Maryland men’s basketball returns to action on Thursday night when they travel to face Ohio State in the rematch of the Dec. 4 blowout, but it’ll be the first time the Terps take the court as a ranked team.
Maryland was able to overcome its road struggles in late January after two road wins within a four-day stretch before following it up with an eight-point win at home, but head coach Kevin Willard hasn't been concerned about his team’s prior struggles.
“No, not, not at all. It's one of those things that we kind of looked at, you know, we played at Purdue, obviously a tough place to play,” Willard said Tuesday. “Coming out of the break, I think the only disappointing two losses that we've had on the road so far, for me is the Washington and Oregon just because I didn't think we played very good in those two games coming out of the Christmas break. You know, Washington's defense is very unique. The first time we were seeing it. We didn't adjust to it very well. Oregon, we were up two with a minute to go, and missed two free throws and they made their free throws. And Northwestern, you know, again, was kind of one of those things that our January schedule I knew there was a couple games that were going to be really tough and Northwestern was gonna be more of them. But we were so close. We were knocking on the door. We had started playing better on the road. And it's just one of those things, once you kind of see your team getting better, you know, I felt like the team kind of understood how we had to play now on the road. I went into those two games with a lot of confidence.”
Since the loss vs. Maryland, Ohio State is 8-4 (4-5) including a Jan. 21 road win against Purdue to jumpstart a three-game win streak. Illinois sent the Buckeyes back to the loss column on Sunday in a 87-79 finish, but Willard knows little can be taken from the first matchup between them this season.
“If you look at it, they won at Purdue, really handled Iowa. They were up 30 against Iowa, went away at Penn State and won, and then really had a chance to win at Illinois. They're really playing well. I mean, Bruce Thornton is one of the best guard and John Mobley is, you know, as a freshman has just really, I think taken their team to a different level. He's playing as good as any freshman in this conference, which is saying something, because we have, you know, the two young men at Rutgers are great, Derik Queen. But he's playing as good as anybody. So this is a game that, on the road, we're going to have to play really well to get a W.”
On whether Maryland takes no top-25 ranking personally
“It actually is. I think it validates a lot of what you're trying to tell your team. So from that standpoint, when in the new era of college athletics and you have a pretty much a new team every year, for them to see the reward of the hard work, of the dedication, breaking through some road wins, getting some big home wins. I think it just validates everything that you're trying to preach to your team.”
On using metrics like KenPom, NET to justify on-court play
“I use KenPom a lot about, like, you know, where we are in strength of schedule in-conference. So we lost, at Washington, we lost that Oregon early but, you know, it's like showing the team like, ‘hey, here's where we're at, here's where we need to go. Here's our defensive numbers, here's our offensive numbers, here's what we got to build on. So KenPom is a very good tool if you know how to decipher it and you know how to break it down.”
On what Willard knows about his team now that he didn’t in preseason
“They have a really good team attitude. I think that's, you know, I don't think any – we don't know what you have for the most part anymore. You do your best. You go out and get your best guys that you can afford, and go get and, you know, you try to push and make sure that you're getting guys coming from winning programs, you're getting guys that have great attitudes. But I think the biggest thing is that all these guys have had to sacrifice a little bit of minutes, a little bit of scoring but their team attitude has really been very resilient and being great to coach. So it's something you hope that you have, but I definitely learned through the last month what a resilient group and what a fun group they are to coach.”
On dealing with the NIL side
“I'll definitely say there's a huge learning process in this part of college athletics now, and the fact that. I think you just, we started off – I remember my first Seton Hall team when it was legit, and they were selling T shirts. They were printing T shirts in the bottom of the dorm and trying to sell T shirts. And now, all sudden, we're talking about profit sharing and spending $3 million of university money on these guys. So I think it's been a huge learning process for everybody. I don't think we have it figured out right. I don't think the money's coming from the right sources and I'm hoping, as this evolves, that eventually we'll get to a much different model of the profit sharing model. But it's been a learning process, and it's, you know, I think everyone's constantly evolving.”
On the reduced stress from having a better shooting team in 2024-25
“I’m sleeping a little bit better this year, that's for sure. But I mean, it's something that the way the game has evolved, and everybody now has four guys on the floor that can shoot, and we're still a little bit different. We're still a little bit old school in the fact that we have Derik Queen and Julian Reese, two 6-foot-11, guys, you know, that can shoot but are not three point shooters. The biggest thing for me was, like, I have two big guys inside that are going to be able to get a bucket. I need to protect them and for us to be the best team possible, we have to go out and we can't bring anybody in, no matter what, that can't shoot the basketball. So from a stress release, you know, I knew we were going to be able to score better just adding Derik to the floor. He was going to give us a second big man scorer, take a little pressure off Julian. But from the shooting standpoint, you know, it was – we had some guys that came through the portal that were really good players, that are having really good years other places, but would have really struggled here, because they just didn't shoot the basketball at a high enough percentage to compliment Derik and Julian.”
On whether it’s more stressful to not be able to score or not get a defensive stop
“One of the worst feelings, and you know, you feel for the guy, you feel for your guys more than anything, is when you run a good set and get good ball movements, you set good screens, and you get a wide open shot and you miss it. And the pressure that it builds on your team and it builds on the kids is that, they start missing. They don't have a chance to make a shot, because the pressure and stress of making a shot has already blocked the shot. So this year, when we miss a couple shots, it's like, you know, there's no stress whatsoever, because we know it's just a matter of time to a guy like Rodney rice, just Ja’Kobi Gillespie, Selton Miguel, who are all shooting in the 40s, are going to make a shot.”
