Williams spent more than two decades building Maryland into a competitive program in the ACC, and then nationally. He won a National Championship in 2002, capping off back-to-back appearances in the Final Four. But now that he’s handed the reins over to Mark Turgeon, he’s got to find something else to do.

The 66-year-old says part of the reason he got out is because he’s still young enough to look into working at other opportunities and his competitive edge and need to stay busy will have him doing something here pretty quickly.

Gary Williams joined ESPN 980 in Washington D.C. with The Sports Fix to discuss how much he’ll miss coaching, why he didn’t retire a year ago, his friends being supportive of his decision to retire, his opportunities going forward, the achievement that he’s most proud of and the advice he gave to Mark Turgeon who took over at Maryland.

How much will he miss coaching at Maryland after 22 years?:

“I’ll miss it, there’s no doubt about it. I think the biggest thing for me was just getting the program where we could be competitive in the ACC because at that time that’s when the ACC was getting six or seven teams in the tournament every year and they were all good programs. You couldn’t just leapfrog programs because you got a little better, you had to go beat some people.”

Is it true he almost retired after losing on a buzzer-beater in the 2010 NCAA Tournament?:

“I thought about it after that year. That game, I look at it the other way, the fact that he did make that shot and didn’t give us a chance to advance, probably motivated me. I’ve always looked at that as a coach, the only way you can handle a situation like that is to come back and try to get better. That probably motivated me to stay, but that was as tough a shot as ever was made against me.”

Did he have friends or colleagues who tried to talk him out of retiring before he made the announcement?:

“No, they were all pretty good. I had about three or four people I could really lean on and keep it in house and not say anything. Realistically, I’m 66 years old. If Jim Calhoun retires, which he might do before the start of the season, [Jim] Boeheim and I would be the two oldest coaches in Division I at the BCS level. … I really felt that if I was going to do anything else, and I still don’t know exactly what’s out there … now’s the time.”

What does he want to do going forward?:

“That’s what I have to find out. I’m going to work for the university, do some fundraising and things like that, some special-event-type things. … But there’s other things out there, media-wise, things like that, that I’ve always looked at. Over the years you watch and learn from other people, like you guys, and see what’s out there. … I have to stay doing something. I’m not coaching basketball anymore, but I’m a long ways from retiring.”

Does he see himself calling games or being more of a studio analyst?:

“I’m not sure because I’ve never done that before. … I have to look at that. Obviously the games would require more travel. I’ve traveled a long time with basketball and a lot of it’s been really good, but I don’t know how much traveling I’d like to do at this point. I’m trying not to make any quick decisions.”

What’s the achievement he’s most proud of?:

“It’s just getting the program back where we could be competitive with the top teams in the country. And taking the program where it never was before, first the Final Four and then the national championship. … I don’t know if it’s the area we live in, or whatever, but you get tired of hearing about the other schools and you know you’re as good as those other schools. A lot of the time you’re not in an isolated area like Lawrence, Kans., or a place like that. There seems to be more reasons to have detractors and that was great, because at the end of the 2002 year, nobody could say anything at that point.”

His thoughts on Mark Turgeon taking over at Maryland:

“The ACC has this thing that no other conference has with Duke and Carolina up there all the time. The thing is, I tried to assure him that, you won’t do it every year, but you can be competitive with those guys, given really coming in and working hard. That’s the thing I liked about Mark the best it he knew the challenge and was ready to come in here and work hard.”

Listen to Gary Williams on ESPN 980 in Washington D.C. here

Mark Turgeon may not be the legendary Gary Williams, and it will naturally and rightfully take time for some fans to fully welcome Sturgeon. But Terps fans shouldn’t be turned off by his resume. He has coached some tournament ready teams at Texas A&M and Wichita State, and you’ll be hard pressed to find too many instances of his teams going through prolonged stretches of failure. To do so at his new job, Sturgeon has his work cut off for him in terms of keeping top shelf local talent in the College Park playground.

Mark Turgeon joined The Scott Van Pelt Show on ESPN Radio to discuss his emotions as he decided to leave Texas A&M and take the heading coaching position at Maryland, if  former mentors like Roy Williams played a role in taking the Maryland coaching position even in an indirect but influential way,  and how his first priority as coach of the Maryland Terrapins will be to rebuild his staff to better compete in the hyper-competitive recruiting wars for local-area talent.

Describe the gamut of emotions you ran as you went from College Station to College Park?

