The Maryland men’s basketball team’s national championship victory over Indiana in 2002 might feel like a lifetime ago for many Terps fans. But for the players and coaches who were at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta on April 1, the momentous achievement feels like it happened yesterday.
They vividly remember the nerves and the stadium shaking by the screams of 53,406 people. They remember competing in an ugly, defensive battle in which both teams struggled to find any offensive rhythm.
They also remember Juan Dixon. The Terps guard and Baltimore native orchestrated a four-year career in which he became the school’s all-time leading scorer, made two Final Four appearances, was named the 2002 Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Year and earned three league all-defensive team honors.
“Juan accomplished more than any player in the history of the University of Maryland,” former coach Gary Williams said. “Juan was special because he had this determination that you wouldn’t shake him. Juan would stay positive all the time and believe in himself.”
When shots weren’t falling and Indiana clawed its way back to take a two-point lead in the second half, it was the fearless Dixon who took over. He made two clutch shots that jump-started a 22-5 run and finished with a game-high 18 points to be named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player and secure the program’s first national title.
“It definitely wasn’t one of our better games,” former Terps guard Byron Mouton said. “There were a lot of nerves going into that game because it was all or nothing. At the end of the day, Juan Dixon and [former center] Lonny Baxter were our go-to players. Over the three years I was there, [Dixon] was a huge impact player.”
With Maryland celebrating its 2002 national championship team during its game against Ohio State on Sunday, The Baltimore Sun spoke with former players and coaches from that team to relive the night Dixon and the Terps rose to the top of the college basketball world.
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Interviews have been edited and condensed for clarity.
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Before the national championship, Maryland, which was ranked No. 4 in the Associated Press Top 25 poll, averaged 87.4 points while defeating opponents by an average margin of 14.4 points in five NCAA Tournament games. But with the stakes higher than ever, the nerves were felt early, as the Terps committed four of their 16 turnovers in the opening three minutes of the game.
Suddenly, Dixon, who did not respond to multiple interview requests for this article, provided a spark. He knocked down a corner 3-pointer before converting a pull-up jumper off an assist from guard Steve Blake to give the Terps an 11-5 lead.
— Williams: We were nervous. I mean, you get to the national championship game and walk out in front of [53,406] people, you are going to be a little nervous. I think Juan’s 3-pointer settled us down.
— Mouton: We were the better team but a little antsy. That’s going to happen on a stage like that. But all year, Juan was clutch for us. It didn’t surprise me that he was making plays because that’s what he was doing for us all year.
— Maryland assistant coach Jimmy Patsos: Juan always carried us. We were going to go off Juan’s energy. [Indiana] was chasing Juan all over but he wasn’t going to be denied. Juan was the best overall player I saw at Maryland.
Dixon was known for being a scorer, but his defense was just as valuable. He averaged 2.4 steals during his Maryland career, using his small size to trick opponents.
With 11:15 left in the first, Dixon read Indiana’s A.J Moye’s pass to Dane Fife perfectly, recording one of his five steals before racing down the floor for a layup to give the Terps a 19-8 lead. Dixon had nine of his team’s first 19 points.
— Williams: A lot of times, big scorers don’t exactly work that hard defensively, but Juan was tremendous. He was always looking for steals. He was always aggressive.
— Baxter: Juan was a very frail guy. So when people look at him, they think, “Oh, who was this skinny kid?” Over the years, he got better. Juan always played the passing lanes very well. That’s how he was able to get so many steals.
— CBS color commentator Billy Packer: When he was getting playing time early in his career, a lot of it was based on not only his offensive potential but the fact that he had the ability to be a defensive stopper. So even after he became a leading scorer, he still was playing great defense.
Maryland was up by 11 when the Hoosiers finally seized momentum. Dixon fouled Indiana senior guard Kyle Hornsby on a made 3-pointer. Hornsby missed the free throw, but Baxter’s pass to Blake was stolen by Moye, leading to a layup that cut Maryland’s lead to 29-23. Williams was stomping in frustration on the sideline with 1:01 remaining in the first half. Indiana’s Tom Coverdale converted a basket at the buzzer, and the Terps went into the locker room with a 31-25 lead.
