Maryland men’s basketball will look to put together a win streak again when they return to action on Thursday night to take on Nebraska on the road and head coach Kevin Willard joined The Sports Junkies to preview the game, recap where he team stands and plenty more:
On the Nebraska game
“They've won four in a row – they beat Illinois at home, went out west with Oregon and Washington and just beat a really good Ohio State team. [They’re] playing that probably as good as everybody in the conference. And you hit it – Brice Williams is he's just playing on a different level right now. So, we had a three-point win against them here. They play a very unique defense, where they force everything to the baseline, they trap the post. It's very unique. They're the only team in the league that really plays it that way. So we're going to have to go out there and we're going to have to score the basketball. You have to score against Nebraska, because they're going to get a good whistle, they have a great crowd. It's one of those places I tell everybody, it's probably as good a home court advantage as there is in college basketball because they get 16,000, they're into it, and Fred does a great job coaching them up.”
On his NFL affiliation
“I unfortunately had to be – I was a Giants fan. My brother was a Jets fan. So when you have an older brother, you get relegated to whichever team he roots for. You have to take the other one.”
Growing up in New York and Long Island. We were much more, believe it or not, much more Islanders, Rangers, Knicks, Nets. That was kind of more of our – because the Jets and Giants were all the way over in Jersey. You know, my parents were high school teachers so we weren't making a trip to the Meadowlands to watch an NFL game. We were much more going to the Yankees game or a Mets game and, you know, doing the things that could drive 20 minutes to and that was more how we grew up.”
On Maryland’s 14-1 home record
“The students have been great. The only tough thing that we've had is we have such a long winter break where the students are gone for about a month but once the students are back, that building is as good as any building in college basketball.”
On what Willard means when he says Derik Queen sees the game like a 50 year old
“I just think, most freshmen when you get them at the game all of a sudden is so fast and they have a really hard time adapting to the level, especially in the Big Ten Conference. But Derik is, he's so mature, he understands the game at a level of like a 15-year vet. You know, everything slowed down for him. He knows the reads. He knows what the play is there. He calls plays during the game that you know, guys would never see. Players would never see that he sees. He's just an extremely smart and intelligent basketball player.”
On Derik Queen leading the team in assists in the Rutgers win
“And that’s something that, you know, I think he's kind of getting adjusted to the Big Ten Conference, where he was able to score in the non-conference much easier, and now that he's gone up against some older guys – this conference is very physical and big. Again, he's made the adjustment because he's smart, that there's times where he has to use his ability to pass the basketball instead of being able to just go in there and maybe bully and get a bucket. But he's playing at a very high level.”
On NBA scouts flocking to Xfinity for the Rutgers game
“It was actually fun to see. Because of the COVID year in college of basketball, we have so many guys that have been college for six years. They look like they're 35 or 40 year old grown men. It was actually refreshing to see so many young faces on the floor. Dylan Harper is going to be either the first or second pick. Ace Bailey is just special. He's such a competitor at 6-foot-11, he can shoot it. So to see three top probably top 10, maybe top 15 picks going in the draft on the same court against each other was actually really cool to see.”
On the mentality for the freshmen going against seniors and fifth-year players
“It’s an adjustment period. And I think you've seen the really, really good freshmen this conference, and there's about nine freshmen in the Big Ten that are probably going to get drafted this year. You've seen the ones that have been able to make the adjustment of saying okay, they come in with their attitudes that I can score on anybody, I'm gonna be the best. And then all sudden, they get humbled a little bit. And the ones that get humbled and realize that they have to adjust their game are the ones of being really successful. So a guy like Derik Queen, who came in and his first game on the road at Purdue he had 26 points but then he goes at Northwestern against Brooks Barnheizer and Martinelli and really struggles. He's adjusted his game because he understands he just can't play the same way every night.”
On the message after the Ohio State loss
“I think the biggest [thing], we went back and watched film the next day, and we just kind of watched the last ten minutes. And, you know, we gave away 14 points – we missed six straight free throws and gave up two huge offensive rebounds. And coming off a bye week, we had an extra long bye week. I knew we weren't going to be the sharpest, but we just got to take advantage of playing well on the road and not give it up. So we watched the film. We saw where we made our mistakes, and we went into the Rutgers game just making sure we didn't do the same thing.”
