As the Terps prepare for the Big Ten tournament and the NCAA Tournament, Julian Reese reflected on his senior season and his time at Maryland. Maryland men’s basketball (24-7, 14-6 Big Ten) is currently ranked No. 11 in the AP poll and is the No. 2 seed in the Big Ten tournament.
“I just like how we’re going out,” Reese said on Glenn Clark Radio on March 7, “and I’m going out for my last year, I’m going out on a good note.”
Reese, who averaged 13.2 points and 9.3 rebounds per game this year, believes the offseason was a key time for Maryland to get focused in order to have the type of season they’re having.
“I think the first day of real practice, guys started meshing well together,” Reese said. “We clicked well off the court already because of a lot of local guys coming on to the team. We just kind of meshed naturally, and that’s kind of when I knew we were going to be good.”
One of those “local guys” is freshman center Derik Queen, who led the Terps with 15.7 points per game. Queen was named to the All-Big Ten first team and Big Ten Freshman of the Year March 11.
“He’s been really open to learning from older guys like me, and he’s been real easy to play with,” Reese said about Queen. “It’s definitely been a big benefit with less double teams and opening up the offense, and he makes the offense more versatile.”
Reese put in plenty of work of his own this offseason, as well, and that work has paid off with his free throw shooting improving from 56.8 percent last season to 74.1 percent this season.
“It’s really just been putting in hours and hard work,” Reese said of his improvement from the line. “Coming into this year, I looked at it as a mental thing and just sticking to what I know. Right now I’m starting to improve a little bit. It was a lot of Coach [Kevin] Willard. He helped me through that, and he’s good at instilling confidence in his players.”
While Maryland is having a great season, the team has had some challenges, such as losing to Michigan State, 58-55, on a last-second buzzer-beater on Feb. 26. Reese believes that the challenges the Terps have faced have only made them stronger.
“Just talking about it and kind of getting over it as a family and as a team. I feel like we did that,” Reese said. “We didn’t lose confidence in each other. We just stay locked in the whole course of the game. We understand that’s the key to victory now and since then we’ve been good.”
And while players like Reese and Queen are often in the spotlight, Reese knows they wouldn’t be where they are without some of the team’s unheralded contributors.
“You got guys like Jordan Geronimo, Deshawn Harris-Smith, Jay Young, pretty much everybody off the bench is putting in their effort, doing things such as locking in and playing defense and making the winning plays,” Reese said.
With the regular season in the books, Maryland’s number one goal is to make a deep tournament run and possibly win a national championship.
“I think it’s going to take everybody on our team, walking in and staying together. A little bit of luck, everybody needs that, and just passion,” Reese said of what it will take for Maryland to win it all. “I feel like if everybody has that one goal, then we can do it.”
See Also:
• Glenn Clark: Appreciate The Four-Year Journey Of Maryland Men’s Basketball’s Julian Reese
• Baltimore Built: Maryland Men’s Basketball’s Julian Reese And Derik Queen
For more from Reese, listen to the full interview here:
Photo Credit: Kenya Allen/PressBox