GW Countdown #1 and #2

This year's team was the fifth-worst in GW's nineteen years in College Park. Here are a couple perspectives on the state of MD basketball (glass half-full / glass half-empty):

1. Overall (glass half-full): The median season over the past nineteen years was last year's team that advanced to the second round of the tournament and finished #23 in the nation. There were nine teams that were better than last year and nine teams that were worse.

2. Six years since the title (glass half-empty): 2003 (#17), 2004 (#24), 2005 (Unranked), 2006 (Unranked), 2007 (#23), and 2008 (Unranked). This is not exactly capitalizing on success. The recruiting rankings were significantly higher than performance. The 2003 class (Caner-Medley, Gilchrist, McCray, and Garrison) was ranked #2 in the nation. The 2007 class (Vasquez, Hayes, Milbourne, Burney, Osby) was ranked #22.

Chalk 2008 up as another year in a continuing trend whereby MD had talented players individually that collectively didn't play well together as a team. The fact that MD has had only two players selected in the NBA draft over the past five years (Blake and Strawberry; both second-rounders) doesn't help recruiting.

The glass is half-empty. This is clearly a program in decline.

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#1:

2002:
Final USA Today Ranking: 1
Record: 32 - 4
ACC: 15 - 1 (first)
ACC First Round: Beat FSU by 26
ACC Second Round: Lost to NC State by 4
NCAA Seed: 1
NCAA Round 1: Beat Siena by 15
NCAA Round 2: Beat Wisconsin by 28
NCAA Round 3: Beat Kentucky by 10
NCAA Round 4: Beat UConn by 8
NCAA Round 5: Beat Kansas by 9
NCAA Final: Beat Indiana by 12
NCAA Champion: Maryland
- Dixon (Sr): 20 - 5 - 3 - ACC1 - ACCPOY -- NBA (6+ years, 371 gp, 9 ppg, 2 rpg, 2 apg, $8.6M in career earnings)
- Baxter (Sr): 15 - 8 - 1 - ACC2 -- NBA (4 years, 162 gp, 4 ppg, 3 rpg, 0 apg, $3.3M in career earnings)
- Wilcox (So): 12 - 7 - 1 - ACC3 -- NBA (6+ years, 374 gp, 9 ppg, 5 rpg, 1 apg, $15M in career earnings)
- Mouton (Sr): 11 - 5 - 2
- Blake (Jr): 8 - 4 - 8 - ACC3 -- NBA (5+ years, 325 gp, 7 ppg, 2 rpg, 4 apg, $3.3M in career earnings)
- Nicholas (Jr): 7 - 2 - 2
- Holden (Jr): 6 - 3 - 1

#2:

2001:
Final USA Today Ranking: 4
Record: 25 - 11
ACC: 10 - 6 (third)
ACC First Round: Beat Wake by 18
ACC Second Round: Lost to Duke by 2
ACC Final: Lost to Duke by 13
NCAA Seed: 3
NCAA Round 1: Beat George Mason by 3
NCAA Round 2: Beat Georgia State by 19
NCAA Round 3: Beat Georgetown by 10
NCAA Round 4: Beat Stanford by 14
NCAA Round 5: Lost to Duke by 11
NCAA Champion: Duke
- Dixon (Jr): 18 - 4 - 3 - ACC1 -- NBA (6+ years, 371 gp, 9 ppg, 2 rpg, 2 apg, $8.6M in career earnings)
- Baxter (Jr): 16 - 8 - 1 - ACC2 -- NBA (4 years, 162 gp, 4 ppg, 3 rpg, 0 apg, $3.3M in career earnings)
- Morris (Sr): 12 - 8 - 2 - ACC3 -- NBA (3 years, 139 gp, 3 ppg, 3 rpg, 1 apg, $1.8M in career earnings)
- Mouton (Jr): 10 - 4 - 1
- Blake (So): 7 - 3 - 7 -- NBA (5+ years, 325 gp, 7 ppg, 2 rpg, 4 apg, $3.3M in career earnings)
- Nicholas (So): 7 - 2 - 3
- Miller (Jr): 5 - 3 - 2
- Wilcox (Fr): 4 - 2 - 1 -- NBA (6+ years, 374 gp, 9 ppg, 5 rpg, 1 apg, $15M in career earnings)

#1. 2002: 32 - 4 (#1 in Nation; #1 Seed - NCAA Champions)
#2. 2001: 25 - 11 (#4 in Nation; #3 Seed - Lost to Duke in NCAA Final Four)
#3. 1999: 28 - 6 (#8 in Nation; #2 Seed - Lost to St. Johns in NCAA Third Round)
#4. 1995: 26 - 8 (#11 in Nation; #3 Seed - Lost to UCONN in NCAA Third Round)
#5. 1994: 18 - 12 (#11 in Nation; #10 Seed - Lost to Michigan in NCAA Third Round)
#6. 2003: 21 - 10 (#17 in Nation; #6 Seed - Lost to Michigan State in NCAA Third Round)
#7. 1998: 21 - 11 (#22 in Nation; #4 Seed - Lost to Arizona in NCAA Third Round)
#8. 2000: 25 - 10 (#25 in Nation; #3 Seed - Lost to UCLA in NCAA Second Round)
#9. 2004: 20 - 12 (#24 in Nation; #4 Seed - Lost to Syracuse in NCAA Second Round)
#10. 2007: 25 - 9 (#23 in Nation; #4 Seed - Lost to Butler in NCAA Second Round)
#11. 1997: 21 - 11 (#32 in Nation; #5 Seed - Lost to College of Charleston in NCAA First Round)
#12. 1996: 17 - 13 (#47 in Nation; #7 Seed - Lost to Santa Clara in NCAA First Round)
#13: 2005: 19 - 13 (Lost to South Carolina in NIT Semi-Finals)
#14. 1990: 19 - 14 (Lost at PSU in NIT Second Round)
#15. 2006: 19 - 13 (Lost to Manhattan in NIT First Round)
#16. 1991: 16 - 12 (Banned from NCAA Tournament)
#17. 1992: 14 - 15 (Banned from NCAA Tournament)
#18. 1993: 12 - 16 (Did not make NIT or NCAA Tournament)


Note: The NBA statistics and salary information is from basketball-reference.com. It was valid as of March, 2008.