Swengali: Will Terps' Risk be Rewarded?

HAS IT REALLY come to this for the Maryland Terrapins?

Though men's basketball coach Gary Williams has been criticized for the swoon since winning the national championship, no one could dispute he brought the program back to respectability the right way.

There's been no hint of scandal, criminal activity or blatant cheating.

But in mid-April came the under-the-radar announcement that Williams had given a scholarship to Tyree Evans.

Once a top-flight prospect out of Richmond, Evans will be a 23-year-old junior who has been convicted of three crimes and who spent time in jail for drugs last year.

Previously, Williams wouldn't have to take a chance on someone with Evans' background.

This isn't 2001 anymore, though. Scary as it is, the top prep players in the country were in middle school or elementary school when the Terps were last a national power.

I don't know Evans any more than I know Chuck Norris, so perhaps he has put all his troubles behind him. This country's favorite cliche is to offer second, third and fourth chances.

Williams needs to take a chance on a talent like Evans just as much as Evans needs this opportunity to turn his life around, or to reach the NBA, if he so desires.

This is a gamble that could blow up on Maryland, or it could be the move that returns the Terps to the Big Dance.

At this point, though, it has come to this for a stagnant program.

Photo by Joel Richard/The Washington Post