“It’s tough Scott [Van Pelt] and it’s unfortunate the way these college coaching searches go. It has to happen quick. You try to be private, but with social media today it doesn’t get that way. I’ve been on Maryland’s campus, but you really don’t have time to go on the campus as a family, but I’ve been here and know it’s a beautiful place. It was a tough day yesterday. I was at Maryland. I was at Texas A&M. I was at Maryland. I was Texas A&M. It was a tough day just back-and-fourth and the hardest part whenever you leave is saying goodbye to your players for a lot of reasons. One because they chose that university and it’s a great university and also because of you. At [Texas] A&M we had a lot of success and we won a lot of games. It was because of them. I had a chance to get involved in a great job like Maryland, so it was a tough part of the day, telling the family, telling your kids is really emotional and tough too, then you get the wife involved. It’s an emotional time. Each day as we go on will get a little easier.”

How much did your former coaching mentor Roy Williams have a role in you making this decision? Was he an influence?

“A lot of people had a role in this thing. I think I first heard on Thursday morning that Gary [Williams] was going to be stepping down and a guy called me and asked would I be interested [in the heading coaching position]? It kinda of got my juices flowing a little bit knowing I might not be their first choice at the time and so I thought about it. Roy Williams, Larry Brown, guys that were big mentors for me were just adamant about Maryland and this job. I felt knowing what I know about college basketball that it was a top ten or fifteen job in the country or potentially better with so many players in the area. You look at a George Mason has done and VCU going to the Final Four. Of course Maryland a few years ago [went to the Final Four]. George Mason went to the Final Four from this area. Richmond was in the Sweet Sixteen. It’s just a great area for basketball players and if you work hard enough you got kids to get to the highest level, being a former player at Kansas and playing at the highest level and being a part of Final Fours. It was something I really want to be a part of again. Maryland gives me the best chance to do that.”

When you look at all of the talent around campus it hadn’t been staying recently. Is that something you feel like was made a priority to you when you took this job?

“Absolutely. One of the hardest things I have to do is change my staff. I had a Mid-West staff and now I’m going to have to change my staff. I’m not only leaving a few players behind. I’m leaving a few coaches behind. That made this decision really difficult for me. Guys who have been real loyal to me, but I have to get an East Coast coaching staff of people who know the area and know all the right people and all the right connections to make sure we’re keeping the players we want home and playing for Maryland.”

Listen to Mark Turgeon on ESPN Radio here

Washington, Portland, Denver, Milwaukee, Portland, Los Angeles and then back to Portland again. And that’s all since 2003.

Now Blake’s back in L.A. again, this time playing for the Lakers instead of the Clippers. Perhaps he’ll be playing alongside Kobe Bryant for a while, though safe money obviously says watch out for a trade back to the Trail Blazers.

Steve Blake joined Fox Sports Radio with Petros and Money to discuss what brought him to the Lakers, why he gave up a couple million dollars to do it and about playing with Kobe instead of guarding him.

On how he’s adapted to playing so many different styles with so many different teams:

“I’ve had the opportunity to play for a lot of different styles, a lot of different coaches and played with a lot of different players. I’ve had a lot of experience and look forward to being with the Lakers for a while.”

On leaving $4 to $5 million on the table to sign in L.A.:

“It’s tough when you’re thinking about your family and things like that, but winning makes up for a lot. I’m someone that loves to win. I won in college, won in high school and the only place I haven’t won a championship is the pros. That’s what would make me happy and you can’t put a dollar amount on that.”

On whether he is intimidated by joining the Lakers:

“It’s not intimidating, I’m excited. I’m sure these guys will welcome me. I just want to come in and play my role, help everyone. I’ll love to actually be on a team that has a chance to win it.”

On guarding Kobe Bryant when he played for Portland:

“We’ve battled. My goal was always to just not let him get the ball. So anytime he made a cut, I would try to hit him hard and make him think about it. Once he did get it, he made it hard to stop him, so I’m glad I don’t have to cover him anymore.”

On whether he felt disrespected in dropping to the second round of the NBA Draft despite being the successful guy in the league from that Maryland championship team:

“No. It doesn’t bother me. Things have worked out. I’ve tried to be consistent in the way that I play. The way I play is trying to get my teammates involved first. If you’ve got great scorers around you, get them the ball. That’s the way I think. Those guys I played with in college, they were great at scoring and great at doing things, so I would give them the ball and kind of took a backseat to them. That’s OK with me.”

His take on LeBron James’ “The Decision:”

“It was interesting. I’m not sure that they had to do it that way, but it’s not up to me. Whatever they want to do is fine and we move on.”

Listen to the full interview with Steve Blake on Fox Sports Radio here

Gary Williams joined WNST in Baltimore to talk about whether he has enough film on Houston in order to prepare for them, whether it concerns him that Greivis Vasquez would want to get into a one-on-one match-up with Aubrey Coleman, and whether he and his staff have taken the time to look at why the team doesn’t play well on the road.

Whether he has enough film on Houston in order to prepare for them:

“I think that most teams now keep a library.  You get a copy of everything that comes over the satellites so we have a satellite here at the Comcast Center and we have a lot of tapes.  We probably have over half of their games.  Once we found out we were looking at tape last night.  So I think that is the difference before you really used to have to scramble to try to get tape.  Call different coaches that maybe would be in the business that would tell you something about them.  You know a lot more.  They know a lot more about us nowadays.”

