- The Washington Times - Thursday, October 31, 2024

Year one was a streaking supernova across the Big Ten for Maryland basketball under Kevin Willard. Year two brought high expectations that crashed soon after launch. How do he and his Terrapins reset in year three?

Instead of relying on talented freshmen — plural — as he did last season, the Maryland coach believes he has found the answer to the Terrapins offensive woes via both the transfer portal and a singular, dynamic freshman: Derik Queen.

“Derik’s a top 10 player. Derik, if I was an NBA GM, I would draft him in a heartbeat,” Willard said. “I think there’s a huge difference in the fact that he’s a, probably a once in a lifetime, generational talent. I mean, he is as skilled a big man as I’ve ever seen on the court.”

The 6-foot-10, 245 pound Baltimore five-star made waves when he chose to stay home instead of taking offers from Kansas, Indiana, and Houston. A braces-clad smile hides his tenacity and dominance, a big man that can glide through the post with the ease of vintage greats, according to Willard.

“You watch him play, and he looks like he’s playing like you’re watching a 1960s slow motion NBA basketball player,” Willard said. “And when I say that, people are like, ‘Oh?’ But then he goes out and gets 24 [points] and 12 [rebounds] in 20 minutes.”

In addition to Queen’s superlatives — “the best young player in the country,” says Willard — he gets the benefit of playing in the front court with senior Julian Reese, who has experienced the rigors of the Big Ten and is also a friend. Teammates during Queen’s lone season at Baltimore’s St. Frances Academy in 2020-21, the duo gets to reprise their roles in College Park.

“[He’s been] everything I imagined him coming in to be,” Reese said. “Great player on and off the court, great kid, great attitude all the time, really down to earth kid … a sponge and just ready to learn all day, every day.”

Reese has had the benefit of playing with and learning from memorable Maryland players in his first three seasons. Now the most tenured Terrapin, he’s worked on himself after a near double-double season (13.7 points, 9.5 rebounds) in order to be the primary leader.

“Kind of had to take a look in the mirror, looking at my season last year, just sharpening those things so other guys don’t follow in the wrong direction. Just making sure I’m staying in the game and staying out of foul trouble and doing things to help the team win,” Reese said. “Ultimately, being more of a vocal leader guy instead of just leading by direction.”

New additions supplementing Queen and Reese are guards with Division I experience, Selton Miguel (Kansas State, South Florida) and Ja’Kobi Gillespie (Belmont), who collectively will be counted on to pick up some of the scoring that Jahmir Young, now with the NBA’s Denver Nuggets, provided.

“With Ja’Kobi, getting someone that shot a high percentage from the three point line was major, and a guy that had played at a pretty good level and was used to physicality … where Selton kind of came in was, I didn’t want to have to be stuck with what Jahmir had to do last year was, unfortunately, being the only guy that could create offense,”  Willard said.

They bring their skills to College Park lured by the chance of success, but also because of the new dominant force in college recruiting.

“I don’t like it, but the reality of the situation is that we had more money to be more aggressive early in the portal than we were before,” Willard said of Maryland’s increased name, image and likeness budget. “And so we were able to be aggressive with Jacoby. We were able to be aggressive with guys like Selton, that when we got them on campus for visits, that we just didn’t mess around.”

Willard admitted last season that he was overly reliant and placed too much on a talented trio of local freshmen, leading to only the second losing season for UMD since 1989. Two of them, Jaime Kaiser Jr. (Butler) and Jahnathan Lamothe (N.C. A&T) transferred out, while Deshawn Harris-Smith returns for his sophomore season.

“He came in with a lot of big expectations last year. I thought he had a very good year, but he didn’t shoot the basketball overly well, and that kind of weighed on him a little bit,” Willard said. “He’s kind of gotten away from putting the stress on his shooting and really focused more on just being the playmaker that we know he is, and I just think that is going to help him tremendously have such a better year.”

Harris-Smith’s near 10 points-per-game average across his final seven games in 2023-24 were proof of his abilities, and the Paul VI grad is out to make more people notice.

“I’m just looking forward to proving if anybody switched up on me, proving them wrong this year. And then, for everybody that’s still behind me, proving them right. I mean, that’s really my biggest thing. Just going out there showing everybody I’m the player I could be.”

There’s no general sense yet, Willard says, of Maryland’s identity. Last year’s Jekyll-and-Hyde approach provided chances for the Terrapins to stay in games with their Big Ten-best 65.7 scoring defense, but a 41.3% field goal percentage (second-worst in the conference) and 28.4% from three (ninth-worst nationally) sapped opportunities for wins.

“I’m not sure what we are,” Willard said. “I like this group, but I’m not sure if we’re going to be a great defensive team, or we’re just going to be a team that runs up and down and jacks it up, because we do have some guys that like to play fast. So we’re definitely a work in progress right now.”

• George Gerbo can be reached at ggerbo@washingtontimes.com.

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