Having spent my first 24 years in Pennsylvania and given that I went to college at Penn State, where a NCAA tournament game takes a backseat to the spring football scrimmage, I didn't really begin to appreciate what outgoing Maryland coach Gary Williams had accomplished on the college basketball scene until I arrived in Baltimore five years ago.
Chances are when I'll look back on Williams 20 years -- and likely a few Maryland coaches -- from now, I'll think of the intense coaching legend who Kevin Cowherd vividly described in his Friday column as "the wild-eyed guy his fellow coaches call Wacko, hair plastered to his forehead, jumping up and down and sweating through his Armani suits as he coaches his heart out."
To me, Williams will always be that lovable madman.
But many of you were fortunate enough to witness his 22 years at Maryland -- much like how I'm still enjoying Joe Paterno's 158-year tenure at Penn State -- so I want to know what will be the first thing that pops in your mind years from now when you reminisce about the Williams era.
Will it be Williams resurrecting the program after the death of Len Bias? Will it be him cutting down the nets with Juan Dixon? Will it be his warm relationship with Greivis Vasquez or his disappointing final season in College Park, one that ended without an appearance in a postseason tournament?