— Williams: We were tight. There was no doubt about it. We didn’t relax shooting the basketball, but our defense carried us during that period. We had a couple of layups that we didn’t make. We had been making them all year. Unless you are really mentally tough, that can lose a game for you because you’re up nine and you got a chance to put the other team away early, and you have these easy shots and you don’t convert. All of a sudden, you give the other team some hope that they can come back against you. That’s what disappointed me in that first half.
— Mouton: When you play big games like that, you tend to rush a lot of offensive plays and don’t focus. But we were always a good defensive team and I think that’s what kept us in a lot of games.
— Patsos: It was a “grind it out” game. It’s funny because the game before it [the score] was 97-88 when we beat Kansas. Indiana was a good defensive team and we were all tired.
— Packer: I will be quite honest with you, Indiana exceeded expectations. I never thought they would be a Final Four team. I thought Maryland would handle them better than they did. I thought the Indiana kids played as good as they could play. It was a very surprising performance from my standpoint.
Early in the second half, Dixon’s first shot since the 10-minute mark of the first half was a 3-pointer that soared over the rim. Meanwhile, the Terps continued to look out of sync offensively. Blake threw a half-court lob to Mouton, who was short on the layup. Blake committed his fourth turnover of the evening when his inbound pass was stolen. Yet the Hoosiers’ inability to score for more than three minutes kept Maryland ahead 33-25 with 16:45 left in the game.
— Williams: We never really got in sync offensively, which is a shame, because we just scored 97 against a Kansas team that was rated much higher than Indiana during the year. Indiana played good defense and they worked hard. I knew we’re going to have to grind it. It wasn’t going to get pretty.
— Patsos: [Indiana] was a Bobby Knight-run team that was handed to Mike Davis. I know [Knight] had his issues but he was one of the toughest defensive coaches in the country. They were a little more patient. They were going to play man-to-man defense because that’s what they do.
— Packer: I did a lot of Final Fours and big games in times that I broadcast, and this was not one of the classic basketball games. It was a matter of more mental toughness than physical.
With Dixon limited to only one shot through the opening five minutes of the second half, Indiana appeared to be staging a comeback. Fife hit two 3-pointers to cut the Terps’ lead to 37-33, and the Hoosiers faithful started to make their presence felt inside the Georgia Dome. Moments later, Hornsby hit a 3-pointer and Dixon failed to make one of his own, resulting in a put-back layup from Jeff Newton at the other end that tied the game at 40 with 11:44 remaining.
— Williams: I think it’s easier to play from behind. When the other team has the lead, you have nothing to lose. [The Hoosiers] started firing threes and they made a couple. We played some zone, which really wasn’t our defense, but we were looking for ways to get the game changed.
— Patsos: My biggest concern was, don’t let [star Indiana forward] Jared Jeffries take over.
— Packer: Most teams that are underdogs in an NCAA championship game realize early that they are not going to be able to play with the better team. But then you have another team that the longer you let them stay in the game, they’ll say, “We won five games to get here, why can’t we win this too?” They are hard to put away and I think that’s what happened in this game.
Whenever the game was on the line and Maryland’s back was against the wall, Dixon never shied away from the moment. After Jeffries’ layup gave the Hoosiers their first lead of the game at 44-42, Dixon put his team — and the state — on his back.
Blake raced down the court splitting defenders before kicking the ball to Dixon, who knocked down a go-ahead 3-pointer. With the Terps up by one moments later, Dixon dribbled to the corner before knocking down a fadeaway jumper to give Maryland a 49-46 lead with 8:05 to go.
— Mouton: [Dixon] was a lion, man. He had been through a lot. It was a lot of people that doubted him, and he just didn’t care. That’s what made him a great player. He just fueled off that stuff. He knew that he was our leader and everybody believed in him. There was no pressure.
— Baxter: You’ve seen Juan score effortlessly all through his career. He had ice in his veins that night.
— Williams: Those two shots definitely changed the momentum back in our favor. That was Juan Dixon [during] his whole career. When it got really tough, Juan wanted the ball. There are a lot of guys out there that are good scorers, but when the game’s on the line, they don’t necessarily want to take that big shot because everybody’s watching. Juan wanted the ball and had the toughest mindset as a scorer. He knew he was going to make those shots, and as a team, we thought we were going to win the game even though it was still a [three-point] game.
