COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- Lefty Driesell has lost most of his hair, but what he has points skyward lately because of public criticism of his Maryland basketball program.
The 20th-ranked Terrapins, who end the regular season Saturday visiting third-ranked Virginia, are 18-7 overall and 9-5 in the Atlantic Coast Conference after two straight victories and seem to have shaken out of some early-February doldrums.
From several corners have come Driesell's critics, mainly in letters to Washington newspapers and callers to area talk shows. Several have been asking for Driesell's ouster and want Morgan Wootten, highly-successful coach at DeMatha High School in Hyattsville, Md., just a long jump shot from the Maryland campus, as his replacement.
'I'm tired of picking up the paper every Sunday and reading that I can't coach,' snarled Driesell Thursday. 'There's one thing I can do and that's coach. Since I've been at Maryland, we've won more ACC games and ACC tournament games than all but one team (North Carolina).
'Only one coach is doing better (Dean Smith at North Carolina). He took over a school that had won the national championship two or three (five) years before, and he ain't won one since he's been there.'
He said no one has criticized him personally.
'I weigh 240 pounds and I'll smack somebody in the face who'd say that,' said Driesell. 'Ain't none of 'em said it to my face.'
'If they (Maryland officials) want to fire me, all they have to do is buy up my contract. If I got fired today, I could go to another school and have them in the top 10 in two years, too.'
Driesell, 49, has a 241-99 record in his 12th season at Maryland. His Davidson teams went 176-65 after his high school teams were 97-15.
'I took Davidson into the top 10 and they were never there before and haven't been since,' said Driesell. 'Maryland was in the top 10 once before I came here and that was because they got lucky and won the ACC tournament one year.
'I even recruited the only Rhodes Scholar (Tom McMillen) in the history of this (Maryland) school. There ain't no other department in this school ranked in the top 10, neither.
'I'm makin' more than $100,000-a-year now and I started coaching for $3,200-a-year. If that ain't improving, I don't know what is. I may not throw out the Xs and Os like some coaches, but I can coach.
'Coaches are rated on their wins and losses and I'm second in the country among active coaches (behind Smith). You don't get to be second in the country if you can't coach.'
Driesell said he has tried to telephone some of the letter writers, but discovered the writers 'ain't listed in the phone book and information ain't never heard of them, either.'
Criticism of Driesell has come after Maryland was successful last year with a team made up of underclassmen. The Terrapins topped the ACC in the regular season last year, lost the ACC tournament final, 73-72, to Duke and fell, 74-68, to Georgetown in the NCAA East Regional.
Maryland lost only to defending national champion Louisville, 78-67, in its first 11 games this season, but split its next 12 games and fell to 6-5 in the ACC.
