2025 marks PressBox’s ninth annual Best Of edition celebrating the top people, performances and moments of the year.
Best Moment
The joy of watching the best Maryland basketball team we had seen in (at least) five years quickly gave way to other emotions in March. Rumors swirled about Kevin Willard being a candidate at Villanova. He tossed athletic director Damon Evans under the bus for having his feet out the door and on the way to SMU. There were bizarre news conferences. There was little celebration of the team. It was all incredibly uncomfortable.
But for one moment, there was pure joy.
Colorado State was not your typical No. 12 seed in the NCAA Tournament. The Rams had already knocked off Memphis, the region’s No. 5 seed and the No. 16 team in the country coming into the tournament, and they gave the Terps everything they could possibly handle in a March 23 second-round matchup. It appeared the combination of the quality of the opponent and the outside noise players were dealing with may have been too much and would ultimately spell doom when Colorado State guard Jalen Lake drilled a go-ahead 3-pointer with 6.1 seconds left.
But Derik Queen wasn’t having it. In the huddle after Lake’s shot, he said “give me the mother——- ball.” He got it. And he took advantage of it. Queen banked in a fadeaway jumper from a tough angle at the buzzer, joining Drew Nicholas as the only players to win an NCAA Tournament game with a buzzer-beater in school history. But what he said after the shot proved to be at least as memorable, if not more. When asked by Andy Katz in a TBS postgame interview where his confidence came from to demand the ball in the huddle, Queen provided an iconic response.
“I mean, so I think I’m from Baltimore, that’s why.”
The Baltimore native channeled the underdog, chip-on-the-shoulder feeling shared by not just athletes but nearly everyone from our city. The answer caught fire on social media and spawned T-shirts. It even caught the attention of basketball legend LeBron James, who acknowledged he “loved” Queen’s shot and confidence during a “Pat McAfee Show” appearance and compared his mentality to Baltimore basketball royalty Carmelo Anthony.
The shot capped off a stellar season for Queen, who averaged 16.5 points and 9.0 rebounds per game and earned Big Ten Freshman of the Year and first-team All-Big Ten honors. The 6-foot-9, 250-pound big man is now in the midst of his rookie season with the New Orleans Pelicans.
See Also:
• Glenn Clark: Derik Queen’s Season Was Already Exceptional … Now It’s Eternal
• Johnny Holliday ‘Felt So Happy For These Guys’ In Calling Derik Queen’s Buzzer-Beater
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Maryland Athletics
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Issue 296: December 2025 / January 2026
Originally published Dec. 17, 2025