close. And they’re interesting in that they’ve completely changed their offensive game. They play a much higher-tempo game now, score a lot more points, and probably their defense, because of that, isn’t quite as good as Wisconsin teams in the past. But when they shoot the ball, they’re really good because they have a lot of guys that can really stroke the ball. And so I’d look at them, and then, of course, Alabama’s somebody you have to look at. They just come down and fire and if they’re hot, they’re really tough to beat. So I think Alabama, I’m not sure that’s a dark horse, but I think they have a pretty good chance to get to the Final Four.
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