The Jin Soo Choi era is over at Maryland, so much so that any mention of him in the game notes is limited to the box scores of the games he appeared in.
He's also been taken off the roster page on Maryland's website.
So when the topic of Choi arose today in College Park, Gary Williams didn't initially offer much --- effectively suggesting that a player who had played 10 minutes in the last six games wasn't going to be a massive hit to Maryland's rotation.
Given a follow-up question, he did elaborate on Choi's language issues and how they related to his academics. That combination prompted Choi to return to his native Korea earlier this week.
"He was given every opportunity," Williams said. "It's hard to come in when you don't know the language well. We have a good program here on campus that Sarunas Jasikevicius and Greivis Vasquez went through, and they were able to get up to speed through that program. In Jin Soo's situation, that just didn't happen. All I care is that he's successful after this, that he goes back to Korea and has a good professional career if that's what he wants to do."
While the language barrier hurt, it's worth re-emphasizing that he wasn't a great fit on the floor, either, given the Terps' roster composition. Choi's skillset suggested he was a small forward, and there's certainly enough guys his size playing the three.
Ultimately, trying to make him into something he was not --- a post player --- out of necessity led to nearly as many struggles as his communication issues.
"I'm sure the style of play from where he came from is like the European [game] where he's just out there shooting 3s and handling the ball and playing like a guard," guard Eric Hayes said. "The way he was built wasn't really built [to be] a four man in the ACC. I think that kind of hurt him as well."
Comments