SEATTLE —Derik Queen is chewing on his mouthguard, giggling.
It is the middle of an intense second-round NCAA Tournament game against 12th-seeded Colorado State. The fourth-seeded Maryland Terrapins are not playing well, and yet the Big Ten freshman of the year is unfazed. There he goes:
Chomp, chomp, chomp.
Giggle, giggle, giggle.
Queen’s stature implies he’s a full-grown man: 6 feet 10 inches, 246 pounds, projected as a lottery pick in this spring’s NBA Draft. Then he giggles again, and his mouth full of braces offers a reminder that, actually, this is a baby-faced 20-year-old still figuring out how to be an adult.
But with the game on the line, Queen morphs again, this time into a veteran, telling Maryland coach Kevin Willard in the huddle, “Give me the motherf—ing ball.”
OK, then.
The Terps inbound to Queen, who takes two dribbles (and maybe a couple of steps) to the left, rises, fades away and kisses the ball off the glass for the game-winner, an improbable 72-71 victory that sends Maryland to its first Sweet 16 in almost a decade. The Terps face No. 1-seed Florida on Thursday in San Francisco.
Making the sequence even more remarkable: Queen scored on a go-to set Sunday for the Terps, and they actually ran it earlier in the game, also to Queen. He hadn’t scored, called instead for a travel. But this didn’t shake his confidence, hence his demanding the ball late.
When Willard is interviewed postgame, Queen and his giggle — and the chewing on his mouthguard — are back, he’s massaging Willard’s shoulders, draping himself all over the third-year Maryland coach. His joy is obvious and infectious.
There are a handful of players left in the NCAA Tournament more talented than Queen. But there isn’t anyone having more fun. There might not be anyone as funny, either.
After the Terps’ opening-round win over Grand Canyon, Queen sat in the news conference biting his lip. He said later his teammates were cracking jokes under their breath — not the kind suitable for print — because they knew he had no poker face and wouldn’t be able to keep it together.
Between Maryland’s first and second games in Seattle, Willard joked that no one in his household ever listens to him — not his wife, not his kids. But in that crucial last timeout, the players did listen to him, prompting Queen to explain after the buzzer-beater: “First, he do pay us the money, so we do gotta listen to him.”
Media burst into laughter while Willard’s face — and his bald head — turned bright red.
That was a reference to Willard’s insistence, and eventual satisfaction, that Maryland get its name, image and likeness situation in a place to be competitive for Queen, a Baltimore native and one of the top prospects to come out of the Washington D.C.-Maryland-Virginia area in a decade.
Willard desperately wanted to keep Queen home. Or rather, get him back home, after Queen spent three years at Montverde Academy in Florida, where he was teammates with Duke superstar Cooper Flagg, and grew to be the No. 12 prospect in the 2024 class, a consensus five-star recruit and McDonald’s All-American.
When Queen committed, the second-highest rated recruit to ever sign with the Terps, Willard knew he was getting a great player. But he couldn’t have imagined what a fun kid he was getting, too. Queen’s joy — for the game and life in general — oozes out of him.
“He has an infectious personality,” Willard told The Athletic. “He’s never in a bad mood, always smiling. Every time you walk away from him you’re like, that’s the best kid in the world. You just want to give him a hug.
“It’s very rare nowadays, where these kids have this unbelievable pressure, but he’s just always in a good mood, always a great teammate. He’s a generational talent and a generational kid, and you just don’t see that (combo) very often.”
Other top players insist on steely gazes and no smiles. Queen, who said he likes to think he “brings out the happy” in Willard, doesn’t see the point.
“We only get one life,” he said after hitting the game-winner and trying to scroll through the 1,800-plus unread texts on his phone. “I try to go out there and smile every day, be the funny guy, be the joy guy.”
For as much as Queen’s skill is lauded already, he knows he can be even more complete as a player if he gets in better shape. His braces — which he got last summer — help in that regard because every time they’re tightened, his teeth hurt enough that he’s discouraged from eating.
Even about this he has a playful attitude: On “The Pat McAfee Show” Tuesday, he acknowledged that Maryland’s strength and conditioning coach teasingly calls him “Honey Buns” and “Reese’s Cup,” reminders that Queen is not yet a perfect physical specimen.
It’s important to Queen that he provide another version of Baltimore to the general public. His city has been maligned by outsiders for decades for problems with crime and poverty. He knows it’s a place where joy can be hard to find.
“I just want to put out for Baltimore,” he said. “A lot of people don’t really make it out of Baltimore. I wanted to come here and make a change. And hopefully I did, so coach Willard can keep getting a lot of local kids.”
But also, he credits his city for his toughness and cockiness. Asked after the shot that made him a legend in his hometown where he got the confidence to ask for the ball in such a clutch moment — especially considering he’d never hit a game-winner in his entire life — he told TBS sideline reporter Andy Katz matter-of-factly, “I’m from Baltimore.”
Duh.
He said later that after Willard called the play, “I was getting the shivers. I was like, I gotta make this shot. I can’t let the seniors down. I can’t let the coaches down. I can’t let Maryland down.”
Then, of course, he smiled.
His teammates appreciate how easygoing he is.
“I think we need that. I get so locked into the game, I need to relax a little bit,” Maryland guard Rodney Rice said. “Having him in the locker room, I’m not so tense.”
They’re also a fan of what he brings on the floor. Julian Reese, a fifth-year senior, couldn’t believe from the first open gym how steady Queen was, and how “he’s not going to be sped up by anybody. It doesn’t matter how hard you defend him or how physical you are.” Queen is going to go at his own pace.
That applies to his general productivity, too. Reese has studied how Queen lets the game come to him, refusing to force shots. His efficiency is obvious in the stats: Queen takes fewer than 11 shots per game, makes 52.9 percent of his attempts and averages 16.2 points and 9.1 rebounds. His 15 double-doubles are more than any other freshman this season.
Against Colorado State, he scored 10 of Maryland’s first 14 points. And though his season 3-point rate is abysmal (19.4), he went 2-of-3 from long-distance against the Rams.
Nearly everyone acknowledges that Queen is a one-and-done player. But that doesn’t diminish his desire to win right now. And that’s true even if, sometimes, his teammates wonder.
Queen’s happy-go-lucky attitude “can be a gift and a curse,” Reese acknowledged. Queen’s habit of grinning in intense huddles or after a bad practice is both endearing and perplexing. There are times Reese gets fed up with the rookie.
“He lightens the load on all of us,” Reese said, “and the good outweighs the bad for sure. But there are times you’re like, ‘are you serious right now? Do you actually want the ball?’”
Of course he does. He’s from Baltimore.
(Photo: Steph Chambers / Getty Images)
