Men's Basketball
Burton Shipley was Maryland's first and longest serving basketball coach, but his lengthy tenure from 1923 to 1947 was described as "remarkably quiet". At that time, the sport was not widely popular in the mid-Atlantic region and football and boxing were much better drawing spectator sports on the Maryland campus. To capitalize on the popularity, basketball games at Ritchie Coliseum were held as doubleheaders with boxing matches for 26 years. Bud Millikan became head coach in 1950 and soon led Maryland to consistent respectability within the Southern Conference. Defensive point guard Gene Shue averaged 22 points per game and his scoring record stood for two decades. In 1955, the small Ritchie Coliseum was replaced by Cole Field House centrally located on campus, and with Maryland now a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference, the fanbase rapidly expanded. . Millikan's tenure culminated in 1958 when Maryland won its first Atlantic Coast Conference tournament championship and advanced to the Elite Eight in the NCAA Tournament. In 2002 Gary Williams led the Terrapins to the programs first national championship defeating Indiana 64-52. Williams retired in May 2011 and Mark Turgeon was hired from Texas A&M to be his successor.
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Famous quotes containing the words men and/or basketball:
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