What he can tell them about Houston’s frontcourt and whether they have the advantage:

“Well they have some good athletes that play up front.  They don’t go inside very often.  In other words, their front court players earn their points by second shots and things like that.  When you have a player that is leading the country in scoring obviously he is going to take a lot of shots and he does.  I think that one of the things that watching tapes so far is that teams try to do is make him take tough shots where he will take shots that even though he is a great scorer they are tough shots to make.  If he can do that and I think that is why Houston’s record is what it is.  In other words, they really played well in their conference tournament and beat a top-25 team in UTEP to win it but at the same time they lost a lot of games throughout the year.  It was those teams that could make him take bad shots because as that team is used to him taking a lot of shots.  So if they are bad shots then you have a pretty good chance against him.”

Whether it concerns him that Greivis Vasquez would want to get into a one-on-one match-up with Aubrey Coleman:

“Can’t do it.  You just have to be mature this time of year and I think that he got a little lesson learned with Georgia Tech and from there we understand what we have to do to be a team.  This time of year when it is one and done, I always look at the NBA and I am very jealous of the best of seven this time of year because you can play two or three bad games and still advance.  Well if you play a bad half in the NCAA, a lot of times you don’t advance so the pressure is on to play well for forty minutes.”

Whether he and his staff have taken the time to look at why the team doesn’t play well on the road:

“We were one of the best road teams in the ACC.  Look at our record.  What do you want us to do rather than what we did on the road?  What did we win, four road games or something like that?” (Host: We want you to win them all.)  You are not going to win them all in the ACC.  Duke didn’t win them all in the ACC.”

On the team’s worst games of the year being on the road:

“Well every team plays their worst games of the year on the road.  Not just Maryland.  You guys sometimes don’t look a little just at Maryland.  Look at the league.  Where do teams play their worst games?  (Host: On the road.)  Right.  So why is it Maryland that plays their worst games on the road?  Duke played their worst games on the road.  We tied with Duke for the first place in the ACC.  How bad were we?  They were the number one seed in the country.”

Gary Williams on WNST in Baltimore with Drew Forrester and Bob Haynie

Reason why #1 seed doesn’t make it to the Final Four:   Connecticut just isn’t as good without Jerome Dyson.  His superior shooting opened up everything on offense.  Foul trouble to Haseem Thabeet could be troubling as well.

Best bet in the first round:   Memphis – 19 1/2 over Cal State Northridge

Player I’m most looking forward to playing in the NBA:  Jerel McNeal of Marquette.  A bit of a tweener in that’s he’s too small to play point guard and doesn’t have true point guard skills, but there’s always a role for guys that can defend like him and are clutch shooters.  Would be perfect if he joined a team with a big point guard like Jason Kidd, Chauncey Billups, or Derrick Rose.

Prediction for this bracket:  Memphis. Calipari just rebuilds destitute programs and then reloads year after year.  This may be his best defensive team yet. If Dyson wasn’t injured, I may have picked Connecticut to win the whole thing.  Sleeper pick would be Washington.

Listen to UCONN (#1) Head Coach Jim Calhoun on WFAN in New York with Francesa

Listen to Memphis (#2) Head Coach John Calipari on WFAN in New York with Mike Francesa

Listen to Missouri (#3) Head Coach Mike Anderson on WHB in Kansas City with Soren Petro

Listen to Washington (#4) Head Coach Lorenzo Romar on KJR in Seattle with Mitch Levy

Listen to Purdue (#5) Head Coach Matt Painter on WNDE in Indianapolis with JMV

Listen to Marquette (#6) Head Coach Buzz Williams on WSCR in Chicago with Mully & Hanley

Listen to California (#7) assistant coach Greg Gottlieb on WHB in Kansas City with Soren Petro

Listen to Texas A&M (#9) Head Coach Mark Turgeon on KFAN 1320 in Salt Lake City with DJ & PK

Listen to Maryland (#10) Head Coach Gary Williams on WNST in Baltimore with Drew Forrester

Listen to Utah State (#11) G Jared Quayle on 1280 The Zone in Salt Lake City

Listen here to Northern Iowa (#12 West) head coach Ben Jacobson on WSCR in Chicago

Listen to Mississippi State (#13) Head Coach Rick Stansbury on WQXI in Atlanta with Pollack & Bell

Listen to Cornell (#14 West) head coach Steve Donahue with the Axeman on WNSS in Syracuse

Listen to CSU Northridge (#15) Head Coach Bobby Braswell on ESPN Radio Los Angeles with Mason & Ireland

Listen here to Tennessee Chatanooga (#16 West) head coach John Shulman on WSCR in Chicago