On Julian Reese’s improved offensive production over the last year
“I think the biggest thing for Julian was we had to throw the ball inside last year. We threw it in more than any other team in the country last year, more than Purdue. And it was to the point where it became so easy to guard us and it made everything so hard for Julian that, you know, at times it seemed like he wasn't playing well, even though he was playing at a very high level. But because we couldn't make shots, because he got double teams every time, because we threw it in so much, he really, really struggled at times offensively where this year, because we shoot the basketball so much better and we have someone else that we can throw the ball into, he's getting much more one-on-one coverage and he does not have that stress that he has to make the right play every time we throw it down into him. So he's much more relaxed. He's got much more confidence in his free throw, obviously, so that's helped him, but I just think the fact that he has no stress where he has to make a play every time has really helped him.”
What we talked about going into the off season was like if you could shoot 70% from the free throw line, he would have averaged 18 and ten last year, and I said that would have been good enough for the first or second team all-Big Ten. You know, Mike, you got to make this a priority. And to his dedication, he made it a priority. He was in the gym every single day working with a shooting coach and never, never wavered whatsoever. And it was phenomenal to kind of see, you know, it was really in the first game, he made his first two free throws. And it was like, I think once he made his first couple free throws in the game, the confidence was just there that all the work that he put in the summer had translated to the game.”
“He worked tirelessly on it. I think that's also one reason it took a little time for his low post game to come back. Now he's dominating, and the low post percentage of what he's doing is, it's almost funny concerning the fact what he goes through on a nightly basis. But it was just something that he worked on day in and day out. And he knew it was a weakness. And I give him a lot of credit. It shows his maturity. It shows kind of what he knew he had to work on. He never got frustrated. He stuck with it. Most people don't know is he is a great worker. He loves being in the gym working on his game. He comes in early in the morning. He loves doing it. And I think he's just getting rewarded for his hard work.”
On how important Ja’Kobi Gillespie has been to Maryland’s 2024-25 success
“I was hoping he'd be a good player. When we lost, obviously, when Jahmir graduated, we wanted to bring someone in that wasn't going to have to do what Jahmir had to do for us. And really, Jahmir was initiating offense, playing offense, running every pick-and-roll, and it was just a big burden. We wanted someone, obviously, that was a high-level catch and shoot guy, which Ja’Kobi was, was high level off dribble handoff, because we do a lot of dribble hand off which Ja’Kobi was. But also we wanted to make sure we brought someone that was coming from a winning program and that was used to winning being in that spot. And when he got into the portal and we brought him in, he was obviously excited about Jahmir is 39 minutes being open. But I think the other thing was that he knew we were bringing in, you know, we had Rodney Rice coming in, we had Selton Miguel coming in. And it was more or less, all right, I'm making a big jump in conferences, but I'm going to have help. And he's just been phenomenal. He's a tremendous young man, a great worker, great teammate and he's just been huge. I mean, his national ranking is one of the best in the country, so he's been awesome.”
On Derik Queen’s development from start of the season to now
“In the first round. DQ’s been great. He's had a couple up and downs. He's had some games where people like, oh, he hit the freshman wall. It's like, no, he plays in the Big Ten and plays in a very physical league. I think give him a lot of credit because he's kind of figured out what he has to do to be successful. And I think anyone would sit there and say, you know, he's obviously up there with any of these unbelievable freshmen are playing college basketball right now.”
On DeShawn Harris-Smith’s evolving role and how he’s handling it
“DeShawn’s been phenomenal. He's turned into exactly what I hoped he would, which would be a point guard from a leadership standpoint. He is obviously, he's really struggled shooting the basketball but he has continued to have an unbelievable attitude, a great work ethic, and I think he's actually playing really good basketball right now because he's starting to figure out how he has to play, which is so much different than what he was able to play in high school. And sometimes guys just take a little bit longer to figure out how they have to play to be successful. And I think he's from a leadership standpoint, he figured out and I think from a playing standpoint, he’s really figured it out.”
On Harris-Smith’s timely three to spark the second-half run vs. Wisconsin
“And I think that's one of the things that he's learning is that, he was never a shoot-first guard, right? He was always a drive, use his body. And now that college basketball makes you be a shoot-first guard at every position, I think he's just now figuring out that he has to work off his shot a little bit more. He has to be ready to step in and take a shot. He has to be able to do other things. And I think him stepping in, taking that shot was a direct – was exactly what we need him to do and he's very capable of doing it.”
On whether Willard has a sense about his team where his team stands with postseason looming
“I think the one thing that's hindered us a little bit, and I think it's something that as a staff are still trying to figure out there, is that we've had three season-ending surgeries this year to scholarship players, and although it hasn't taken a toll on our rotation, what it's taken a toll on a little bit is how much we're able to practice. And you know, luckily, January was brutal with the amount of games we had to play. But now that we get into February, the one thing I'm really trying to do is we do have some gaps where I think we can get better defensively, just trying to figure out how to balance the fact that we only have nine scholarship guys to practice and keeping them fresh, but at the same time, getting them ready for a really fun February. We got five home games in February and then obviously March. So that's my that's my biggest concern right now, is just trying to balance out how we can get a little bit better defensively, continue a good groove offensively with just a limited amount of bodies that we have this time of year.”
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