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Hall of Fame basketball coach Lefty Driesell died Saturday at age 92, his family told The Baltimore Sun.
Driesell won 786 games with Davidson (1960-1969), Maryland (1969-1986), James Madison (1988-1997) and Georgia State (1997-2003), and in 2018. He was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame.
Driesell spent 17 seasons at the University of Maryland, leading the Terrapins to eight NCAA Tournament appearances and the 1972 NIT championship. His 348 wins at College Park are second in program history behind Gary Williams, who led Maryland to a national championship in 2002.
Before Driesell was hired, the University of Maryland had not appeared in the NCAA Tournament in 11 years, and Driesell famously described his new program as the “UCLA of the East.”
Driesell is often credited with inventing the tradition of “Midnight Madness” in college basketball, where fans flocked to watch the team's first practice of the season.
“Lefty Driesell was a transcendent figure in college basketball and the man who put Maryland basketball on the map,” Maryland athletic director Damon Evans said in a statement Saturday. Stated. “Lefty, a Hall of Famer, was an innovator and a man ahead of his time from his on-court coaching to off-the-court marketing. From his starting role on Midnight Madness to his pitching to a sold-out Cole Fieldhouse crowd. Lefty did it all until it became nationally televised.”
Driesell was forced out in 1986 after the death of Len Bias, the No. 2 overall pick in that year's draft, who died of a cocaine-induced heart attack. After he was expelled, he was reassigned to an administrative position at the University of Maryland, but returned to coach at James Madison University two years later.
Maryland had seven first-round picks during Driesell's tenure: Bias, Tom McMillen, Len Elmore, John Lucas, Brad Davis, Albert King and Buck Williams.
“His contributions to the game go far beyond wins and losses, and he won a lot,” former Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said when Driesell was inducted into the Hall of Fame. “This is an honor he has had for a long time.”
“He was one of the best players to ever do it,” longtime Georgetown coach John Thompson said in 2012.
Contributed by: Associated Press