Darius Adams on how he landed at Maryland, connection with Buzz Williams, his outside interests

Ahmed Ghafir
Jul 24
4 min read

After introducing Pharrel Payne and Myles Rico in a one-on-one interview, former five-star freshman guard Darius Adams was up next as he sat down with UMTerps and dove into the months ahead of his first college basketball season, outside interests, his path to Maryland and plenty more:

On talking with his family about playing in the Big Ten given his sister played at Rutgers

“Yeah, for sure, definitely, family was involved. Family is an important thing to me. My sister did play in the Big Ten so, you know, going to see her games and like just talking to her about her travel schedule is, and stuff like that. It's definitely a good help.”

On how family played a role in Darius’ growth & development

“I have three older sisters, so just seeing them grow in life, all the obstacles they've been through definitely helped me. They all three played basketball for my dad. He coached them. So just like being in the gym with them when I was little, running around, I think so just growing up in the sport because of them, it's definitely, it's great.”

On when Darius knew he was serious about basketball

“I think, like, I first realized that probably after my freshman year of high school, I think it kind of like, I was like, Okay, maybe like, this could be something that's bigger,

On his recruitment

“It was a lot of ups and downs. Obviously, my recruiting process was late here. Obviously me and Buzz had a weird connection on the phone. It was kind of weird. Like, it's like I kind of knew him already off our first phone call, and then he came to visit me and then I came down here for a day. So after all that, just like, being around them, it just felt right and I'm definitely glad I'm in this spot.”

On what drew Darius to Buzz Williams

“Honestly, it was just our first conversation. I didn't know, like, really anything about him. I knew who he was. I didn't really know anything about him before our first conversation, but just like how he like approached me and wasn't really about basketball, it's kind of more like about, you know, family and stuff like that. And then just like him like coming to see me like that next morning, obviously, just meant like a lot to me and helped our relationship grow.”

On stepping into a program with continuity on Buzz Williams’ coaching staff

“I think that's great. I think the experience with the coaching staff has a lot of years in them, and I think it's gonna help us win. And I think the fact that we're all, like me coming in here, and them being new to is like a plus on my side, just because we're all new. So we all don't know about things.”

On offseason workouts

“It’s definitely going great. I mean, on the court we usually have, like, two and then locker room talks always gets the wins and the pickups that we have in the open gym, but definitely great bonding time. We've had a couple of hanging out outside of the locker room and stuff.

On whether the vets have provided insight on what to expect in college basketball

“They all really say Big Ten [is] physical. So that's something that they say. But I'm definitely going to be asking more once we really get into things, and I have things I can actually ask.”

On describing his game

“I would describe my game as, you know, a guy that can really do everything out there. Whatever the team needs me to do. I'm here to do it. So - you'll see.”

On his focus heading into his freshman season

“Definitely my body is an area I'm trying to work on going fall, getting a little bit stronger and bigger. And definitely my play making ability, making the right decision, find the open spot.”

On interests outside of basketball

“Definitely hang out with friends. That's, just being around the friends…when I'm with them, I'm not around basketball, so I'm not thinking about it. It's not really like, you know, pressure on me or anything like that. Definitely, Netflix, watching Hulu and stuff. Watching shows is definitely…when you watch shows and it puts you in a different reality. Because, like, you know, you feel like you're inside the show. I also like playing video games…I like 2k and I’m playing Call of Duty.”

On favorite sports outside of basketball

“I'm definitely a football, Philadelphia Eagles fan. Go Bird for sure. I've been to, like, probably, like, three games because I'm from [New] Jersey.”

On what sport he’d play instead of basketball

“I'm gonna go with Lacrosse. I'm hearing that it's a big thing. So I would be able to learn that from the best.”

Whether he prefers mornings or nights to workout

“I'm more of a late night shoot around kind of guy. But it's been changed. It's because like we're waking up so right like I can't be the late shooting type of guy so it's definitely morning type of guy now but it's usually like, I'm usually like a late type of guy.”

Which four NBA players would be his teammates in 5v5

“[Steph] Curry, KD, me, Jokic, Bron.”

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