There won't be a yarmulke in Cole Field House after all.
In a peculiar debacle that captivated ACC basketball circles but flew under the radar of much of the national media, high school senior Tamir Goodman declined a basketball scholarship to Maryland that he had accepted last January.
Goodman, you'll recall, is the paper-thin, 6-foot-3 shooting guard from Baltimore who averaged 35 points per game in a small private-school league.
He is also an Orthodox Jew who, in observance of the Sabbath, won't play or practice on Friday nights or Saturdays-no exceptions.
Not that any of that mattered to Terps coach Gary Williams and his staff, who fell so deeply in love with Goodman last winter that they offered the then-junior a scholarship on the spot. They didn't want anyone else in on their secret.
It was a very lovely honeymoon, indeed, with Goodman gaining national notoriety and even showing up in the pages of Sports Illustrated. Williams drew some praise for having the audacity to take a player who might only be available six (or five-and-a-half) days a week.
What a spectacle it was going to be: the kid they called "The Jewish Jordan" making his mark on the nation's top conference.
But the bliss was short-lived. Frustrated with reports that Goodman was
Using highly subtle methods like a basketball-office "leak" to The Baltimore Sun last week, Williams allegedly tried to plant seeds of doubt in Goodman's mind that he belonged at Maryland.
The shameful tactics worked, and shortly after a heated meeting with Tamir and his mother, Williams received word via voicemail that Goodman was out.
"It was very discouraging," Goodman was quoted as saying after the meeting. "It would have been better off if they would have said [in January], 'we would love to have you as a player, but I'm not sure the Sabbath can be worked out.' I would have said 'thank you' and moved on.
"You don't promise a kid a birthday present, and then not give it to him."
It was a harsh end to a storybook romance. It was also a disgrace to the University of Maryland and an ugly installment in the Gary Williams soap opera.
While Williams' work ethic and dedication to his alma mater are beyond question, his on-court antics and occasional hotheaded comments off the court are a recurring embarrassment for the entire conference.
What happened this time, Gary? Did you get tired of all the whispers or did you just make a colossal mistake in judging talent?
It shouldn't have taken the wisdom of an elderly rabbi to figure out that a kid who stands 6-foot-3 and weighs 160 pounds is probably going to get pushed around in the ACC.
Maybe Goodman isn't the real deal. Maybe he did fake a knee injury at a summer camp to avoid having to measure up against the nation's top players. Maybe Terps assistant coach Billy Hahn was imagining things when he reportedly watched Goodman sink nine consecutive 30-footers.
But none of that would be an excuse for throwing away a 17-year-old kid like yesterday's garbage. Players can't back out of verbal agreements without a harsh backlash-just ask Ron Curry.
And those are just kids. Coaches deserve even less leeway when it comes to honoring their word.
There never seemed to be any doubt where Goodman was coming from; you'll find references to his religious commitment ("adheres to a kosher diet and wears a yarmulke, even on the court," wrote the Associated Press in amazement) in every newspaper feature.
The only questions seemed to be in the mind of Williams, who perhaps dreamed that he could talk Tamir into playing on Saturdays.
UPON FURTHER REVIEW is a weekly column written by a Chronicle columnist. It appears every Wednesday.
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