When was the last time you felt this good about Maryland men’s basketball going into the start of a season?
For some fans, the answer would probably be the 2015-16 season. After Mark Turgeon’s first NCAA Tournament run the year before, the additions of McDonald’s All-American center Diamond Stone and Duke transfer Rasheed Sulaimon led to outlandish expectations for that team. The words “Final Four” and “national championship contender” were recklessly bandied about ahead of that season.
But those expectations never actually made sense. College basketball programs didn’t vault from “off the radar” to championship contention in such a short amount of time. They mostly still don’t. And in a strange way, those outlandish expectations actually prevented some of us (myself included) from feeling any reasonable amount of excitement about that team. It was a largely joyless exercise … and then the wheels fell off.
There was success in the years that followed, but preseason excitement was always mitigated by a feeling of “but do they have the right coach?” that couldn’t be fully shaken. For those reasons, I’m not sure I’ve felt this good about the health of Maryland basketball since the start of the 2009-10 season (when the veteran core of Greivis Vasquez, Eric Hayes and Landon Milbourne were met by an impact freshman big in Jordan Williams). They split the ACC regular-season title that year before being Korie Lucious-ed out of the NCAA Tournament.
I’m not sure whether this Maryland team is ready to make a run at a Big Ten championship this season. There is a lot to like. They feature a strong veteran core of Jahmir Young, Donta Scott and Julian Reese (St. Frances). If that group stays healthy, the floor should only be so low. The ceiling will be determined by a group of freshmen, namely DeShawn Harris-Smith, whose impact could be as significant as one of the best players in the conference. If he plays at the higher end of expectations, the reality could change for this team. Fellow freshmen Jamie Kaiser Jr. and Jahnathan Lamothe (St. Frances) could play a big role in which way this team goes as well.
The questions facing the team are real. Can Reese stay out of foul trouble? Do they have enough help in the frontcourt if he doesn’t? Can they shoot from three more consistently? Are they ready to get over the hump in true road games? Will the overhaul of the coaching staff in the offseason prove to be a net positive, negative or neutral? We won’t have all of those answers for some time, but when we do, we’ll know a great deal about their opportunity to compete in the Big Ten and perhaps make a deeper trip in the NCAA Tournament.
But the feelings I have about Maryland basketball aren’t necessarily predicated on my expectations for the season. It’s more simplistic than that. I feel this good about Maryland basketball going into the season because it feels like a program that has solid leadership and is advancing in an appropriate direction. Last season provided a foothold, and we have no reason to believe it was an anomaly.
It was probably disappointing to a number of Maryland fans that the Terps lost out on Michigan transfer and DMV native Hunter Dickinson to Kansas. I get that. Nothing would have proven the pace is accelerating like landing the top name in “free agency.” But it did not dissuade me. Kevin Willard got the job done on the floor in his first season and has done a solid job in recruiting. This is the reasonable progress that can be expected from a coach in the early years of his tenure. With a basketball practice facility still to come, there is reason to believe the program can continue to advance.
Which guarantees nothing about this season. It would be a disappointment for the team to take a step back this season, but it’s also hard to fathom it will. Even incremental progress would be noteworthy considering Willard’s first season put him a little ahead of reasonable expectations. Maryland doesn’t have to make the Final Four this season for fans to believe the program is trending back toward becoming a national power. But a top-four finish in the Big Ten and/or a run to the Sweet 16 alone would be enough to think the train is still moving in the right direction. Another high-profile recruiting win wouldn’t hurt.
And if the Terps did more than that? You might have to start muting “Maryland is back” from your timelines.
Photo Credit: Colin Murphy/PressBox
Issue 283: October/November 2023
Originally published Oct. 18, 2023