First-year head coach Kevin Willard finalized his roster this month ahead of the 2022-2023 season. After bringing in a few transfers, the new-look Terps will look to have a bounce back season and reach the NCAA tournament once again for the fifth time over the last seven seasons.
For Willard, the biggest question surrounding his hire back in March was how he would fill his staff. After hinting at a DMV-flavored staff, he quickly answered the question by hiring assistant coaches Tony Skinn, David Cox, and Grant Billmeier. Both Skinn and Cox have deep DMV roots to reinforce Willard's message to build a trend of retaining the area's top talent to bring them to College Park. It took longer than expected, but Billmeier became the third assistant on the staff after serving as one of Willard’s assistants at Seton Hall and is widely respected across the country as a big man developer, as well.
With the roster set and the schedule coming to fruition, the outlook for Maryland's 2022-23 season has taken form. If there is one thing you can expect from a Kevin Willard team, it is that they will play 110% game in game out. Willard was known for teaching toughness and a tenacious defense during his 12 seasons at Seton Hall and you can expect him to bring more of the same into his first year as Maryland's head coach. The one knock on him while at Seton Hall, though, was his offensive schemes as they seemed slow and unorganized at times, finishing tied for 143rd in the country in offensive rating alongside Maryland, Northwestern and Wisconsin last season. Seton Hall also finished 154th in the country in tempo last season, compared to Maryland's 234th standing, but Young's quickness and the athleticism on the wing gives Maryland a chance to bolster that this fall. But, with a bigger plethora of athletes here at Maryland and with Skinn being a very well known offensive coach, hopefully that will be able to change this year and in the future.
In the backcourt, there are many new faces on the team. Former Charlotte star point guard Jahmir Young transfers in along with Donald Carey from Georgetown, and Jahari Long from Seton Hall as well as incoming freshman Noah Batchelor. While June has been spent meshing the new pieces together, the strength of the backcourt is their experience. Hakim Hart, Ian Martinez and Ike Cornish all return to College Park for the upcoming season from last year's team but with a need to fill the starting spots, Willard reeled In Young, Carey, and Long to add solid depth and experience from the transfer portal. The weakness in the unit though would be chemistry. Only three of the six have played together before so it will be interesting to see how fast and well they will be able to gel together on the court as a team.
Long fills a need as a backup ball handler to help Martinez flourish at the two in a more natural fit, but one mighty question that looms is whether they can shoot the ball consistently. Last year the Terps only shot 43.3% from the field and 32.6% from behind the arc and they are losing their top three threats from deep last season in Xavier Green, Eric Ayala, and Fatts Russell. Last season Hart shot 33% from three and Martinez only shot 26% from three, but Cornish has flashed his outside shooting touch through the first few weeks of practice. Willard did add two solid shooters from behind the arc in Carey who has shot 40% from three in his career and Young who has shot 35% over his career, but the former Charlotte guard can also create his own shot and get to the rim to balance out the offense. Also with the addition of Cornish into the lineup this season after redshirting last year, he will look to add another shooting option to the team after shooting 35% from three in high school, per MaxPreps.
In the frontcourt, Coach Willard added Patrick Emilien from St. Francis in the transfer portal, as well as incoming freshman Caelum Swanton-Rodger, a 6-foot-11 center from Canada to add some much needed depth to the frontcourt. Emilien will arrive on campus on Wednesday, but Donta Scott and Julian Reese are the only two players returning from last year's team in the frontcourt that played solid minutes. The strength of the frontcourt will be their experience and continuity playing inside-out together. With an incoming freshman to serve as the future, there is still a lot of experience between Scott, Emilien, and Reese but more will be asked as the Terps work to establish a rim protector. Emilien averaged 6.2 rebounds per game and 0.7 blocks per game last season while Reese averaged 4.4 rebounds per game and 0.7 blocks per game, but that was with a much smaller role then he will have this season. Reese will look to make a similar freshman-sophomore jump that Maryland fans saw from Jalen Smith just a few years ago when he became a lottery pick. The weakness for the frontcourt is their height. Emilien and Scott are both only 6-foot-8 while Resse is only 6-foot-9. The lack of height will be something that can hurt them in rim-protecting and rebounding.
One question heading into the season for the Terps frontcourt is will they be able to rebound and play defense down low well with their lack of height. The Terps only brought in 35 rebounds per game which was 181st in the country last year and 3.2 blocks per game which was 172nd in the country. Both of those need to elevate if Maryland aspires to ascend back to the top of the Big Ten.
With the Terps losing their top two scoring players from last season in Ayala and Russell, the Terps will look at both fresh and old faces on the team to help "bring the swagger back to Maryland" as Willard put it in his introductory press conference.
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