Terps' Gilchrist Won't Believe the Hype

Guard Keeps Working as Stature Grows

Point guard John Gilchrist will lead Maryland in the season opener against Jackson State on Friday. The Terps will rely on Gilchrist to negotiate a backcourt-heavy conference. (Jonathan Newton - The Washington Post)

There have been times after Maryland games when John Gilchrist and his family go out to dinner only to be approached by strangers who inform them how much money the player can make next season as a professional. Composed and polite, Gilchrist and his parents ask the men to back off.

There already have been times during a Maryland game this season when Gilchrist repeatedly jumped into the air with unbridled enthusiasm, slammed a water bottle and contorted his facial muscles into a grimace after the smallest miscue on the court. And these occurred during exhibition games.

Emotional and poised? Those closest to Gilchrist describe the 20-year-old as both.

"He's like two different people," teammate Chris McCray said. "On the court, he's like a maniac, just running around and wanting to make things happen. Off the court, he is just quiet, sits by himself, not trying to even talk."

Often, Gilchrist is unpredictable and unrelenting, his energy serving as his biggest strength and challenge. In his own words printed in the team's media guide, the most important traits Gilchrist has learned at Maryland: how to remain consistent and persistent.

Those characteristics, as much as anything, will play a large role in determining the future of Maryland this season. The 15th-ranked Terps open tonight against Jackson State, taking the Comcast Center floor as an experienced group that will rely heavily on their point guard to negotiate a back-court heavy conference. Gilchrist, a junior who hails from Virginia Beach, believes the community has come to embrace his style of play only over time.

"When people talk about my emotions, I don't know anyone who plays or who does anything they are passionate about and doesn't show emotion," Gilchrist said. "When I first came here, all I heard was, 'Oh, he's totally different than Steve Blake. He's not Steve Blake.' It almost sounded like it was a negative, and it wasn't until last year when I really got a chance to show myself. And I'm not Steve Blake. I'm John Gilchrist. And I only know how to be me, and that's how it is."

During the 2002-03 season, Gilchrist served as an apprentice under Blake, the former point guard who had helped the Terps win the national title the year before. That year, Gilchrist said, he got into a fight with Blake during what teammates described as an offseason pickup game, an altercation that taught Gilchrist two things. He learned the intensity with which Maryland players compete, and he learned the scrutiny that Maryland players are under. Word of the fight trickled onto the Internet, and Gilchrist soon got calls from players around the country wanting to know what occurred.

Another lesson came toward the end of last season, when Gilchrist studied Duke senior Chris Duhon, who sacrificed the scoring prowess he demonstrated in high school for the betterment of the team.

"When I used to watch him on TV, I really didn't have the greatest of respect for him as an individual player," Gilchrist said. "But when I got an opportunity to play against him and see how he controlled everything and the flow of the game. . . . He was the extension of the coach on the floor. He might have been a little bit too unselfish his senior year, but I learned about the leadership ability watching him."

Gilchrist demonstrated that leadership in earnest in March, when he delivered one of the most impressive three-day runs in ACC tournament history. Gilchrist averaged 24 points and more than six rebounds as Maryland won its first ACC tournament title in 20 years.

Much of Gilchrist's competitiveness stems from the fact that he was physically slight growing up. When he entered high school, his longtime coach Bill Cochrane said, Gilchrist was 5 feet 9, 135 pounds and could do one pull-up. By his senior year, he stood 6-2, weighed 182 pounds and could perform more than 20 pull-ups, bench 225 pounds and do 52 push-ups in a minute. The drive, Gilchrist said, is shared by many in the Virginia Beach area who strive for success amid doubters with the idea that "We have a chip on our shoulder, and when we make it, it's like, 'Okay, who's laughing now?' "

"Some of that [energy] comes from being the little guy in pickup games, not knowing if I'm going to get picked up again, ever or all day," said Gilchrist, who is now 6-3, 194 pounds. "I had an older brother [Roderick] and would run around him at the basketball court. I'd just be out there so long someone feels sorry for me and picks me up."

Gilchrist acknowledged that he was not very social when he arrived at Maryland in fall 2002 because he was accustomed to a core group. Gilchrist never had an entourage like other standouts in Boo Williams's vaunted Virginia summer-league program. And Gilchrist purposely retains only a small group of supporters now because attention has heightened.

His picture graces covers of preseason basketball magazines. One NBA draft Web site projects Gilchrist will be selected 10th this spring, even though Gilchrist has given no indication that he will forgo his senior season. Co-workers sometimes approach his father, John Gilchrist, at work to say he can retire next season when his son becomes a millionaire, even though the father has no plans to retire for eight more years.

"People might see my on-court demeanor and see that I'm aggressive," Gilchrist said, "and see me off the court that I'm very approachable. Well, even that's become a stretch now because you have a lot of people coming up around you. If things start to get a little hectic, you might not want to be approached. It's not that you're conceited, but it's your space, and you need it."

One of the aspects of college basketball that most concerns Coach Gary Williams is the media's preoccupation with celebrating individuals, deeming them NBA-ready long before they get a chance to settle on a college campus. Hype doesn't seem to affect Gilchrist, who, according to many, has matured in Williams's program.

Williams, asked if Gilchrist has needed to channel his energy, said: "Everybody has to play to his personality, I've always believed in that. That's true with coaches, too; whatever you are, you can't be a phony."