Terps Basketball: A Look Back and Ahead

–Stats courtesy of the Maryland Sports Information Department 

We can all agree that no one saw the Maryland Men’s Basketball Program have the kind of year that they did which included a Top 5 (almost Top 4) finish in the Big Ten Conference, a 20-win season, and an NCAA Tournament berth which included a First Round win. Now that I look back, I wonder if we should have given them more credit from the start or were our concerns fair? Kevin Willard did a very good job at Seton Hall taking over a mess of a program and turning it around with less resources. Once we knew that Julian Reese, Donta Scott, and Hakim Hart were coming back coupled with transfers Jahmir Young and Don Carey, it was fair to say they certainly had a solid starting 5. Questions of depth and size in the front court were certainly legitimate. However, with a better overall coaching staff and the employing of more defensive looks and an offensive structure shouldn’t we have thought better than the Terps to be at best a .500 team and finish 10^th in the Big Ten. But then we would be leaving out some big caveats to the discussion. 

First was the question of how good a coach Kevin Willard would be at Maryland with bigger expectations and a much bigger tradition then Seton Hall. You could argue his resume was similar to Mark Turgeon’s. Would Willard make up for the deficiencies that Mark Turgeon had as a Head Coach? Also, along those same lines is how the team would end up coming together with the personnel additions. How well would they adjust and buy into Head Coach Kevin Willard’s style as a coach and style of play on the floor once they got down to work?  

Second were the questions about the players themselves, new additions and those returning…How successful a transition from a mid-major in Conference USA to a Power 5 school in the Big Ten would Jahmir Young have playing with the Terps. Kevin Willard and his staff seemed pretty sure he would do very well, but for the rest of us there was a wait and see. 

Julian Reese showed some flashes as a Freshman but it was a throw away year of sorts for Reese given the change in Head Coach and the fact that the man that was to work with him to develop him (Danny Manning) now had the responsibility as Head Coach. Turgeon’s offenses had little structure and his players didn’t exactly have an overall reputation of developing as they gained years in the program. It wasn’t until the second half of their Junior year that we saw Aaron Wiggins and Eric Ayala reach their potential and be a consistent factor and together for the Terps. How would Reese develop under a new staff that did not recruit him? 

Hakim Hart had mostly been a defensive role player (as a bench player and starter) for the Terps but had never broken out much offensively (7ppg in So. Year and 9 ppg in Jr. Year) even though occasionally you saw that there was untapped talent there.  

Third and maybe most important of all was the schedule, Mark Turgeon never believed in scheduling too hard a non-conference schedule given the bear of a Conference schedule. AD Damon Evans wanted to see the non-conference schedule bolstered and that was apart of the conversation of hiring a new coach. Maryland did indeed improve the schedule with the likes of UCLA, Tennessee, and Miami.  

How did it all play out, how did Maryland end up having the season they did? 

Let’s start with the new head coach. Kevin Willard erased any questions and or doubt that alums, media, and fans may have had about the hire. Willard’s first season at Maryland had many notable firsts… 

*The first coach to start 8-0 in his first season; The first coach to be nationally ranked in his first season; The first coach in Big Ten history to win first seven games by at least 15 points. Added to that is the first coach in Maryland history to reach 20 wins in their inaugural season as well. 

-As it turned out Young nearly made the All-Big Ten First Team ending up on the Second Team… 

*Young had a team-best 15.9 points and 3.2 assists per game. This season, he had eight 20-point games including a season-high 30 against No. 24 Ohio State. In Big Ten play, Young was magnificent averaging 17.7 points. He was also the third-leading rebounder (4.7) overall, lead the team in steals (43) and had the fourth-most blocked shots (13) on the team.  

– Reese going into the Alabama game ended up ranking third in program history for single-season field goal percentage at .633 (152-240) on the year (minimum 100 made field goals). Reese ended up tied for 2^nd in most points scored per game, #1 in rebounds per game and #1 in blocks per game. After starting off slow Reese caught on fire and finished the final three quarters of the season as a top contributor to the team next to Young. While he needs to improve defensively with his foul trouble and his free throw shooting, he made big strides this season.  

–Hart flourished offensively more than he had in his previous seasons and was a balanced contributor on both sides of the court for the Terps earning him an honorable mention All-Big Ten selection…Hakim Hart closed out his senior campaign with some of his best numbers. The guard averaged a career-best 11.6 points while posting 4.2 rebounds (3^rd best on the team) and 2.6 assists per game (2^nd best on the team) …Hart tied as the second-leading scorer for the Terps this season highlighted by four 20-point games including 23 against Penn State and 20 in the win over Minnesota. Over the last 10 games prior to Alabama, Hart turned in some of his best three point shooting of the year hitting 18-of-42 from deep (.429) while going 47-of-98 (.480) from the field overall. 

