Under The Shell: Tom McMillen

Ahmed Ghafir
1 day ago
4 min read

To discuss Michael Locksley’s return for year eight in College Park, Under the Shell spoke with Maryland Board of Regent and former Terps basketball player Tom McMillen. The podcast discussed Jim Smith’s vote of confidence in Locksley, how to potentially fix Maryland’s lack of resources and the Big Ten equity deal.

McMillen is a former Terp, a congressman and an Olympian. He played in the NBA for several seasons after starring at Maryland, before landing on becoming a politician.

He’s one of the most interesting figures in Maryland athletics history and provided a unique perspective on all the financial and administrative aspects of Terps’ sports. Here’s what McMillen had to say.

Make sure to like and subscribe to Under The Shell on YouTube and Apple Podcasts!

Sponsored by Catalyst Hot Dogs. Make sure you check out Catalyst Hot Dogs outside section 14 at SECU Stadium and section 210 at Xfinity Center on gamedays!

Make sure to like and subscribe to the Inside the Black & Gold YouTube channel to stay up-to-date with all your latest Terps’ news with fall sports picking up.

Q: What do you think went into Maryland’s and Jim Smith’s decision to keep Michael Locksley?

A: “I mean, it's a tough decision. You see all these coaches being fired across the landscape. Personally, I find these buyouts, these couple hundred million dollar buyouts in the last six months, I quite frankly think they're outrageous. I mean, here we're spending this kind of money to pay for coaches who really failed. And so I kind of admire Jim for not getting on that coaching carousel.

“I know some fans may be upset because they say, you know, we're not going to win, we’re going to be behind the eight ball here. I think that what's happening in college sports is that there's going to be a reaction to this. I don't know how it will materialize. But when schools are spending this kind of money to really pay a coach to leave, I think it's just crazy. So for Maryland's case, I think they would have to pay Locksley like $10 million, then they're going to spend a lot of money on a new coach. I think strategically, I think Jim said, look, you know, let's focus on getting resources together. Let's kind of follow the Indiana model where they really up their resources going into football and let's see what that will bring about. So it's a tough decision, but I think that he recognizes that Locksley is a good coach.”

Q: Where will the resources come from that Smith mentioned?

A: “Well, it's a good question. So I serve on the board. Maryland traditionally, amongst all the big 10 schools, is really at the bottom of fundraising, both for the general university and for the athletic department. I think we're down with Rutgers as raising the least amount of money. So I view that as an opportunity.

“And I think Jim is going to engage at all levels to try to raise money. I mean, one of the failures in Maryland over the years is that, you know, we have this great group of alumni, but we haven't stayed connected to it.”

And so I think there's got a lot of work that has to be done on engagement because why are we at the bottom of the pack is because we don't engage. Maryland has to kind of up its game to get reconnected to these mass alumni around the state, around the country, because I think there are, I think there are fertile grounds to plow. And I think we have to try all that, to get our resources up.”

Q: How do you feel about the potential Big Ten equity deal?

A: “For years, I’ve been working on trying to consolidate television rights in college sports—sort of like the NFL, addressing some antitrust issues. In fact, I introduced legislation in 1991 to do that.

My position has been that our board isn’t involved in this decision because the bylaws at Maryland are somewhat antiquated for dealing with it. But I think any board—whether a Big Ten board or otherwise—should demand whatever information it needs to evaluate the deal, including bringing in third-party experts. That’s how multi-billion-dollar deals are done.

A lot of us don’t know much about the deal itself, so I hesitate to comment on it directly. I’ll talk about the process: it should be open and transparent. But the bigger question is what this means for college sports.

It’s really an uncultivated landscape, so to speak, with plenty of pros and cons. But clearly, college sports has a spending problem. Costs keep going up—facilities, operations, everything. And now that they’re going to be paying players, maybe twenty-plus million a year, those costs are only going to continue rising.”

Q: Fondest memory of Lefty Driesell?

A: “Well, it had to do with our trips to North Carolina. It was always tough going down to Tobacco Road to play, but Lefty made it particularly difficult. He was very superstitious. He’d always give us little black cats as good-luck charms. And whenever we went to Chapel Hill or Raleigh, if we didn’t win a game, we never stayed at that hotel again. Lefty would leave and never go back. His superstitions got to us after a while because, over the years, it became harder and harder to find hotels down in North Carolina.

But that was one of the most interesting things about him. He was a larger-than-life person. He really cared about his players, and he truly put Maryland on the map. My brother played here six years before I did—with Gary Williams—and back then people went to Cole Field House during games because it was a good place to study. There were no fans in the stands. Lefty changed all of that. Cole Field House was sold out every game.

He believed it was his duty to fill the arena, and he went to great lengths to do it. We were sold out almost every game of my career. It just shows he wasn’t only a great basketball coach—he was a promoter.”

Related Links