Maryland’s victory over Georgetown in 1993 put Terrapins back on map

Darkness began to creep across the Maryland basketball program in the summer of 1986, when Len Bias collapsed in his dormitory suite. Lefty Driesell was soon out as coach. Two of the next three seasons produced only nine wins each, lengthening misery’s shadow. Then, sanctions. The NCAA clobbered Maryland with the “lack of institutional control” penalty. It was banned from postseason play in 1990-91 and 1991-92, in addition to three years of probation that yanked it off national television. One headline at the time read, “Will it ever be over at Maryland?”

The downswing would spawn the revival. A corrupt coach was replaced. A role player latched onto the program when he otherwise could not. A trio of players from Washington joined up. A local All-American believed in countering the moribund run. The most plain-named player in basketball history stunned everyone. By the evening of Nov. 26, 1993, this group gave the headline its answer.

On Tuesday night, as part of a deal between the Big Ten and Big East, No. 3 Maryland plays Georgetown on local soil for the first time in 22 years. Gary Williams plans to be there. The school has advertised the presence of Joe Smith. Kurtis Shultz will try to watch from the West Coast. Keith Booth could have a window to attend. Duane Simpkins can opt for his hotel room or a local eatery in order to tune-in from the road. They will all think back to the Friday after Thanksgiving in 1993, when, by a point in overtime, things began to change. Maryland 84, No. 15 Georgetown 83.

“I think that was as an important win as we had in my 22 years in Maryland,” Williams said.

Assembling Georgetown and Maryland on the same court for an official basketball game is difficult. When the teams played in 1979, Georgetown coach John Thompson Jr., who declined an interview request for this story, and Driesell — the most withering of personalities — carped at each, didn’t shake hands after the game and began the freezeout. That was it until 1993. They have played twice since, a win by Maryland in the NCAA tournament and a win by Georgetown in one of the early season tournaments that exist during nonconference play. The last time was in 2008. Neither was in the home arena of either school.

Despite the posturing from their universities, many of the Georgetown and Maryland players were familiar with each other before that season-opening tip-off in 1993. They had played against one another throughout the summer in Georgetown’s Kenner League. Some played in the Urban Coalition League. Big shots like Booth had come across fellow big-shot Othella Harrington at Nike All-American camps.

“We didn’t know each other personally,” Simpkins said. “We would play against them, and that was pretty much it. No social media. They were the Georgetown guys, and we were the Maryland guys.”

The season before, Maryland was not very good. It finished with 12 wins, the fewest in the four seasons since Williams had taken over. Simpkins, Exree Hipp, Johnny Rhodes, Mario Lucas, four freshmen, were forced to play. They needed help. When Booth, a McDonald’s All-American, chose Maryland instead of Kentucky or Duke, it bolstered the group. The surprise ability of Smith — “Nobody knew how good Joe was going to be,” Simpkins said — made them formidable. Still, Williams had his worries when informed that Georgetown was on the schedule.

“I didn’t know how good we would be because we had the two freshmen, then the three sophomores in the starting lineup,” Williams said. “That’s a pretty young team. They had Othella Harrington, who was a great player, and nobody knew about us because we hadn’t been seen for a while. We were out of the top tier in the country or even the ACC, for that matter.”

Landing Booth out of Baltimore’s Dunbar High School was a recruiting coup for Williams. High school basketball coaches in Baltimore had shunned Maryland because of violations by Williams’ predecessor, Bob Wade. Booth choosing the Terrapins over blue bloods without problems was another significant change that year.

Booth was excited to play his first college game. The regional significance of playing against Georgetown and the idea of resurrecting Maryland were not so much on his mind. He warmed up, trotted to the back, then joined his teammates. Williams yelled at them.

“At warmups, we weren’t going as hard as coach liked,” Booth said. “We were going hard, I thought. But, it wasn’t to his liking. He went off on the whole team prior to the game.”

Williams had much more to be mad about by the second half. His young team was wilting. Maryland trailed by 14 points with just more than 12 minutes to play. Foul problems were coming. The expected was happening.

“We got down pretty good,” Williams said.

Georgetown, however, could not stop Smith, who did not return calls for this story. The nation learned his name after that first game when he scored 26 points against the Hoyas. Maryland yanked itself back into the lead before George Butler’s 3-pointer tied the game with six second to play. In overtime, Joey Brown hit another three for the Hoyas. They led, 83-80, with 1:06 to play. Booth made two free throws — he was fouled by Harrington — to pare the lead to one, 83-82, with 38 seconds to play. Thompson walked the sideline in a black suit and blue shirt, his trademark towel draped over his right shoulder. Williams, ever the small feisty dog who didn’t realize he’s not big, paced, crouched and sweated. Time was short. He made a decision.

Booth was in foul trouble. Georgetown was going to stall, so Maryland needed to foul. On the Terrapins bench was Shultz, who had played for Hall of Fame coach Morgan Wootten at DeMatha High School. So, his understanding of basketball was not in question. However, having the ability to play for a team in one of the country’s best conferences, well, that was another matter.

