Maryland basketball kicks off the 2024-25 season in less than two months with media under one month away in College Park as Kevin Willard inches closer to kicking off his third season in College Park.
Maryland will look for its portal additions to take the lead as Ja’Kobi Gillespie and Selton Miguel take over the backcourt while Rodney Rice
and Tafara Gapare round out the backcourt and frontcourt rotation, but the Terps will also turn to Derik Queen to become a key piece in the frontcourt with offseason buzz around the prized five-star signee. While Gillespie was ranked the third-highest impact transfer this offseason, college basketball analyst Jon Rothstein tabbed Queen among his 25 most impactful freshmen in the upcoming season.
Via Rothstein: An offensive freak, the 6-10 Queen has a smooth touch that extends to the elbow and potentially, the three-point line. While he still needs to improve his body and overall conditioning, Queen is still a force at center. He’ll pair with Julian Reese to give the Terps a lethal power forward/center combo.
As the St. Frances tandem reunites in College Park one last time, head coach Kevin Willard previously said the duo will likely see “12 to 15 minutes a game” together on the floor.
“Luckily Derik’s been on campus since June and obviously has been here the whole time. You know what's really what's really been interesting was one we had them on the court at the same time, unfortunately someone's got to guard either one of those. No team has played two bigs. And so the mismatches that we've been able to create, the way they've been able to work high-lows. They've been able to work very well together. Just understanding, they're both very smart basketball players, extremely smart. And so kind of the talking to each other about, I got this mismatch. You have this mismatch. Let's do some roll, replace, get some guys ducking in. They really worked well together and the true part is they're probably not going to be on the court together all that much. Obviously starting the games, big guys get in foul trouble, big guys have to get subs.”
While the full Big Ten schedule has yet to be announced, the season-opener is set for Nov. 4 vs. Manhattan.
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