— Packer: That’s what really good players do. And he was not only a really good player, he had mental toughness. And Gary Williams had the same kind of mental attitude. I think that combination of the two of them really hit it off and what brought that championship.
A year after a heartbreaking defeat to Duke in the 2001 FInal Four, Maryland’s dreams were finally close to coming true. The Terps used a 22-5 run to take a 15-point lead over the Hoosiers with less than two minutes remaining. However, they didn’t care. The Duke loss stayed with them even though they were on the verge of history.
— Williams: You coach for 40 minutes. I don’t care if you’re playing an exhibition game preseason. That’s just the way I operated. But there was time in there, coming down the stretch, to realize what exactly was going on. It was there. [We] had a chance to win it.
— Mouton: Let me tell you, the year before we were up 10 with a minute left and lost to Duke. We’re going to celebrate when that clock hits zero and the horn goes off. We were not celebrating before the game was over. Definitely not doing that again.
— Patsos: When you work for Gary Williams, you don’t celebrate until the game is over. He goes right down to the last minute.
— Packer: Once Maryland put themselves in a position to get in control of the game, I think Indiana returned to the level I anticipated.
Dixon started dribbling the seconds away before Maryland was called for a shot-clock violation. Indiana’s Donald Perry made a 3-pointer with 0.8 seconds left, but it didn’t matter at that point. Holden sent an inbound pass to Dixon, who launched the ball into the air celebrating Maryland’s first national title. Soon after, Dixon, the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player, embraced Baxter and the rest of his teammates on the court, as they had just cemented their place in college basketball history.
— Williams: Nothing against Indiana, but I was hoping to keep them under 50 points because that was hardly done in a championship game in the NCAA Tournament. But they hit a [3-pointer] from about 35 feet. We just gave it to them because the clock was running down.
— Baxter: It was one of the greatest times of my life. Being from the state and seeing the guys that came before me, it was a dream come true.
— Mouton: That was our goal from Day One. National championship or nothing. And we did it. That was the greatest feeling in the world. Winning a national championship as a senior and leaving that way. It almost brought tears to my eyes.
— Patsos: It was Juan Dixon’s night. It was Juan Dixon’s tournament. But to have that banner hanging, that puts you on a different level as a program.
Where are they now?
— After a historic college career, Juan Dixon was drafted by the Washington Wizards with the 17th overall pick in the first round of the 2002 NBA draft. Dixon’s NBA career spanned seven years with four teams (Wizards, Portland Trail Blazers, Toronto Raptors, Detroit Pistons). Dixon, 43, is in his fifth season as coach for the Coppin State men’s basketball team.
— Lonny Baxter was selected by the Chicago Bulls in the second round of the 2002 draft. During Baxter’s professional career, he played four seasons with four different teams in the NBA and also played overseas in Russia, Italy, Venezuela and Turkey. Baxter, 43, is currently working as a car salesman at Jim Coleman Honda in Clarksville.
— Byron Mouton played professionally in Germany, France, China and the Dominican Republic. Mouton, 43, founded and still runs a youth basketball program in Maryland called 6th Man Sports while serving as a coach for Lanham Christian School in Prince George’s County.
— Gary Williams, 76, coached at Maryland for 22 seasons, guiding the Terps to two Final Fours, a national championship and 14 NCAA Tournament appearances, before retiring in 2011. Williams, a two-time ACC Coach of the Year, won 668 games during his coaching career at Maryland, Ohio State, Boston College and American University. He was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2014.
— Billy Packer, 81, is a retired broadcaster who spent three decades as a color commentator for college basketball. Packer worked at NBC from 1974 to 1981 before joining CBS (1981-2008). Packer covered every NCAA championship game and Final Four from 1975 to 2008.
— After serving as an assistant coach at Maryland for 13 seasons, Jimmy Patsos spent nine years as the head men’s basketball coach at Loyola Maryland and five seasons as the coach at Siena. Patsos, 55, serves as an analyst for NBC Sports Washington and a basketball consultant for Under Armour.
