The Post says the university is going to name Iowa Provost Wallace Loh as its new president.

I’m not going to pretend like I follow the careers of the nation’s university administrators. So who exactly is this guy?

According to the university’s news release, he’s been an academic for decades, and has a doctorate in psychology from Michigan and a law degree from Yale. He was born in Shanghai but grew up in Peru…unusual combination. He worked with former Washington Governor Gary Locke (now U.S. Secretary of Commerce) to expand affordable access to higher education to thousands of low- and middle-income students in that state. He was provost at Iowa for only two years.

D1scourse offers a quick reaction, but in a nutshell: he’s starting November 1, he’s old (65), and he has a reputation for combating drinking on college campuses. Interesting.

From an athletics perspective, coming from Iowa, he has Big 10 pedigree. As you know, the Big 10 was purportedly interested in luring Maryland away from the ACC. Unlike former athletic director Debbie Yow, interim AD Randy Eaton has indicated a willingness to at least listen to such overtures. Loh will undoubtedly have a large hand in helping to hire Yow’s permanent replacement. Verrrry interesting.

We’ll keep an eye on it.

Sorry…I just don’t. It’s not that I don’t find it important…it’s just that I find it boring. Or sorry, let me try and put it another way. I find it uninteresting. Tedious.

Wake me when it’s time to name the permanent successor. Or when “Terrapins Rising” finally starts (July 14!). Either way. Either way’s cool.

In the meantime, regarding this AD stuff, what am I supposed to do? Research? What am I supposed to be, like, some kind of knower of things? Whatever. Don’t box me in.

If you want me to pay attention to this story, perhaps we should call interim AD Randy Eaton by his professional wrestling handle, Randy “The Ram” Eaton. He gives budget crunches the big elbow smash, and so on. He’s just an old, broken-down piece of meat. But maybe — just maybe — he could get one last shot at happiness. At redemption.

If, unlike me, you continue to be interested in this process, The Diamondback has a good breakdown of the potential replacements. Now have yourself a happy 4th.

So Randy Eaton, the Maryland athletic department’s senior associate athletics director and chief financial officer, has been named the interim athletic director. Here’s the part where I pretend like I know all about him….ohh, yeeaaaahh, Randy Eaton! Sure, Randy Eaton, of course, yes. Good man, good man. A steady hand on the old wheel Mr. Eaton will surely be. Plus his background in gobbledygook will really serve the department well when it comes to executing their woozah-wuzzle.

But seriously, his title and his two decades of experience seem to make him a fine choice to shepherd the department through this, the offseason of our discontent (or content, rather, if you didn’t like Debbie). A tip of the cap and best wishes to Mr. Eaton.

Meanwhile, the search committee for Debbie Yow’s permanent replacement has been announced. Notables include Gary Williams, Len Elmore, men’s soccer coach Sasho Cirovski, Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank, field hockey coach Missy Meharg, and Criminology and Criminal Justice Professor Charles Wellford. Would have been nice to see someone on there directly affiliated with the football team, but still, that’s a murderer’s row right thur, boy. You pitch around Missy Meharg, and there’s Charles Wellford staring you in the face. What can you do with that? Nothing. I think theyr’e gonna hit it out of the park. By the way, their timeframe for doing so, according to the Post, is three to four months.

(Photo credit: UMTerps.com)

In the meantime, an interim AD to take over for the departed Debbie Yow should be named this week, with the position expected to be filled permanently by the end of September at the latest.

What caught me most by surprise in the report, however, was that lady Terps’ basketball coach Brenda Frese will definitely be on the search committee; it’s in her contract. The report didn’t mention Gary Williams or anyone else as a potential member — for contractual reasons or otherwise — of the committee. Huh.

In today’s Post, columnist Mike Wise has his Roy Firestone moment. And it’s a big one, too. He got Debbie Yow to cry.

In a nutshell, the column celebrates Yow’s many accomplishments at Maryland. Twenty national titles in six sports during her tenure. Great coaching hires including Ralph Friedgen and Sasho Cirovski. Getting Comcast Center and the Byrd Stadium expansion built. Longer time in the position than five predecessors. And oh yeah, she was the first female AD in the ACC. He hints, in fact, that the “Machiavellian survival tactics” she “resorted” to wouldn’t have been such a big thing if she had a cockandballs. He calls her “a pioneer, a woman playing a man’s game.” Well…true enough.

