With NCAA postseason aspirations a distant possibility for Maryland heading into this week, head coach Kevin Willard saw his team struggle back inside the Xfinity Center as Rutgers pulled out a 56-53 win on Tuesday night, moving to 13-10 (5-7) on the season. In a half-filled arena, athletic director Damon Evans pointed to the team’s effort in what’s proven to be a lackluster season for Maryland basketball.
“The challenges for us is right now offensively. We just can’t find a rhythm on the offensive side of the ball,” Evans said during his weekly appearance on 105.7. “When you take a look from a defensive perspective, I think that we’re in KenPom ranked sixth in KenPom from a defensive perspective and I want to remind everyone, you know, some people may think that this team has given up. When you’re ranked that high defensively and you’re playing that hard, that’s an indication that you’re still bought into this program, and you still want to win and I believe that these young men who played for us. We’ve just gotta figure out something on the offensive end of it. I’m confident that we will. Ohio State presents another opportunity for us. I’m not going to take them lightly. I know they’ve had some struggles on their own, but it’s going to be at Ohio State and we’re going to have to go in there and play well, then we’re going to have to reduce the number of turnovers and we’ve got to knock down shots. This is a sport where he got knock out some shots and hopefully that’ll happen this weekend.”
Less than 12 hours after the loss, it’d be the football program to lift fans back up after inking a pair of local defensive backs in Shamar McIntosh and Kevyn Humes, along with flipping Norland (FL) DL Dimitry Nicolas from Auburn with Michigan State involved heading into last weekend.
“We signed three recruits yesterday, which was a good thing. Feel like we got some really good players from the Baltimore, Washington DC, in Florida so keeping that talent at home has always been significant for us and then going into the state of Florida where you know they have an abundance of talent down there,” Evans said of Maryland’s 24-man 2024 class. “We posted a top 30 recruiting class so I liked to see the progress there and Locksley has done a good job of not only bringing in good talent but developing that talent and you can see that over the past three years not only in the win-loss column but the number of student-athletes that we’ve had had opportunities at the professional level in the NFL. So really good things going on in football.”
Nicolas had been on Maryland’s radar through the 2024 cycle as co-defensive coordinator Brian Williams had been familiar with the 6-foot-4 defensive lineman after he posted eight sacks and 15 TFLs at Monsignor Pace (FL) as a junior. Nicolas has unofficially visited College Park in the past with Larry Tarver and Jeremiah Marcelin as prime targets through the 2024 cycle, though his visits through the 2023 season didn’t materialize and he never took an official to College Park. But with a need at the position, Maryland’s relationships loomed large in the final hour in a perfect match.
“[Mike] Locksley is really good at building relationships, really good at honing in on what makes these young men pick but also I think you see that he’s someone who truly cares about them as a person and will help them grow and develop,” Evans added. “Locks is always going to grind in the recruiting area, and you know, a lot of people have always talked about his recruiting acumen and it just continues to show itself.”
More from Evans during his weekly appearance:
On Maryland’s potential success with more NIL
“You’re absolutely right and that’s where we got to continue to find ways to even make it easier for Locks by building in that NIL area and we’ll continue to do so and work hard at it. He’s someone that’s out there that’s been grinding. I always say to our fans out there, I know we ask a lot of you, but this is an area that we can use help in, and NIL is something that’s significant. And I also want to remind people. I know some people think, well, why doesn’t the athletic department just put money into NIL? That’s not permissible within the rules. We can help to facilitate things such as avenues and try to help our coaches get out there and do what they need to do, but we can’t put dollars directly into NIL.”
On the environment during Maryland women’s home loss vs. Iowa
“Special night let’s make no mistake about it. It was broadcast by…what Caitlin Clark has done for women’s basketball, you have to give credit where credit’s due. She’s been a phenomenon. She’s a transcendent player and that’s good for the sport, but I’m also gonna say what’s good for the sport is Maryland women’s basketball. And when you look up in those rafters at the banners and the number of players that we’ve had and the number of conference championships and national championships that we’ve won, all around to be able to have that type of crowd. Two great programs coming together. I like the fact that it was a great highlight of women’s sports in particular women’s basketball and we need to continue to grow that. We need to continue to focus on our women’s sports.”
On the impact of Maryland’s home loss vs. Iowa on women’s sports
“It was nice to see the young girls and all the fans who were here and wanted to see her but it also brought young boys and it brought grown men and women and people around wanting to see that. And that’s beneficial to all concerned. And I hope that our, we didn’t win the game. Obviously, we would have liked to have won that game. The end of the day, was that a success for the sport of women’s basketball? And that’s where we need to continue to do, is show support and grow the game.”
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