CBS projects Maryland men's basketball on the bubble in 2025-26

Ahmed Ghafir
Jun 3
2 min read

New head coach Buzz Williams welcomed nearly his entire roster to campus over the past week as Maryland men’s basketball is one of seven high majors with no returners in 2025-26, including one of two Big Ten schools alongside Indiana, as the new staff looks to put the new pieces together.

The roster reconstruction was largely through the transfer portal with the four Aggie transfers, along with Indiana guard Myles Rice and Virginia forward Elijah Saunders, headlining the crew.

But Maryland also worked quickly through the high school route with Darius Adams becoming the program’s second McDonald’s All-American in as many recruiting cycles, announcing his commitment just days removed from his first and lone visit to College Park. Jaziah Harper and Aleks Alston rounded out the roster before Olympia (FL) guard Nicholas Blake, son of former star Maryland guard Steve Blake, filled the final scholarship in late May.

Meanwhile, Spanish guard Guillermo Del Pino averaged just under 13 minutes in two games at the adidas EuroCamp over the weekend along with a stat line of 2 points, 1.5 assists, 1.5 rebounds and 1.5 turnovers per game.

ESPN's initial bracketology projected Maryland as a 10-seed vs. Missouri, while CBS Sports listed Maryland as one of five teams selected in the ‘bubblicious’ tier, which translates to ‘a Big Dance appearance is in the range of potential outcomes, but the NIT, the Crown (or worse) looms if things fizzle.’ Nebraska, Minnesota, Ohio State and Washington were the teams listed in the same tier alongside Maryland.

Projecting a starting lineup featuring Myles Rice, Isaiah Watts, Solomon Washington, Elijah Saunders and Pharrel Payne, Trotter gave an early outlook on Maryland in year one under Buzz.

“New Maryland coach Buzz Williams has built a defensive nucleus that can be pretty vicious. This is one of the more athletic teams in the league, headlined by Washington who instantly becomes one of the elite wing defenders in the Big Ten. Payne is going to be a walking double-double who cleans the glass at a high level and adds interior thump on both ends. He's Kofi Cockburn-lite. Saunders is another high-flying athlete who is super-duper physical. Passmore can jump out of the gym. The Terps are going to be hyenas on the offensive glass, like every Williams-coached club. I'm buying a bit of the post-hype sleeper appeal with the talented Rice, who is playing for a coach who breathes confidence into his lead guards and cedes infinite offensive freedom. When he's right, Rice's first step can be dynamic, but he was all out of sorts last year at Indiana. If Rice is right, there's enough talent in this backcourt for Maryland to make the tournament rather comfortably with Adams, Watts and even Coit mixing in. But the offensive ceiling is limited if Maryland is trying to make it work with two non-shooters (Washington and Payne) on the floor at the same time as Rice, a low-volume shooter himself. Optimism reigns supreme in June, but there's a world where this halfcourt offense is downright atrocious when teams can just load up, plug gaps and force a ton of contested jumpers.”

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