“I came in when we were on probation,” Shultz said. “And, so I should have played at a Towson or a Bucknell. There’s no way I should have been playing in the ACC. So, [Williams] had to deal with guys like me for I don’t know how long.”

Once he rose from the bench, Williams provided instructions. On the inbounds, Maryland was going to run “55 trap.” Shultz needed to close the ballhandlers and foul. He went to the scorer’s table, and a long list of the stunned was created.

“I just remember looking at the table, and the horn blew, and you looked up and you see Kurtis taking his jacket off,” Simpkins said. “And, I’m thinking to myself, what the hell is he doing?”

Shultz or Williams?

“Both! I’m just like, ’What the hell is going on?” Simpkins said. “When you practice, you practice with different combinations of guys you may play with. I never remember practicing with Kurtis Shultz being in our rotation. And, I love Kurtis to death. He’s a DeMatha guy and Kurtis was a really good role player for us in practice and everything, big body. But, the last, I don’t know, 30 seconds or whatever it was of this game?

“Gary may actually try to say it was a genius move on his part, which it very well may have been. But, at the time, I was like, ’What in the hell is going on?’”

Shultz galloped onto the court to guard the inbounder. The trap never happened because he did not get there in time. Joey Brown dribbled across midcourt and Georgetown spread out to kill the clock. Shultz searched for someone to guard. His instructions had ended with the edict to foul on the trap, so he drifted to the right side of the floor in front of the Georgetown bench. The Hoyas dribbled, then passed, and then, inexplicably, Kevin Millen passed toward to the corner, the ball zipping so close to Thompson, he leaned back. Shultz tipped the pass, then stole it. He would have one other steal the rest of the season, during which he played five minutes per game.

“I remember him having the ball, and thinking, ’He’s not throwing this, is he?’” Shultz said. “Because I was already in the gap. I mean, it kind of reminds of the Georgetown national championship game. He just throws it to James Worthy. It’s almost the same thing, where I just couldn’t believe he threw it. I just stepped right in front — like, you’ve got to be kidding me.”

Timeout. With 13.7 seconds to play, the source of the final shot was clear. If few knew of Smith before tipoff, all knew he would be the recipient of the ball now. Maryland set up a quick-hitter for Smith in the midpost. Simpkins, the point guard, was charged with delivering the ball to Smith.

“Any time you can give the ball to Joe, that’s what any player was supposed to do,” Williams said.

Space cleared for Smith on the left side of the floor, just off the elbow. Out top, Simpkins lined up Brown. He dribbled through his legs once, then again.

“He kind of faked at the ball and I was really lax with it,” Simpkins said. “I think if he had really went for it, he would have gotten that ball. Then he kind of backed up. After that, it was like, ’All right, I got to go.’ I went between my legs, I don’t know if it surprised him, what have you, I went pretty quick and I knew immediately I had him. I knew he was out of the play.”

Simpkins zoomed into the lane on two hard dribbles. Don Reid, 6 foot 8 and 270 pounds, rotated to stop him. Up went a left-handed floater. Down went a left-handed floater.

“For a split-second, I knew I could drop the ball to Joe but I was moving so fast, and since I was already in my shooting motion, I just thought about getting the ball up high enough so it wouldn’t get blocked,” Simpkins said. “It was a tough floater, I don’t know how many more of those I could make in my lifetime, but that one went down.”

Georgetown was confused. With 3.5 seconds remaining, Brown started to call timeout. Instead, the ball was inbounded to him. He pushed up the court and passed to Millen. His 3-point attempt was late and left.

The sound of the horn launched Williams. He threw his right fist in the air, lifting both feet off the ground. Next, both arms went up amid another leap. Finally, a third elevation brought him across midcourt, where he landed close to Thompson with enough time to gather his feet. An eyeblink length handshake followed. After its completion, Williams thrusted both hands back into the air.

“[The win] really helped with Maryland people,” Williams said. “It showed that basketball could be a positive thing again.”

“Looking back, you realize now how big that game was,” said Booth, now an assistant coach for Loyola. “Being a team that was coming off the sanctions, then starting the season off against a team that was ranked in the top 15 at the time and the fact that it was a crosstown rival.”

“Pride,” said Simpkins, now an assistant coach at George Mason. “There’s one word that jumps out it was pride, knowing where the program was.”

Campus was silent when the team returned because most were on Thanksgiving break. Simpkins went to his room, where he listened to several voicemails from friends, family and even former Maryland players.

Thompson resigned in 1999. Williams retired from coaching in 2011. Smith, Booth and Harrington went onto the NBA. Smith had become so dominant, he was the No. 1 overall pick in 1995. Shultz is the strength coach for USC’s men’s basketball team.

They were part of an afternoon that began to lift the malaise around Maryland basketball. That season started a run of 11 consecutive NCAA tournament appearances for the Terrapins. There has not been a game locally between the teams since. That changes Tuesday night.