Maryland Gets Low Ranking Heading Into Basketball Season After Coaching Change, Best Player Going to NBA

After an offseason with a head-coaching change, the Maryland men’s basketball team hopes to match what it accomplished last season.

The Terps were 27-9 overall and 14-6, good for second place in the rugged Big Ten in 2024-25. In a preseason media poll going into last season, Maryland was predicted to finish 10th in the conference.

The Terps finished ninth in the final Associated Press Top 25 poll. Maryland didn’t make its first AP poll appearance last season until Feb. 3, when the Terps were voted 18th.

Maryland advanced to the NCAA Tournament’s Sweet 16, where it lost to eventual national champion Florida, 87-71.

Outstanding freshman forward Derik Queen was selected by the Atlanta Hawks with the 13th overall pick. Queen then was traded to New Orleans for the Pelicans’ 23rd overall pick and a future first-round pick.

Onward …

Maryland is a bit undervalued going into this season, which begins Nov. 3 with a home game against Coppin State.

CBS Sports recently published a ranking of the Top 100 And 1 teams.

Maryland was ranked 51st, which sounds on the low side, but maybe not given it has a new coach. Veteran Buzz Williams, who left Texas A&M after six years, replaced Kevin Willard, who went to Villanova.

“It’s hard to know what our expectations are,” Williams said at a recent news conference.

“Yesterday was our 26th practice and we’ve had a lot of volatility in those 26 practices. Maybe four to six of those practices have been what I would deem high-major good practices in regards to the work that was accomplished, the efficiency from start to finish.

“We’ve had more bad days than we’ve had good days. But I don’t think that those 15 players would say the same thing. Their numbers would probably be inverse.”

Given Williams’ comments, maybe the CBS Sports’ preseason ranking isn’t too low, after all.

Williams has the reputation of a hard-nosed, hard-driving coach. His career record is 373-228 (.621) over 19 years of coaching. He was 14-17 at New Orleans; 139-69 at Marquette; 100-69 at Virginia Tech; and 120-73 at Texas A&M.

CBS Sports’ Matt Norlander wrote about the Terps and their place in the Top 100 And 1 rankings: “What a violent swing for the Terps. This team finished 10th at KenPom, won 27 games and made the Sweet 16 … but underwent 100% turnover after Kevin Willard tied himself into knots and then sliced his way out of College Park in the process.

“So, hello, Buzz Williams, who was rumored the past two years to be itching again to switch jobs. The 53-year-old has 373 wins to his name and 12 NCAA Tournament victories [both much more than Willard], providing some short-term optimism for Terps fans.

“Provided with a healthy NIL budget, Williams and his staff brought Pharrel Payne and Solomon Washington along from A&M, in addition to Myles Rice (10/game at Indiana, but has potential to pop), Isaiah Watts (Washington State) and Elijah Saunders (10.4 ppg at Virginia).

“Freshman to know: Darius Adams, a five-star prospect who’s a slender 6-5 2-guard and will get some real run right away.”

So, it seems as if the Terps have a talent base from which to work. The Big Ten, again, is strong top to bottom, with six teams in the AP Top 25 Preseason Poll and six other teams among “others receiving votes.”

Maryland isn’t on either list.

* Purdue: 1
* Michigan: 7
* UCLA: 12
* Illinois: 17
* Michigan State: 22
* Wisconsin: 24

Others receiving votes in Big Ten, and their ranking:

* Oregon: 27
* Ohio State: 30
* USC: 33
* Washington: 35
* Iowa: 37
* Indiana: 43

In the annual Big Ten preseason media poll conducted by the Indianapolis Star and Columbus Dispatch, Maryland was ranked 13th out of 18 teams. As in most preseason polls, Purdue is the favorite to win the Big Ten.

With so much transition in college athletics — transfers and major NIL money chief among them — tradition could play a factor in how a team rebuilds and ultimately performs.

Maryland has a wealth of basketball capital and credibility dating to its Atlantic Coast Conference glory days. Maryland has won seven regular-season championships and four tournament championships. Only in 2019-20 — the Covid year — did the Terps win a Big Ten title, a co-championship they shared with Michigan State and Wisconsin.

It wasn’t that long ago (2002) that the Terps, then in the ACC, and coach Gary Williams won the NCAA championship. Gary Williams was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2014.

That might not be enough to keep Terps’ fans warm on cold winter nights but it’s a good starting point for Buzz Williams to show the new Terrapins what is possible.

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