GRE/USA - Pana's title-chasing Drew Nicholas remembers ex-Maryland coach Williams

BARCELONA (Euroleague) - Panathinaikos guard Drew Nicholas was exhausted but happy after helping Panathinaikos reach another title game in the Euroleague on Friday.

While hurriedly walking through the mixed zone at the Palau Sant Jordi in Barcelona after a 77-69 triumph over Montepaschi Siena, Nicholas did stop when hearing the name Gary Williams.

Nicholas plays for a great coach now in Panathinaikos boss Zeljko Obradovic, but he also played for one in four of the most important years of his life, when he was a student/athlete at the University of Maryland.

His coach was Gary Williams.

On Friday, before Panathinaikos even ran onto the floor, Williams had delivered a teary-eyed announcement in Maryland that he was retiring from coaching at the age of 66.

"He's had a great career," Nicholas said to FIBA.com.

"He must have got to the point where he wanted to stop.

"He can sit back and look at his career and really smile but obviously he'll be missed."

In modern day European basketball, the thinking goes that for basketball players with a lot of talent, it doesn't make sense to cross the Atlantic and play college basketball.

The reason is simple.

The NCAA - the judge, jury and enforcement official all rolled into one in college sports - doesn't allow players to spend as much time practicing with their coaches as professional clubs do here on the continent.

Student/athletes are just that.

They are students and need the right balance between time spent in the classroom, and on the hardwood.

Nicholas, one of the best shooters in Europe, says he would not have had it any other way.

He played for Williams from 1999 to 2003 and even helped the Terps capture the NCAA title in 2002.

Nicholas played 22 minutes in that NCAA Championship win over Indiana and scored seven points.

More important than the wins, though, were the lessons he learned from Williams about the importance of walking a straight line in life and doing the things he needed to do be successful.

"He turned me from a young kid into a man," Nicholas said.

"That's what the whole college experience is about.

"You come in there as a young, 18-year-old kid and you leave as a 22-year-old."

He got better as a player, too.

"He taught me a lot about basketball," Nicholas said.

There is the prevailing school of thought in Europe that players should go to clubs instead of playing college ball but Nicholas thinks otherwise.

"I tell them (European players) all the time and not just for the basketball, but the whole college experience," he said.

Nicholas turns 30 on May 17.

He is at the height of his career and knows there are only so many championships a player can win in his career.

Nicholas never gets tired of playing on the most important weekend of the year, whether it's in college or the pros.

"Never, absolutely never," he said.

"Final Fours are always a great experience and we're (Panathinaikos) just trying to do everything we can to try and play another good 40 minutes on Sunday."

At Maryland, the fans were rowdy and at Panathinaikos, it's just the same.

The noise by the green-clad supporters of Pana on Friday was constant, and loud.

"We heard our crowd," Nicholas said. "Let's put it that way.

"Our fans have been great all year long, the fans have come over here to support us and they were definitely a big impact on the game.

Now comes Sunday and a game against Maccabi Tel Aviv.

In that game, Nicholas will come up against another his former coaches.

Nicholas and Maccabi coach David Blatt were together at Benetton Treviso in the 2005-06 campaign.

"It's going to be another fight," Nicholas said.

"Once you get to the Final Four, all four teams have done something right to get there."

FIBA