The article is fair, and he opines that her departure was probably inevitable, given that she essentially organized shadow campaigns to buy out Gary Williams and Ralph Friedgen during their times of struggle. Obviously, those campaigns were not successful. To further my Usual Suspects motif from yesterday — “How do you shoot the devil in the back? What if you miss?” Well, she missed. Bye, Debbie.

Still, the article paints her in sharp contrast to full-on eviscerations like John Feinstein’s. But maybe that illustrates a larger theme here.

Debbie Yow’s departure came as a pretty big surprise. Of course, there are always a few blog commenters and discussion board know-it-alls who have to roll their eyes and claim this was in the works for some time. (Oh, really, blog commenter? Debbie’s inner circle must have sworn you to secrecy then…only reason to explain why you didn’t mention anything BEFORE the fact.) Yeah, her bad relationship with Gary Williams was no secret, but still, her depature evidently was.

And that’s the thing. Debbie Yow’s entire tenure at Maryland seemed to happen behind the proverbial curtain. Fans and media — the eyes, ears, and voice of the fan — were necessary evils, not something to be embraced but to be leveraged, or dealt with. When you insist on operating in the dark, you relinquish to others the job of shaping your legacy. That’s what is happening to her, for good and bad, right now.

This move was surely hastened by the new, yet-to-be-named university president coming in late summer. Given that timeline, a new permanent AD selection could be many months away. Speculation on Yow’s replacement is already afoot, but right now it’s just names on a wall. Whenever the search committee gets serious, here’s hoping they pick someone who is a fan of the Terps, and operates with those fans in mind, in the full light of day. After all, sunshine is the best disinfectant. And there’s a serious funk right now coming out of the athletic department.

Whoa. Wow. Someone did NOT like Debbie Yow. I’ll give you a hint: his name rhymes with Schmon Schmeinstein. And if Schmon’s side of the story is fully accurate, he’s not the only one.

On his blog yesterday, Feinstein tore into Yow like she was a camper standing in front of his cubs. The headline said Yow “won’t be missed by many at Maryland,” and the article goes on to note that she had a pretty difficult personality, as “people came and went in the athletic department the way pitching coaches came and went when George Steinbrenner was still running the Yankees.” He goes into some pretty interesting details about her behavior behind the scences, before concluding that her “honeymoon won’t last terribly long” at N.C. State.

Lots of caustic (and juicy) allegations from Mr. Feinstein here, and it’s definitely worth a read.

Bottom line: the reasons Debbie Yow left don’t seem especially hard to figure out. She’s going home to take her dream job. She was on bad terms with the basketball AND football coaches. End of story. But according to Feinstein, there probably weren’t a lot of people trying to talk her out of the decision.

Here it is, straight from the wolfpack’s mouth.

And just like that — poof — she’s gone.

DUN DUN DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!

CSN Washington broke this story last night. Athletic director Debbie Yow, who has been at Maryland for 16 years, is expected to take the same position at N.C. State. She is from that area and her late sister, Kay, was their longtime women’s basketball coach. Word is she’s in Raleigh now.

Maryland President C.D. Mote is stepping down in August, so this could be a sign of recognition that the new president may be interested in selecting his or her own leadership team.

More as this develops…

On Saturday, Maryland became the latest lacrosse team to drink the bitter brew of the upset…one part tears, one part overconfidence, one part lackadaisacality, one part psychological entanglements (for texture), and just to make sure your gag reflex receives full engagement, one part Captain Morgan’s Lime.

We were out of town and thus didn’t see the game, but by all accounts the third-ranked Terps’ loss to unseeded Notre Dame was not easy on the eyes.  The team’s top scorers — Grant Catlino, Ryan Young, and Will Yeatman — combined to shoot 0-13.  That’s not how you win games. The loss was so disappointing, in fact, that it led to head coach Dave Cottle’s resignation last night, after Debbie Yow informed him she wouldn’t renew his contract. According to D1scourse, Cottle has reached the postseason in 22 of his 23 coaching seasons (spread across Maryland and Loyola) but has never won a championship. That’s a record.

D1scourse goes on to state that success in college lacrosse is somewhat unfairly measured by one thing and one thing only, and that’s titles. Fair point. But on the other hand, it’s pretty safe to say that the Terps have become a perennial underacheiver — it’s been 35 years now since Maryland got a banner. That’s a pretty epic dry spell. I’m no lacrosse maniac, but isn’t a change warranted under those circumstances? That’s not a reflection of our quick-fix, drive-through, what-have-you-done-for-me-lately society. It’s been THIRTY-FIVE YEARS. Cottle is literally THE record holder when it comes to underperformance in the playoffs, the outcomes of which, like it or not, are simply weighted more heavily than those of the regular season. That’s true for every sport, and, I would argue, rightly so, given the higher stakes and all.

