CSN Washington's Chick Hernandez, who has always been close to former Maryland basketball coach Gary Williams, scored an exclusive sit-down with him to discuss why he elected to retire last year and where he plans on going from here. The video below the jump is just Part I of that interview, but it's full of tremendous insight and great nuggets of information.
By far the best part, though, was when Williams discussed his ongoing feud with former athletic director Debbie Yow. Yow, now at N.C. State, famously declared that Williams tried to "sabotage" her head coaching search last year. Williams had a very Williams-like retort:
The ridiculous part of that statement is, how would I know?" Williams said. "How would I know what coaches are being interviewed? Why do I care who the basketball coach is at N.C. State right now?"
The full video and a transcript of other remarks is below the jump:
On whether he's done coaching: "I hope so. You never say never, but in terms of coaching itself, I was fortunate. I coached in the Big East, the Big 10 and the ACC. So I'm not going to go coach somewhere that's not at that level."
On why he stepped aside last year: "If I could have just coached the team, then I think I could still coach and have done a good job in the games. But there are so many things involved with recruiting now. There are so many things involved with just being a representative for the university. The scrutiny you're under now, whether it's the Internet, whether it's talk shows, whether it's cellphones, whatever it is, it gradually wears on you."
On the struggles he faced the final few years of his job: "We were trying to compete with the best teams in the country. We were in a league where we were trying to compete with Carolina and Duke. There aren't three other programs in the country that are consistently better than those two. So that's what we were always measured against. My goal was to have the same things, to be able to compete on a level playing field. We didn't have that. So it made it a very difficult job. I was pretty tired, to be honest with you. I was fighting for survival here for quite a few years. It was at the same time trying to play great basketball, trying to play against great teams. It wasn't easy for me personally in that coaching situation."