Late in Maryland men’s basketball’s game at Iowa on Jan. 24, head coach Kevin Willard had a conversation with freshman wing Jamie Kaiser Jr., who was visibly frustrated on the bench. Kaiser was 0-for-4 on the night and 0-for-9 in his last four games.
Willard assured the freshman that he was playing well despite struggling to find his shot. He subbed Kaiser back into the tightly contested game. Kaiser later stole a pass from a Hawkeye player, leading to two crucial points from the free-throw line by Julian Reese.
Maryland went on to win 69-67 after a last second, go-ahead layup by Jahmir Young. Kaiser finished the game with zero points, his fourth game in a row doing so, but he also finished the game plus-5, which was third-best on the team.
“I had a little bit of a conversation with [Kaiser] about how well he’s playing, how well he’s played,” Willard said. “I said, ‘My man, eventually you’re going to make a shot. And when you do, it’s going to be over.'”
The Terps hosted Nebraska three days later and Kaiser had a career day. He scored a career-high 14 points on 4-of-5 shooting from 3-point range en route to a dominant 73-51 win. He finished second in scoring for the Terps behind Reese despite playing nearly half the minutes of the junior big man.
The 6-foot-6 wing scored in double figures for just the third time this season.
“My offense hasn’t been clicking all year pretty much, but I want to do everything I can to help the team win. Whether that be grabbing rebounds, extra possessions, offensive rebounds, getting steals, just picking the energy up for my team,” Kaiser said, explaining his chat with Willard. “And he said, ‘Yeah, keep doing that, but just keep shooting.’ He said, ‘I have complete and total confidence in you.’ And I really appreciate that from him.”
Kaiser is just one catalyst of late for the Terps, winners of four of their last six to move to 13-8 overall and 5-5 in the competitive Big Ten. Overall, the “keep shooting” mantra has been beneficial to a team that has struggled to score from the perimeter. Maryland has shot 44.5 percent from beyond the arc during its current two-game winning streak.
Maryland’s most recent victory against Nebraska was by 22 points — the Terps’ largest margin of victory in a home Big Ten game since March 3, 2016, when Maryland defeated Illinois, 81-55. Nebraska’s 51 points marked the fewest Maryland has allowed this season. The Terps’ defense held the Huskers to 39 points in the last 35 minutes.
Even Maryland’s last three losses have come by one possession, and its defense has been consistently among the nation’s best. The Terps are No. 7 in the country in adjusted defensive efficiency, per KenPom. They rank 12th among Division I schools in scoring defense (63.5 points).
Furthermore, Maryland has allowed fewer than 70 points in 11 of its last 12 games. The Terps held Iowa, the Big Ten’s top scoring team, to 19 points below its season average and its second-lowest single-game output this year. Nebraska was held to its lowest point total of the season and more than 20 points below its average.
Outside of Maryland’s usual contributors in Young, Reese and forward Donta Scott, veteran guard Jahari Long has been another solid contributor off the bench. Long is 8-for-10 from 3-point range in his last three games and notched his second career double-digit scoring effort with 11 points against Nebraska. Long and Kaiser combined for 25 points off the bench in that game, the most bench points the Terps have scored since posting 36 against Illinois on Jan. 21, 2022.
“Every day we work on shooting, every day I come into the gym and shoot,” Long said. “So the main thing was just coming in and being confident. That’s what the coaches tell me all the time. So that’s all I was. I was just more confident than ever.”
Maryland has improved as the season has gone on. Its defense has remained one of the nation’s best and the emergence of key contributors on offense has allowed the Terps to pick up key wins of late. Maryland’s most recent win allowed the Terps to climb to fifth place in the conference after sitting at 12th at one point earlier this season.
“I’ve been saying all along, this team’s going to get better and better as the season goes on,” Willard said. “What we saw in November wasn’t even close to what we’re going [to be] — and I still think that we’re going to get better. Offensively, we’re going to get better. And if we continue to play defense the way we’re playing, I’ll play against anybody.”
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