As part of the Maryland men’s basketball team’s game against Ohio State Feb. 27, the entire 2002 Terps team will be returning to College Park to celebrate the 20th anniversary of winning the national championship.
The head coach of that 2002 team, Gary Williams, is looking forward to seeing everyone back together again, but there’s one player he hasn’t seen in many years.
Ryan Randle, a 6-foot-9, 255-pound big man on that 2002 national championship team, has been in his home state of Texas in recent years. Williams has not been able to see Randle since his graduation in 2003.
“[Randle] was a backup power player on our team and really a good player,” Williams said on Glenn Clark Radio Feb 22. “Our front line with Lonny Baxter, Chris Wilcox, Tahj Holden and Ryan Randle, you never got in foul trouble that year inside because any of those guys could play at a very high level.
“Ryan’s been in Texas. He’s coming up with his wife. He’s doing very well. He’s in the trucking business down there. It’ll be great to see him. He’s the guy who came up with the line after the championship game, ‘We don’t have any McDonald’s All-Americans, we have Burger King All-Americans.'”
During the Terps’ championship season, Randle averaged 3.8 points, 3.1 rebounds and 0.5 blocks per game. He improved dramatically with more playing time the following year as a senior. He earned third-team All-ACC honors, averaging 12.7 points, 7.2 rebounds and 1.2 blocks per game.
Even though Randle was a junior during the 2001-02 season, it was his first season with the Terps. He played his first two years of college ball at what was then known as Allegany Community College (now Allegany College of Maryland). As a sophomore, he helped lead the Trojans to the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) championship game.
Williams keeps tabs on and help out most of his former players, including Juan Dixon. Dixon, the starting shooting guard on the 2002 championship team and the Final Four Most Outstanding Player in 2002, is now the head coach at Coppin State.
Dixon has had some struggles at Coppin, posting a 39-105 record thus far. But he led the Eagles to an 8-4 conference record in 2021, good enough for a share of the MEAC Northern Division regular-season championship.
Dixon has a rough coaching record, but Williams doesn’t believe it’s his fault.
“Juan is a very good coach,” Williams said. “He’s in a very tough situation, in terms of who he has to schedule and things like that. It’s hard to come up with a good record. I coached in high school, I coached in college at different places, and you see coaches all the time that are really good coaches but are in situations where no one could win a great number of games in a certain situation. I think Juan is doing a great job at Coppin, and I wish he would get more coverage, to be honest, in the Baltimore area with what he’s trying to do there.”
Dixon earned a number of honors during his career at Maryland, including first-team All-American (2002), ACC Player of the Year (2002) and first-team All-ACC (2000, 2001, 2002). He is also the program’s all-time leading scorer (2,269 points).
Williams has high praise for what Dixon was able to achieve at Maryland and now as a person.
“He’s accomplished more than any other basketball player in the history at the University of Maryland,” Williams said. “Obviously the all-time leading scorer, but now he’s in his early 40s, he’s got a great family and he’s working hard as a head coach.”
Unfortunately, the state of Maryland basketball right now is nowhere near the championship level it was 20 years ago. The team sits at 13-15 overall and 5-12 in the Big Ten. Mark Turgeon and the university parted ways in early December. Interim coach Danny Manning has led the Terps to an 8-12 record since Turgeon’s departure, but the program will most likely be looking elsewhere during the offseason.
Another issue that Maryland must address when it comes to basketball is the absence of a practice facility. Maryland is one of three power conference programs to not have access to a practice facility, with the others being Cal and Boston College.
While a practice facility would be huge in terms of recruiting, Williams doesn’t think that alone will put Maryland back on the championship level they were at 20 years ago.
“[The practice facility is] going to get done,” Williams said. “Everything is in place and I think there’ll be an announcement soon in terms of the practice facility, but at the same time, there’s no better place to play than Xfinity. A practice facility doesn’t determine the program.
“We need a practice facility to keep up with the other schools, that’s for sure, but that’s not going to determine whether we win a championship or not. That’s just part of the package. I think sometimes people jump on something that they see as a weakness and go after it. I think a lot of players in the country would trade places and play in Xfinity if they could.”
For more from Williams, listen to the full interview here:
Photo Credits: Courtesy of Maryland Athletics