2025-26 Big Ten basketball season preview: Maryland Terrapins

With the start of college basketball season in early November, Inside the Hall is taking a team-by-team look at the Big Ten and a player-by-player look at IU basketball’s roster over the next two months.

Today, our team previews continue with Maryland.

Previously: Penn State, Rutgers, Minnesota, Northwestern, Washington, Nebraska

After reaching the Sweet Sixteen of the 2025 NCAA tournament, Kevin Willard left College Park for Villanova.

Willard’s departure left Maryland with a coaching vacancy for the second time in three years and the Terrapins hired Buzz Williams from Texas A&M.

Williams has found success in each of his previous stops: Marquette, Virginia Tech and Texas A&M and there’s no reason to believe he won’t win games in College Park.

The Terps sit at No. 41 in Bart Torvik’s preseason rankings for the 2025-26 season and were picked to finish 13th in the Big Ten by the Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook.

Maryland has an entirely new roster for Williams’ first season and will be led at point guard by former IU guard Myles Rice.

The 6-foot-3 Rice was outstanding two seasons ago at Washington State, but struggled at times last season in Bloomington under Mike Woodson. The former IU coach failed to put Rice in the best position to succeed for most of the season. Rice averaged 10.1 points, 2.8 rebounds, 2.8 assists and a steal last season and looks like a prime candidate for a bounce-back season.

He’ll be joined in the backcourt by Washington State transfer Isaiah Watts and freshman guard Darius Adams, a McDonald’s All-American who is recovering from right hand surgery.

The 6-foot-3 Watts averaged 11 points, 3.7 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 1.7 steals while shooting 34.8 percent on 3s last season for the Cougars in 28.8 minutes per game. He and Rice were teammates at Washington State in the 2023-24 season.

Adams originally signed with UConn but reopened his recruitment last fall and signed with Williams and the Terps. A five-star prospect nationally, the 6-foot-5 Adams should be an impact scorer immediately assuming he’s healthy.

Backcourt depth will be provided by Kansas transfers David Coit and Rakease Passmore along with Texas A&M transfer Andre Mills and Spaniard Guillero Del Pino.

The 5-foot-11 Coit averaged more than 20 points at Northern Illinois two seasons ago but played a reserve role last season for the Jayhawks. He shot nearly 38 percent on 3s and averaged 5.1 points in 15.5 minutes per game last season at Kansas.

Passmore, a 6-foot-5 sophomore guard, played sparingly last season at Kansas but was an explosive, high-scoring guard out of high school in the 2024 class.

Mills, a 6-foot-4 guard, redshirted last season in College Station, but is familiar with the system. And Del Pino, a 6-foot-5 freshman, was the MVP of the 2023 FIBA Under-16 European Championship.

The frontcourt will be anchored by Texas A&M transfer Pharrel Payne, who has Big Ten experience from earlier in his career at Minnesota. The 6-foot-9 senior averaged 10.4 points, 5.1 rebounds and 1.1 blocked shots last season and could be an All-Big Ten candidate if he can get his minutes per game into the mid-20s or higher.

Virginia transfer Elijah Saunders, a 6-foot-8 senior, will join Payne up front. Saunders averaged 10.4 points and five rebounds last season for the Cavaliers and can stretch the floor. Saunders shot 34.7 percent on 3s last season.

The Terps will also have Texas A&M transfer Solomon Washington, Northeastern transfer Collin Metcalf and redshirt freshman George Turkson Jr., another Texas A&M transfer.

Washington will be the most impactful of the bunch. The 6-foot-7 senior averaged 4.7 points and 5.1 rebounds in 22.2 minutes per game for the Aggies last season while starting for most of the season.

Metcalf has good size to be a rotation big at 6-foot-9 and 235 pounds, while the 6-foot-7 Turkson Jr. was a fringe top 100 recruit who could provide backup minutes at the four.

The Terps will also have 6-foot-10 freshman Aleks Alston, one of the better shooters in the 2025 class and 6-foot-7 freshman Jaziah Harper, a Crown Point, Indiana native.

If this Maryland team follows the script of a typical Williams-coached team, the Terps will be relentless on the offensive glass and get to the free-throw line at a high rate. Last season, Texas A&M ranked first nationally in offensive rebounding percentage and 19th in free-throw rate (FTA/FGA).

Bottom line: It will take time for Maryland to figure out rotations as the entire roster is new. There is some familiarity with the system from the players who followed Williams from Texas A&M, but it’s a total reset for Maryland basketball. Maryland has the talent to compete for an NCAA tournament bid in season one, but will need Payne to anchor the post. The Terps also need stellar guard play from the duo of Rice and Watts.

Quotable: “It is an honor and privilege to be named the head coach of the University of Maryland men’s basketball team. I want to thank President Pines and Colleen Sorem for this opportunity to lead one of the most prestigious programs in the country. In leading this program, I promise to uphold the history of Maryland basketball and make Terp Nation proud with the men who represent this institution.” – Williams after he was announced as the new Maryland coach last April.

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