Willard era at Maryland begins with a win

COLLEGE PARK — Kevin Willard had more time than usual before the first game of the season Monday.

Chalk that up to a win for Maryland’s campus logistics, or at least a better commute than he had at Seton Hall, which played its home games at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.

“I didn’t have to commute down to the arena. I didn’t know what to do,” Willard said with a laugh. “I had so much time, I worked out twice.”

Willard’s first game as Maryland’s coach was successful, if at times sloppy, with the Terrapins beating Niagara, 71-49.

“I’m proud of this team are proud of this staff,” Willard said, clad in Maryland flag cufflinks and a red patterned tie gifted from noted Terrapin supporter Scott Van Pelt. “It’s been a crazy seven months to put together this roster and get these guys playing.”

Forward Donta Scott led all scorers with 18 points and added six rebounds while looking revitalized, probably thanks to the 25 pounds he shed in the offseason. The Philadelphia native’s quickness showed on both ends of the floor, something that will be necessary in Willard’s fast-paced offense, as he added six rebounds. 

“I wanted him to get gassed. I wanted him to be tired,” Willard said of Scott’s 35 minutes of game time. “Just because I think it’s good for him going forward.”

The fast pace forced Niagara into 12 turnovers, especially when Maryland turned up its full-court pressure in the second half. But if you live by that kind of pace, you die by it, with Maryland struggling near the end of the first half and in much of the second to hang on to the ball, committing 10 giveaways of its own. The total wasn’t an issue for Willard, who was more concerned with the ratio.

“I’d like to see [Niagara] have more turnovers. I mean, if they had 15 turnovers, and we had 10, I’d be pretty happy with a plus-five differential,” Willard said. “For as fast as we’re playing, as many guys are touching the ball, and being your first game to have 12 assists, 10 turnovers, I’m pretty happy with that.”

Guard Jahmir Young added 14 points with seven rebounds and four assists in his first game as a Terrapin. He started slow, with only 5 first-half points, something Willard attributed to adjusting to a new system.

“Jahmir Young is a heck of a point guard,” Willard said. “And he’s still trying to figure out, this is a totally different system that he’s used to playing. And I thought he changed the tempo on offense. And then he changed it on defense.”

The former DeMatha Stag came home in the offseason after transferring from Charlotte, and his first game in Maryland colors was a special one.

“It was exciting, it was fun,” the Upper Marlboro, Maryland, native said. “My whole family came out, all my friends and family. So just to be able to get this first one in front of them was special.”

“We’re only assigned like four tickets, but I had like 30 people come. It was hard getting everybody tickets.”

Willard talked on Friday about how important Maryland’s rotation would would be entering the season. He went to one version of it early, with Jahari Long, Noah Batchelor, Patrick Emilien and Ian Martinez all getting seven-plus minutes of first-half action, combining for 12 points.

In a moment of self-reflection, Willard blamed himself for the jumbled wave of substitutions, calling it “bad coaching.”

“It was wasn’t the players fault,” Willard said. “It was my fault, because I put in terrible lineups that hadn’t practiced together and we didn’t know what the heck we were doing. And so we just started standing around. But I’m trying to see what certain guys can do and trying to get as many guys game experience as possible.”

Niagara pounded Maryland inside, with 34 of its 49 points coming inside the paint. Sophomore Julian Reese took the brunt of that, struggling especially early to prevent Niagara’s Sam Iorio from backing him down. Iorio finished with 12 points, and teammate Braxton Bayless had 14 to lead the Purple Eagles.

The Terrapins opened the second half missing five of their first seven shots as Niagara cut the lead to its closest point to 4. Young woke up the Terrapins with back-to-back scores, keyed by one of Martinez’s five steals. It pushed Maryland’s lead to 43-35.

“Everyone reacts to how your point guard is playing,” Willard said of Young. “And when he kind of turned the boosters on, he got after it. I think he just gave everyone else a little a little energy and a little, a little motion, and I thought that was a difference.

Niagara didn’t score for more than six minutes in the middle of the second half while turning the ball over five times. Maryland then began to pull away, with Scott adding a pair of threes and a fast-break dunk late to punctuate the win.

“Over time, we’ve got to get better every day. And this new era, we’re gonna make it our era,” Scott said. “We’re gonna make it the best we can make it, and that starts by just practicing every day to the best of our ability, stepping on the court, and showing our talents.”