2024-25 ITH Season Preview: Maryland Terrapins

  • 09/17/2024 7:49 am in

With the start of college basketball season in early November, we’ll examine the conference as a whole and Indiana’s roster over the coming weeks.

Today, our team previews continue with Maryland.

Previously: Penn State, Washington, Minnesota, USC, Northwestern, Nebraska, Iowa, Oregon

There was great promise for Maryland basketball entering the 2023-24 season. The Terps were coming off Kevin Willard’s stellar first season in College Park with a fifth-place finish in the Big Ten and a trip to the second round of the 2023 NCAA tournament.

But Willard’s second season represented a major step back. The Terps finished 16-17 overall and 7-13 in the Big Ten. Over the final 20 games, Maryland went a dismal 7-13.

For a program with a proud history and a fanbase that aspires to compete for conference titles and deep NCAA tournament runs, Willard is under pressure to put together a much better 2024-25 campaign.

Do-everything guard Jahmir Young graduated, as did forward Donta Scott, a holdover from the Mark Turgeon era. Willard rebuilt the roster via the transfer portal and landed a five-star freshman in Derik Queen, who should figure heavily into the rotation. The Terps also return their second-leading scorer in Julian Reese and DeShawn Harris-Smith, who struggled as a freshman but gained valuable experience.

The portal additions must be as good as advertised for Maryland to reach its potential. The Terps welcome Ja’Kobi Gillespie, a highly sought-after point guard from Belmont and Selton Miguel, a capable shooter and scorer from South Florida.

The 6-foot-1 Gillespie has two years of eligibility remaining, and Maryland hopes he can fill the void left by Young’s graduation. Last season, Gillespie shot close to 39 percent on 3s, averaging 17.2 points, 4.2 assists, and 3.8 rebounds in 31.4 minutes per game.

Miguel made 39 percent of his triples last season at South Florida and averaged 14.7 points per game. He’ll be a significant upgrade in the Maryland backcourt.

There should be less pressure on Harris-Smith, a 6-foot-5 guard, as a sophomore. He shot a dismal 20.2 percent on 3s last season and averaged 7.3 points in nearly 30 minutes per game. With more floor spacing around him, Harris-Smith should be able to play more to his strengths offensively, using his size and athleticism to get into the lane.

The Terps also welcome Virginia Tech transfer Rodney Rice, who was one of the better shooters in the country in the 2022 recruiting class out of DeMatha. Rice, a 6-foot-4 guard, played only eight games for the Hokies in the 2022-23 season and left the program before the 2023-24 campaign.

The guard rotation could also feature Memphis transfer Jayhlon Young and Chance Stephens, who sat out last season due to an injury. Young is a fifth-year guard who is a career 34.8 percent 3-point shooter and Stephens shot 37.4 percent from deep at Loyola Marymount back in the 2022-23 season.

The Maryland frontcourt will be anchored by Reese, a 6-foot-9 forward who is back for his senior season and Queen, a McDonald’s All-American.

Reese nearly averaged a double-double last season with 13.7 points and 9.5 rebounds per game to go along with 1.9 assists, 1.9 blocks and a steal in 31.9 minutes per game. Queen, who Maryland landed in an intense recruiting battle with Indiana, was a five-star prospect with excellent footwork and will be an elite passer from day one. Reese and Queen should combine to form one of the most formidable duos in the conference.

Former IU forward Jordan Geronimo is also back at Maryland for his additional season of eligibility. Geronimo averaged 5.4 points and 3.9 rebounds last season but struggled with his shooting. Geronimo made just 43.3 percent of his field goal attempts and shot 17.4 percent on 3s.

The Terps also added Georgia Tech transfer Tafara Gapare, who averaged 5.1 points, 3.5 rebounds and 1.1 blocked shots last season for the Yellow Jackets. The 6-foot-9 junior will provide depth behind Reese and Queen. Maryland also has 7-footer Braden Pierce on the roster. The former IMG Academy big man redshirted last season.

Maryland has just one other freshman on the roster, 6-foot-6 wing Malachi Palmer. Palmer, the No. 158 player nationally in the 2024 class, could provide wing depth behind Harris-Smith and Miguel.

The Bart Torvik projections for the 2024-25 season have Maryland at No. 42 nationally. However, the Terps were picked to finish 13th in the league by the Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook and 14th by Lindy’s Sports College Basketball preview magazine. If that’s the outcome, Willard could quickly find himself on the hot seat.

Bottom line: Maryland only won seven Big Ten games last season despite having the league’s best defense in conference play. The Terps couldn’t shoot the ball from the perimeter and Willard hopes that the additions from the transfer portal can change that. The guard play should be better and it’ll be interesting to see how Reese and Queen fit together in the frontcourt. There’s pressure on Willard to return to the NCAA tournament in year three of his tenure, but it won’t be easy.

Quotable: “Last year, we were 20th in getting open shots, we were 350th in making them. That’s not a good combination. But again, a lot of it had to do the fact that we were young. DeShawn was out there. Jamie Kaiser was out there for quite a bit. And those guys were taking almost seven threes a game and didn’t shoot a very good percentage. So you look at Ja’Kobi Gillespie, who shot 40 percent from three. Selton shot almost 39 percent from three. Rodney Rice, who we added who I’m really excited about, can really shoot the basketball. So everyone we brought in, there was one thing I told the staff, everyone we bring in had to be able to shoot the basketball. Just because we got to do a better job of protecting Julian, and obviously Derik.” – Willard on the roster additions and how they can improve the perimeter shooting.

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