Jerome Burney, the 6-9 power forward/center for the Terps will not be able to play this upcoming season due to continuing foot problems. The University of Maryland released this statement over the weekend .
“Junior forward Jerome Burney won’t play this season because of continuing foot problems, the team announced in a news release. Burney, 6 feet 9 and 222 pounds, has missed most of the past three seasons with foot injuries. He averaged 0.9 of a point and 1.9 rebounds in nine games last season after redshirting his freshman year and playing in 17 games in 2007-08. “Jerome is very much a part of this team even though he won’t be playing this year,” coach Gary Williams said in a statement. “We feel badly for Jerome that he never had the chance to be the college basketball player we all felt he could be because of his injuries.” Williams said Burney will remain with the team and is on track to graduate with a bachelor’s degree in kinesiology in May.”
This now puts the entire burden of playing center on two new faces, Jordan Williams and Steve Padgett, both of which are freshman coming in to Maryland. These two will need to learn fast or else it will be a similar season to last years. Both of these players have talent and this is Gary’s opportunity to build two young players from the ground up in solid basketball fundamentals in the ACC.
Don’t forget about Steve Goins. Hewill likely log some minutes in the post and Dino Gregory will likely start the season as the starting center.
Burney is actaully listed as the Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach on the Maryland Website. Good to see that he has a role this year, too bad about his injuries though.
Maryland announced Goins was going to transfer although he has not officially done so. He may have had a change on heart after Dupree announced his transfer.
Goins was actually invited back after Deshawn Painter chose NC State over the Terps in the spring. If Painter had committed to MD he would have been another big body that would have made Goins expendable.