Kevin Willard talks dominance vs. Rutgers, prepping for Northwestern

Maryland is looking to hit its stride in the final three regular-season games in hopes of making a Big Ten Tournament run to save postseason aspirations and that will continue on Wednesday night when Northwestern heads to College Park. Head coach Kevin Willard noted his team is “not done yet” as they look to finish the 2023-24 season on a high note.

“I mean, we’re 7-10. We’re the [44^th]-ranked team in KenPom, 63^rd in the NET. Technically you could possibly have seven games left so, I mean I think there’s a lot of basketball to be played,” head coach Kevin Willard said during his weekly radio appearance. “I think that this team has played so hard all year. Although it’s been a frustrating year…if you look from the outside in and watch how hard these guys have played on a defensive end while they’ve struggled offensively, they’ve showed a lot of heart.”

Maryland got back in the win column after dominating Rutgers en route to a 17-point road win over the weekend, getting the Terps out of the bottom four in the conference standings with just three regular-season games remaining. It was an uncharacteristic game from Maryland’s star, though, as Jahmir Young finished with just 12 points on 2-of-9 shooting while posting a season-high nine assists in the win.

“I thought I thought Jahmir actually played the best game he’s played in a long time,” Willard added. “He was getting everybody involved.”

That included Jordan Geronimo, who Willard said played “his best game” as a Terp after posting his first double-double of the season. “The offensive rebounds in the first half that kind of kept some possessions alive, especially late in the first half. We got an open three off one of his offensive rebounds, he got a dunk,” Willard said of Geronimo’s performance.

Maryland and Rutgers battled through the first 14 minutes of the game with the Terps’ early six-point lead the largest through the first half, until Geronimo’s three sparked a 10-0 Maryland run to take a 30-18 lead into halftime, a lead the Terps never relinquished.

“I thought the way we came out with our intensity to start the game kind of got them on their heels. We made some shots early, which was something that we’ve really struggled in all our games is to make some shots early. Our defense has been great all year. Jordan [Geronimo] made a corner three, Donta [Scott] made a good three at the top of the key to kind of just, I don’t know, it just relaxes us a little bit on the offensive end. And then Julian in the second half was dominant. They tried to go small on us and we just kept throwing it in the side and he was dominant.”

We need you there on The Wall!

Two huge games this week starting tomorrow night against Northwestern https://t.co/qCAOIEVBWU

— Kevin Willard (@KevinWillard) February 27, 2024

Maryland will now look to maintain that positive momentum as it seeks its second revenge win in as many games, this time with Northwestern headed to College Park. The Wildcats pulled out a three-point win in Evanston last month despite 36 points from Jahmir Young, the most points by a Terp in a conference road game since 2015. Northwestern has since had to overcome the absence of Ty Berry with the veteran guard sidelined for the duration of the season due to a torn meniscus, but Willard hasn’t seen a dip in team performance from Northwestern.

“Chris has done a great job in the fact that they lost [Ty] Berry to a knee injury. He was really playing well for him, but they’ve really stepped up and almost, I hate to say they’re almost playing better without them, which is really tough to do. The kid, Ryan Langford, his last four games, he just played phenomenal basketball and Chris has done a really good job and obviously they have one of the best point guards in the country in Boo Bouie. And obviously Jahmir and Boo went out it last time and really had a great battle. We turned the basketball over a lot in the first half against them. They trapped the posts on Julian. They were really physical and aggressive with us early and kind of bothered us. Once we got used to their aggressiveness, we played much better in a second half, but we got to take care of the basketball cause they are a physical, physical, basketball.”

Brooks Barnhizer has stepped up in Berry’s absence having posted a double-double against Rutgers and is coming off a 19-point performance after shooting 50% from the field in the win against Michigan.

“He plays power forward. They’ll move to this small forward spot sometimes. They run everything through Bouie, but you have these guys out there that can make shots, but then they also are extremely physical. They run a lot of floppy action, a lot [of] baseline screening action. Don’t post out that much. Just a good, solid basketball team that, they don’t beat themselves. And that’s something that’s, as you get through this league, that becomes really important is the turnover battle more than anything in this league is probably as important as the rebounding.”

Kevin Willard talks dominance vs. Rutgers, prepping for Northwestern

Ahmed Ghafir