It’s all the more frustrating because, with all the other upsets that went down this May Madness, Maryland had the Final Four more or less laid out for them on a platter….all they had to do was pull up to the table and tuck in. They couldn’t do it. Again. It cost the coach his job. So be it.

In other news, while the men were foundering in the sludge of mediocrity, the top-ranked women’s team again showed how consistently excellent their program really is by reaching yet another Final Four. The Final Four bracket is filled with lacrosse blue bloods…Maryland takes on Syracuse this Friday, while North Carolina faces defending champion Northwestern in the other semifinal. Good luck, ladies.

(Photo credit: Inside Lacrosse)

Gary Williams must have a good pair of sneakers on. Because he was running through my mind alllllll weekend long, baby.

First came the news that top assistant Chuck “Righty” Driesell will assume the big chair at The Citadel. (For the record, I believe Driesell’s chair will be the same as the others…dun-colored aluminum, vertical folding mechanism, foam seat and back supports bearing tasteful logos, etc…so ”big chair” is really more of a metaphorical phrase…thanks for allowing me the opportunity to clarify.)

Second came the welcome announcement that Gary Williams will finally be nominated for the basketball hall of fame.  AD Debbie Yow will submit the nomination. No word on whether said nomination document will be written in some curious brand of red ink.

Anyway, with Gary getting his due and another assistant moving on, I thought I would take this opportunity to outline the Gary Williams coaching tree as it exists during his time at Maryland. This would be an ideal post for showcasing the Photoshop skills I do not possess. Alas, we are stuck with only our damn imaginations.  Dammit.

Also, I’m only going to focus on the Maryland part of the tree, so this won’t include Randy Ayers, Ed Tapscott, Rick Barnes, Fran Fraschilla, etc. That said, if you see that I’ve missed one, and you are a sane person, please let me know.  The tree unfurls after the jump:

Billy Hahn
Gary’s righthand man for 12 seasons left his alma mater in 2001 (of all the rotten luck) to coach LaSalle, which became embroiled in a sexual assault scandal that Hahn may or may not have abetted but cost him his job regardless. He later surfaced on the staff of a little outfit known as the West Virginia Mountaineers, who he just helped guide to their first Final Four in half a century. Will he ever be a head coach again? I don’t know. But he’s one hell of a good assistant.  I hung out with him once at a house party in the CP. That was fun.

Jimmy Patsos
Another longtime Gary sidekick (he was actually there a season longer than Hahn), Patsos left in 2004 to take over at Loyola.  In his tenure with the Greyhounds he has compiled a decent-considering-the-circumstances record of 83-99, and has received national ink for some unconventional coaching methods (please do yourself a favor and click all of those links). Seriously, the guy is like Gary Williams on speed. And he’s become something of a folk hero on the Loyola campus.

                                 — Matt Kovarik:  On the Terps bench for three seasons before following Patsos to Loyola. This guy, who in his playing days was known mainly for his dreaminess, actually has a pretty solid resume.

                                — Terrell Stokes: Worked under Patsos at Loyola for three seasons, and is now the assistant coach at the University of the District of Columbia. Go Firebirds.  He didn’t coach under Gary directly, but I’m still putting him on here.

Dave Dickerson
Or, as I like to call him, Dave “It Wasn’t My Game Plan It was Dave Dickerson Game Plan” Dickerson. During Maryland’s 2002 title run, after Indiana knocked off Duke in the Sweet Sixteen, then-Hoosier coach Mike Davis committed a well-intentioned but nonetheless embarrassing breach of etiquette when he publicly credited Dickerson for feeding him the winning strategy. Dickerson left Maryland in 2005 for a promising head coaching job at Tulane University. And then Katrina hit. Dickerson, and the program, never seemed to recover, and Dave resigned this March after going 68-84 with the Green Wave. He was promptly scooped up by Thad Matta and Ohio State.

Chuck Driesell
It’s a good situation for Driesell, who takes over a program that won 20 games in 2009. From the it’s-a-small-world department, former coach Ed Conroy took Dickerson’s old Tulane job.

Mike Lonergan
He gets like half a branch, as he was on the Terp staff just one season before going to Vermont. He really made his bones down the road at Catholic, where he won a D-III title in 2001.

                               — Matt Hahn — Billy’s son and now an assistant under Lonergan at Vermont. Another one to never actually serve on Gary’s staff, but still warrants mentioning.