You may recall Maryland's men's basketball assistants were the lowest paid collectively among the eight public schools in the ACC last year.
Also, Maryland assistants Keith Booth and Robert Ehsan were the only men's basketball assistants at ACC public schools guaranteed less than $100,000.
Not anymore.
According to contracts obtained through open records requests, Maryland assistants Bino Ranson, Ehsan and Booth are guaranteed a combined $432,961.
Last year, Booth, Ehsan and Chuck Driesell started the season assured of $295,789 between them, though bonuses eventually bumped that figure up considerably. Maryland's three assistants received a 46.4 percent increase in guaranteed pay over last season.
Some of the bump was accounted for by Ranson, who was hired to replace Driesell. Ranson is guaranteed $177,440, a figure only three of the 24 ACC public school assistants surpassed last season. All three --- Virginia's Ritchie McKay, North Carolina's Steve Robinson and N.C. State's Monte Towe --- are former head coaches. Ranson is not.
Driesell, who was Maryland's top assistant before taking the head coaching job at The Citadel, was assured $129,468 before bonuses last year.
Ehsan was also a beneficiary of Maryland's increased generosity with its basketball staff. The 28-year-old was guaranteed just $66,440 at the start of last season; this year, he's assured of $140,440 --- more than double his old total.
Booth is assured $115,081, up from $99,881 a year ago --- a 15.2 percent pay increase.
The Terp assistants' collective pay of $432,961 would have ranked in the middle of the pack last year, behind Virginia, North Carolina and N.C. State, just ahead of Florida State and Clemson and considerably ahead of Virginia Tech and Georgia Tech.
Given the Maryland staff's respective levels of experience (Ranson and Booth are both in their seventh years as a full-time Division I assistant; Ehsan is in his third season), the Terps' on-court success the last few years and the absence of a coaching change at the top (which tends to lead to money getting thrown around for assistants), that's a logical placement. Virginia brought in a new staff last year, North Carolina is two seasons removed from a national title and N.C. State has arguably the most experienced staff in the ACC.
The bonus structures in the contracts of Maryland assistants remain unchanged from the start of last season. Ranson can earn a maximum $54,000 in bonuses (the same figure as Driesell's contract entering last year stipulated), while Booth and Ehsan can both receive up to $45,500 in bonuses. The bonuses in all three assistants' contracts are based on athletic and academic benchmarks.
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