Maryland was my “sleeper team” in this year’s tournament and made it to the Sweet-16 before taking its leave. Its coach, Kevin Willard, had been at odds with the former Athletic Director who had just moved on; so, under normal circumstances, you would think that Willard would be back trying to improve on a Sweet-16 appearance next year. Nope, that would be too normal.
Willard complained that the basketball program was a poor stepchild in the Maryland Athletic Department and spoke of the happiness he felt when he was in the Big East (Seton Hall) where football did not dominate every thought and action in an Athletic Department. As soon as Vilanova fired its coach after a third straight year without a March Madness invitation, speculation was that Willard wanted the job. Indeed, he took the Villanova job and went back to the Big East and the Terps went out and hired Buzz Williams in his place.
I think both Villanova and Maryland upgraded at the basketball coaching level. Do not take that comment to mean that I think Williams is clearly superior to Willard as a coach; rather, I mean Williams seems far more content to work in what is the “Maryland environment” than Willard was – – and that is a big plus. Consider that Williams’ last two jobs were at Va Tech and Texas A&M. Clearly, football is the dominant interest at those two schools; Williams seems to be adapted to that sort of environment for the basketball program.
But it is that “environment for the basketball program” that remains at Maryland and has existed ever since the Terps jettisoned the ACC for the Big-10. With that move, Maryland chased “football money” even though there is no way for Maryland to be a “champion” in Big-10 football anytime in the next few decades. Now, if Willard is to be believed, the Athletic Budget constrains the basketball program significantly. According to reports, Willard asked for the team to stay together in a NY hotel for a night over the Christmas Holidays and was told there wasn’t money in the budget for that. But when the football team travels to play Stanford, there is money for a much larger squad to stay in a hotel in the SF area …
Buzz Williams will be successful at Maryland; he has been everywhere else. But I predict that he too will finally chafe under the financial constraints that he will endure there and his success with the Terps will land him a bigger job somewhere in the next 5 years or so. Maryland is a “basketball school” who is seeking to become a “football school”. That is not an impossible undertaking, but it is not an easy one either. And it is going to make the position of “head basketball coach” a revolving door for a while.
Moving on … The “Oakland” A’s had their home opener in Sacramento this week; they lost that game 18-3 but that was not the worst news item to come from that game. They played in the minor league stadium for the Sacramento team which seats 14,000 fans. And for the home opener in the new venue, the A’s did not sell out the venue; attendance was 12,119. That is the bad news. The good news is that the A’s did not average 12,119 fans last year in Oakland and I guess it looks better to play in a stadium that is 85% full as opposed to one that is 20% full.
In the longer term, this does not auger well for the A’s. They will be in a minor league park for at least two seasons and probably longer; I will go out on a limb here and say that fact will not be a selling point for free agents to consider the A’s as a destination nor will it make any current players who become free agents more prone to “stay home”. Yes, they signed Luis Severino in this offseason; but I wonder if that was merely an aberration. Time will tell …
Switching gears … The Braves could not possibly have anticipated the horrendous start the team got for the 2025 season; as of this morning, the Braves are 0-7 having been outscored 32-14 in those 7 losses. I know; the Braves still need to get Ronald Acuna, Jr. and Spencer Strider back onto the field regularly; that will kickstart the team. However, the Braves need to do better than they have lest they fall so far behind in a competitive NL East that they do not have enough season left in order to “catch up”.
One more item today … Here is an example of why it is important to look at statistics in context. Data Set #1:
- The average TV audience for March Madness is up 3% this year as compared to the TV audience in 2023. AND …
- The average TV audience for the Women’s NCAA Basketball Tournament is up 43% from 2023.
Let those numbers marinate in your brain for a moment and get a sense of your reaction to them Now consider Data Set #2:
- The average TV audience for March Madness in 2025 is 9.4 million viewers. AND …
- The average TV audience for the Women’s NCAA Basketball Tournament in 2025 is 367,000 viewers.
Both statements are true according to reports from places that track such data. Most folks will react rather differently depending on which data set is presented to them.
Finally, another observation from Al McGuire:
“When I was losing, they called me nuts. When I was winning they called me eccentric.”
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………