Maryland basketball freshman Derik Queen has stayed in the headlines this week after his historic debut after posting 22 points and 20 rebounds in just 27 minutes on Monday night. Though it’s just one game, Queen found himself the highest-rated freshman in KenPom’s Player of the Year standings on Tuesday morning and he enters game two entrenched inside the overall top ten.
It was the type of performance that Maryland fans have waited to see from the former five-star prospect after becoming the highest-rated pledge in nearly ten years.
“I've been saying this for a while. I've been lucky enough – we started recruiting him three years ago. I've been telling everybody that he's a very special player in the fact that he just plays at his own pace. He understands the game, he sees the game, he has a great IQ. [Monday night], to come out and get 22 [points] and 20 [rebounds] in your freshman debut is pretty darn good,” head coach Kevin Willard said on the Big Bad Morning Show.
“The great thing about Derik is he's a Baltimore kid. He loves his hometown. He's always really wanted to play at the University of Maryland and he has a great support system – his mom is fantastic. He has a great AAU coach. And although he went to high school at Montverde [Academy] High School in Florida, he always wanted to come back home and play for Maryland. So it was just a matter of making sure we recruit him hard, recruit in the right way, and obviously giving him an opportunity to do what he can do.”
The question now is how the Queen-Reese tandem develops through the season, though Willard has repeatedly cautioned the Baltimore sharing the court for extended minutes. “I think when they're both out of the game, I'm giving the other team a gift. I got to figure out – and it's really, really hard to try to play a center eight straight minutes at this level,” Willard said after Monday’s season-opening win.
Still, the Terps’ lone senior anchors Maryland’s frontcourt as Willard pointed to Reese’s growth off the court heading into year four.
“[Julian] has become such a great leader. I think the thing I'm so proud of Julian is Ju is only 21 so to be a senior in college and be 21 is a rarity these days. But his leadership, his maturity, his growth has been something really special to see because he's such a great young man. He came back for a senior year because one of the most important things to him was he wanted to graduate from the University of Maryland. He's off to a great start. His leadership is great. He's one of those guys that I'm just lucky to coach here.”
More from Willard:
On NIL
“Last year kind of kind of hit us a little bit where I say this to everybody – we went from selling T shirts, from kids selling T shirts and hats at tailgates to guys making over $2 million a year in college basketball. So I have to give a lot of credit [to] Damon Evans and our administration and our alumni, because they really stepped up this year and understood what the game was, where the game was going and they wanted to be a big part of it. We have a special group of alumni that really gave and gave us a chance to feel the team that can be as good as anybody.”
On how high school recruiting has evolved with NIL
“I think the biggest thing is that the fact that you're paying everybody, I think freshmen are still –there's nothing wrong with having a freshman who gets 22 and 20. Our other freshman, Malachi Palmer, played great [Monday] night. I just think that the old days of loading up on classes of four to five freshmen and building it that way, we've changed dramatically. I think everyone in college basketball has changed just because you're paying, you're now paying these young men, and you have to get return on your investment. And freshmen take a little bit of time – most freshmen take a little bit of time to develop and to gain. So we're we've changed a little bit in the fact that we probably only going to have two to three, three-person classes.”
Willard’s take on the expanded Big Ten
“I got home [Monday] night at 10:30 at night and I had to watch USC versus somebody. My wife, asked me, she goes, why are you watching USC play Santa Clara or whoever was? Because I played them in a month, and so I watched them till about one o'clock in the morning. It's special. I think it's really cool. The players really enjoy it. I look at our football team, they had a huge win against USC at home a couple weeks ago. We never would have had USC versus Maryland football. To get UCLA and USC at home this year for basketball, I think it's great to the fans. I think it's great for the kids. And I'm excited about it.”
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