A pair of Terps were honored by the Big Ten on Monday as Maryland men’s and women’s basketball stars, Derik Queen and Kaylene Smikle, were named the latest recipients of the weekly awards.
Smikle was named Big Ten Player of the Week, the second time this season that the junior has drawn the honor. Smikle averaged 28.5 points on 58% shooting in the pair of wins on the West Coast swing, while he also shot 17-of-19 from the free-throw line across both games. Her 36 points vs. Washington marked a new career-high and was the most by a Terp since 2019. Smikle sits fifth in the conference in scoring (18.3) after scoring in double figures in 23 consecutive games.
Queen shared Big Ten Freshman of the Week honors with Illinois’ Will Riley after the conference announced the award on Monday, making him the first player in program history to win the award four times in one season.
The star freshman posted his eighth 20-point game and seventh double-double of the season in Sunday’s win vs. Rutgers, achieving the feat by halftime as he posted 29 points and 15 rebounds in front of reps from across the NBA. Across both games, Queen shot over 52% from the floor and added a pair of blocks as he remains the team’s leading scorer, averaging 15.5 points per game while his 8.5 rebounds also rank sixth in the Big Ten. Queen was named to the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Center of the Year Award midseason top ten earlier this month as well.
“I've seen that all year,” head coach Kevin Willard said after the win. “So, I mean, I don't think that's the first time – his first game he played in college, I think he had 22 [points] and 20 [rebounds]. So I don't think it matters who's playing or who's watching. He's just that good of a player. He went to Purdue and had 26 [points] so this is nothing surprising.”
Both the men’s and women’s teams return to action on Thursday with the women hosting Nebraska for a 6:30 PM start while the men travel to Nebraska for an 8:30 PM tipoff.
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