-In terms of Willard’s style, much like Turgeon he is a defensive coach. That style rubbed off quite a bit on a team already used to being a good half court defensive team. Only now the Terps defense played very well in the full court and half court. Turgeon did not press much, Willard did. In the half court the team showed multiple looks and was not afraid to go zone which Turgeon did not play much of. Willard got the Terps to take it up another notch with the energy and effort and it showed especially in that win at home over then 3^rd ranked Purdue… 

*Allowing just 63.2 points per game prior to the Alabama game, Maryland put together one of its best defensive seasons in over 40 years during Kevin Willard’s first year at the helm…The last season giving up fewer than 63 points was 1981-82 (58.8) – a year before the ACC used the threepoint line and three before the shot clock (1985-86)  

*Maryland ended up forcing 11.9 turnovers per game which translated to 13.7 points off turnovers. Just under 20 percent of the Terps offense was generated from turnovers… In the three wins to open the season, the early theme was defensive pressure allowing just 50.7 points in each.  

-Offensively Willard initially wanted the Terps to attack from the 3-point line and get off as many shots from beyond the arc as possible. As he quickly saw his team is not a good three point shooting team (something that has long plagued the program) and he ended up employing more of an attack the basket approach and in the process drawing fouls. That worked out well:  

*The Terps ended up going 19-2 in games where they made more FTs than their opponent, in games where they made less FTs than their opponent, they went 3-10.  

*They also played more of an inside-out strategy once Julian Reese started taking off in his second season as a Terp. While Maryland did end up slightly improving their three-point shooting to 33% as a team, they were 8-4 in games when they made fewer 3-point shots. So, their lack of shooting quality beyond the arc did not hurt them.   

-The schedule was laid out well in the aspect that it ramped up to the toughest part of it before subsiding and then transitioning full time into Conference play. Maryland got off to a hot start. Maryland started 8-0 for the first time since 2019-20. The Terps have now started 8-0 a total of 6 times in program history. Before the 2019-20 season, Maryland last opened a year 8-0 in 2006-07. 

Additional factors that weighed in on the success of the season was the unbelievable play of the team at Xfinity Center: 

*Maryland won a program record 13 consecutive Big Ten conference games at XFINITY, including all 10 games this season and the final three of last season. The Terps previous record of nine consecutive home Big Ten wins was in 2014-15.  

*The Terps were 16-1 at home overall this season with the lone loss coming to UCLA.  

*Maryland’s 13-game home conference win streak is its longest since winning 16 consecutive ACC games from the 2000-01 through 2002-03 seasons.  

*Maryland’s 10-0 home conference game record marked just the second time for that to occur in Big Ten history – Purdue was 10-0 during the 2018-19 season.  

-Also Rebounding was a concern coming into this season yet in 35 games played the Terps outrebounded their opponent in 22 of them and in those 22 games went 16-6.  

In looking back, I would say that we probably should have given Willard and the team a little more credit than what we did. A slightly above .500 record and a better showing in a Big Ten where it was likely that teams would beat up on each other all year was not a crazy notion. However there is a lot that played out this season that we simply did not see happening the way it did or to the level it did. We probably should have counted on Young’s production more and Willard’s resume. This past season shows how much coaching does make a difference and how we forget about player development or tapping into a player more than he has been tapped before and how that can make a difference for a team.  

In looking ahead to the 23-24 season, we already know that Hakim Hart has entered the Transfer Portal and the NBA Draft. It’s likely he will end up playing for another college team next season. We still await the decisions of Young and Scott. If all three do not come back that’s a lot of production to have to replace from this past season. The transfer portal can potentially make up for a lot of that coupled with more production from Reese and let’s say an Ian Martinez blossoms further and maybe even starts next season. We have seen it happen before though where a first-year coach outperforms expectations and then there ends up being higher expectations (often unrealistic) the next season not realizing that the circumstances and the team changes every season. No one team or season is the same and thus the proper context needs to be take into serious account when analyzing a team and making predictions. Kevin Willard will build rosters of players here for the longer term than other programs which can be helpful for continuity and development but that also means their talent level will need building upon as well. While the opportunity for keeping a consistent NCAA Tournament berth at Maryland is not impossible the amount of success each season may vary some. Willard will have to walk that fine line of short term and long-term success and expectations.  

Given the kind of NCAA Tournament we have had this season, it further proves that with the Transfer Portal, NIL (and the extra Covid year players which will eventually go away) that for new Head Coach like Kevin Willard, the job of making consistent noise in the Tournament has just gotten that much tougher. The job that Kevin Willard has in front of him from a Tournament resume standpoint is tougher than the one that Gary Williams had to contend with. Gary did an amazing job and had very difficult circumstances in which he inherited only they were different ones and eventually he was able to move the program back into prominence. But the college landscape in the 90s while competitive and on the rise is not the same as today. The amount of parity in men’s college basketball is the most that we have ever seen, and I don’t see it going away. Sure, the blue bloods will always have an advantage but it’s not near what it used to be and while that can help a program like Maryland that’s in that second historical tier, it also means there are many other teams that now have a legitimate chance that didn’t before. We need to consider that in judging Willard going forward although I realize he was brought in to not only maintain the consistent winning during the regular season but also make noise in the NCAA Tournament for years to come and one day get them back to a Final Four. Just remember that task though is much tougher in 2023 than it was in 1993 or in 2003.