Maryland Men's Basketball Hits Startling Low After Latest Loss
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To call this season of Maryland men's basketball an absolute disaster would be a grave understatement.
While a rebuilding year was expected under new head coach Buzz Williams, this level of immense struggles was not. The Terps currently sit at 8-14, with only one win in 11 Big Ten games.
After their latest defeat at the hands of Ohio State, Maryland has now hit rock bottom - in the most literal sense.
In the latest NET Rankings, this Terps squad fell from an already unsightly 173rd down to 182nd. That's not just the worst ranking among the Big Ten teams - it's dead last among all Power Conference programs.
Some of the blame admittedly lies in the brutal schedule. Only Maryland and Rutgers share the "honor" of being 0-10 in Quad One opportunities.
Some lies with Maryland losing leading scorer Pharrel Payne to a long-term injury. Without their 17.5 PPG big man, the Terps have won just two of their last 12 games, those being against Old Dominion and another hapless B1G squad in Penn State.
Some lies in the overall roster construction. Much of the squad was put together haphazardly after the messy breakup with former Terps' HC Kevin Willard, with nine transfers - including four of Buzz's Texas A&M guys - coming to College Park.
But even with all that in mind, some level of fault also belongs to coaching. Two of the last three games have been effectively over by halftime, and the Ohio State loss was barely better than that.
Solomon Washington - one of Buzz's former Aggie players - had a practical answer when asked about the team's overall struggles.
"I'm more concerned about the effort," Washington said after Thursday's game. "We always get discouraged every time a team goes on a run. We got to stop that. It's basketball, it's a game of runs. We would never win games like this in the best league in the country."
Coach Williams has had few answers. He made a flurry of substitutions throughout the game, desperately trying to find the right combination to turn the tide against the Buckeyes.
"Can we get five guys to play hard when the ball is on the ground and play even harder when the ball is in the air?" Williams reasoned in his postgame press conference.
Statistically, no matter the combo of players on the court, it just hasn't been enough.
The Terps have the second fewest points per game (72.0) in the Big Ten, as well as the worst point differential (-7.7), worst field goal percentage (40.4%) and differential (-7.2%), and fourth worst rebound differential (-0.4).
In plainer words, they've been severely outclassed. So bad, in fact, that many on online Maryland forums are already calling for Buzz to be one-and-done as Terps' head coach.
Maryland has never had a head coach last fewer than two years. While college basketball is vastly different in the transfer portal and N.I.L. era, cutting Williams loose so quick would be a sharp contrast to the patience normally exhibited by UM leadership.
There is some reason to have hope for next season. Five-star small forward and No. 1 Maryland state recruit Baba Oladotun is staying home, and two four-stars and one three will join him.
The Terps could more add to the class, which is currently ranked No. 4 nationally - their highest since the No. 7 recruiting class of 2018.
In some sense, at least, there's improvement from Williams' side.
"You want to have a sustainable program. You want to have a good team every year. And so upon arrival with zero players, how do you put together the balance of that? We could have done a better job in terms of, 'Do you want to sign everybody from the portal?', 'Do you only want to sign high school players?'"
He also spoke about managing the underclassmen - such as starting guard Darius Adams - who could choose to stay or leave next year.
"I understand that we have to make decisions relative to the young players who have eligibility who may be interested in returning, while at the same time, from a roster construction standpoint, knowing that we're going to have to add experience from the portal."
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Mike joined Maryland On SI with over four years of sportswriting experience. He started off his career in Syracuse on the Orange football beat, where he was featured on CBS Sports' Cover 3 Podcast and local ESPN sports talk radio. After that, he had a brief stint reporting on Major League Baseball before returning to college sports.
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