On winning on the road
“It is. I mean, and I think one of the things that I've come to realize is sometimes, you know, it really is when and where you get the road. You know, if you get three out of four on the road, you're probably not going to have a very good stretch just because the travel, not practicing. 18 and 19 year old kids are used to routines, and like routines, and until you get a veteran, experienced team that's been through the road and understands the road. Sometimes it takes a team a long time to kind of understand how to win on the road. And I know my team this year, we have four starters that have never played in the Big Ten and so for them to respect the league and understand the league takes a little time for that and I think it's something that we've grown into. We've played really well on the road. We've lost two buzzer beaters. Unfortunately, Northwestern got us on a buzzer beater and Ohio State got us on a buzzer beater. But we've been in every road game so far. So we just got to finish out, finish out playing well on the road, and just finish out the games.”
On the $10 million donation, NIL
“I think I'll be long gone by the time I see that ten million dollars. I mean, I think the biggest thing that we're trying to do here is, you know, we're going to a profit sharing model next year where we're going to give $22 million to the athletes. So I think the biggest thing that we've all come to realize is that when you give $22 million out of your budget – fundraising has become a very, very big part of this job. And we have a great alumni base who is given and has always given. But the ten million gift is something that is for the program, for the long-term, to sustain the program long term. We have a great, great donor that gave it to us. So more than anything, what we trying to do is we have a $22 million bill coming at the end of next year that we're trying to make sure that we can cover.”
On the idea of a GM for the basketball program
“Football has a GM. We just hired a great GM mostly for football. He'll handle some basketball and women's basketball, but mostly for football just because football has, you have 85 guys you got to deal with. The sheer number of putting together a roster in football. For us, we're really just focused on ten guys. So for me and the staff we deal with this every day. We know what our budget is going into next year. We know what the guys that we want to retain. We know the numbers that we want. We know what each position is pretty much listed for, what each freshman we're going to pay. It's probably something we spend three to four hours a day on now where, obviously, you never worried about your payroll. You never worried about NIL but now it's something that every day, I mean, every day it changes and every day you have to be prepared for it. So it is time consuming, but it's the new part of the job. So I look at it as an opportunity to kind of, you know, make sure we're on top of things, and let's be the best at it.”
On the transfer portal additions gelling together well
“Going off last year where we really struggled to shoot the basketball. We kind of going into this year, we knew we had JuJu coming back. We knew we had Derik coming in. So we kind of, we kind of put together a formula throughout the season last season, pretty much from January on. We really went through a big week. It's on my whiteboard of all the things that we were looking for in portal guys. And I thought we came up with a pretty good formula that helped us kind of put the portal guys together that they would not only would they fit with Derik and Ju but they would blend nicely with each other. And you know, you don't always hit home runs in the portal, but I really think that the guys that we brought in this year, not only are they great players, but they are phenomenal people and teammates.”
On Willard’s insistence about wearing a suit
“So I hated the COVID year. I mean, when I say I hated it, it was – the New Jersey rules and the regulations that we had for testing, and if you got COVID, 15 days in a dorm room. And I mean, I literally hated everything about the COVID year. And so when we got out, and we got back to normal and I saw guys still wearing sweatpants and stuff like that, I didn't want anything to remind me of the COVID year. And so I worked for Rick Pitino for 10 years. He wore a suit every day on the sideline. I played for my father who he wore a suit every day on the sideline. I went back and coach [Gary] Williams here wore a suit every day on the sideline. I think it's honoring the history this, this program, of this game. My president wears a suit. My athletic director wears a suit. Every CEO I know and every successful person wears a suit. So for me, it's not just, you know, I'm a bald, ugly guy, so it's not going to matter how I dress. But I also want to show my kids that it's very important either my two sons, also my players, that the way you dress really matters in today's society…we're public figures, and I hold my players a very high values. If I show up for a game and I'm wearing sweatpants and then I'm getting on them about how we dress when we travel, I'm kind of contradicting myself. So there's like four or five reasons of it but one of the biggest things, I want to put a good – I want my players to look over and say, okay, he's respecting us. He's respecting the game. He's respecting the past."
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