Maryland men’s basketball placed three on the All-Big Ten teams announced on Tuesday with Derik Queen leading the way as a first-team All-Big Ten selection by the coaches in addition to Freshman of the Year. But that’s a side story to the upcoming postseason run with the Big Ten Tournament set for this week and the NCAA Tournament set to begin next week. With Maryland approaching the conference tournament as a near-consensus four-seed, head coach Kevin Willard joined Vinny & Haynie on 105.7 to talk about the postseason accolades, preparation for the Big Ten Tournament and what it took for the college basketball world to analyze the Terps differently:
On the end of Kevin Willard’s third season as head coach
“Thank you very much. It's been a fun group to coach and we're excited about postseason play.”
On Derik Queen, Ja’Kobi Gillespie, Julian Reese named to All-Big Ten honors
“Obviously, I mean, I'm going to be biased and think all my guys should get it but I think in the reality, if you look at how deep this league is and how talented, how many good players there are in this league, I think Julian Reese should definitely be up there. I just think how consistent he's been all year long, battling the bigs in this conference. I think he's just been phenomenal. My back court has been great. Ja’Kobi Gillespie and Rodney Rice have had really good years for the first time going through the Big Ten. And I definitely - I'm so biased on Derik Queen. I think he definitely should be the Freshman of the Year. I just he's leading us some points and rebounds on a team that finished second in the conference. I just think he needs to get rewarded.”
On the turnaround after a 1-3 start in Big Ten play
“I think the big thing was unfortunately, starting 1-3 was really tough and really it was three in a row on the road. So it was, it kind of put us in – we just couldn't build momentum early in the conference schedule starting on the road. And we were so close - we were close up at Purdue, had an eight-point lead at Washington, had a three-point lead at Oregon. And I just kind of, I had a lot of confidence in these guys. And I felt like I just had to give them time and just let them know that once they figure out how to win on the road, that we'd be really good at it. And I think that was the biggest thing that I learned was like just be a little patient with this team and let them figure it out and let them understand really kind of what the Big Ten is all about. And that was the biggest thing for me. And now going into neutral site play, it's like I have a lot of confidence in these guys, because they've figured out just how to be tough, how to overcome runs, how to battle crowds. It's been a lot of fun to watch them grow.”
On whether Maryland is the outsider team in the conference
“That's actually a really good question. I think it's not an outsider vibe. I think what the biggest difference is going through now Minnesota and Chicago is there's a home court advantage for the Indianas, Michigan, Michigan States. So it's a little different vibe in the fact that it's just you're going up against really a road team because their fans, it's so easy for them to travel, especially Indiana and the Michigan fans.”
On the plan between now and first game in the Big Ten Tournament
“I think the biggest thing was we were a little tired going towards the end of the season. So I think this breaks a little bit different in the fact that we could use a couple days off. The starters have been playing a lot of minutes. Mentally, it was a grind, losing that tough one against Michigan State but then going back on the road and winning two huge games. So I think this break was good. We've taken a couple days off and these guys are ready to kind of get back after it.”
On how to prepare for the uncertainty heading into game one
“Mostly on us right now. The good thing about it is we've played Ohio State twice, so we have a good feel for what they do. We just played Iowa two weeks ago, so they're kind of close. We'll probably spend a little bit more time on Illinois just because we hadn't played them in so long. So we'll kind of get fresh with their actions, but most of it [Tuesday] and [Wednesday] will be just kind of focusing on us and getting back into a good rhythm.”
On Jerry Palm moving Maryland to a four-seed
“I think that's the good thing about just following the numbers and kind of being focused on where we are. The Michigan State loss was brutal but I think everyone kind of then started really looking at what we had done – losing at the buzzer at Northwestern losing out the buzzer against Ohio State. So three losses in Big Ten play, our last three losses were all buzzer beaters so I think it gave people a chance to really kind of dig down into our numbers and see how good of a team we are.”
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