Derik Queen's heroics help "make Maryland great again" in Terps' first Sweet 16 appearance under Kevin Willard

Ahmed Ghafir
Mar 23, 2025
4 min read

Updated: Mar 25, 2025

The heartbreak from Maryland men’s basketball’s four buzzer beating losses during the regular season into Big Ten Tournament was never lost on the team. That’s what made Sunday’s game-winner against Colorado State sweeter, lifting the program to its first Sweet 16 appearance since 2016 and just third since winning the national championship.

In a game that featured 15 lead changes and four ties, Maryland battled back from trailing by as many as 12 points in the first half and nine in the second half before five consecutive points by Rodney Rice six minutes in gave the Terps their first lead since the opening minutes of the game. The Rams never went away, though, igniting what felt like a home crowd inside Climate Pledge Arena to eventually retake a five-point lead with exactly five minutes left.

A 9-0 run fueled by Ja'Kobi Gillespie's second three of the game gave the Terps a two-possession lead before, once again, the Rams would answer back to tie the game at 68 with 54 seconds left.

Julian Reese appeared to give the Terps the lead after draining both free throw attempts with 22 seconds left, finishing the day a perfect 5-of-5 from the line, but the Rams had one more chance. And after suffering heartbreak all too often heading into the NCAA Tournament, the Terps would have to outlast one more after Jalen Lake's third three of the game pushed the Rams ahead, 71-70, with just over three seconds to play.

“When they hit the three, my heart dropped,” Rodney Rice told IBG after the game. “But we had three seconds left. The buzzer beaters in the regular season, they were on the actual buzzer. We didn’t have time after so we got another chance so we made the most out of it.”

And who better to do so than the reigning Big Ten Freshman of the Year: Derik Queen. After taking the inbounds at the top of the key, dribbling left before hitting a floater off the glass as time expired, Queen delivered one of the program’s all-time best moments to deliver Maryland a 72-71 win.

"He was the first one and he was very enthusiastic about wanting the basketball,” head coach Kevin Willard said about the final play.

"That was my first game-winner and when Coach drew up the play, my teammates trusted me, he trusted me,” Queen said. “I was a little bit, like, nervous, but I knew we were due for one and I had to make this.”

Where the shot ranks in the record books is up for debate with arguably the 2002 national championship the lone moment truly capable of rivaling the buzzer-beating win, especially coming from the prized five-star signee who spurned the blue bloods to play for his hometown school.

“I’m from there. I’m back home in my hometown playing for my home college,” Queen said in the locker room.

The good fortune and buzzer-beating win also secured the first Sweet 16 appearance for head coach Kevin Willard, who recognizes the impact on his current program while remembering his last one.

“I wish I would have done it at Seton Hall, to be honest with you, first. It's a place I loved and still love and they were so good to me. I wish I would have been able to do it there.”

“But I'm glad that -- this is only our second Sweet 16 in 23 years here, so I'm just as happy that it happened at Maryland.”

For a program that struggled to find postseason success since Gary Williams’ retirement, the Terps will now ride the momentum into San Francisco for the program’s first Sweet 16 appearance in nine years. They’ll face top-ranked Florida on Thursday with tipoff announced for 7:39 PM ET, but for an entire roster set to make their first appearance in the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament, they recognize the impact of delivering the swagger back to the program as Willard promised during his introductory press conference.

“It’s like a slogan – make Maryland great again – and that’s what I’m trying to do,” Queen told IBG. “Do everything in my power to help Maryland.”

“I waited five years just to make it here. Not just Sweet 16 - March Madness,” Selton Miguel added. “So I’m just happy to be on this team. We’ve got a lot of killers on this team. I trust all of them every single day no matter. If we’re up ten, down 20 – we trust each other.”

After recording his 37th career double-double with 15 points and 11 rebounds, Julian Reese also joined Len Elmore as the second player in program history to record 1,000 career rebounds.

“Just leaving my mark on the game, leaving my mark on the school. I got to reach 1,000 rebounds today. There’s one or two people, great company, at the school [who have done that]. Just trying to do whatever it takes to win,” Reese told IBG postgame. “It’s definitely a sense of pride. Just doing it for my home school, staying with the school through the off-years, the coaching change. Just sticking to my guns, doing what I did, it means a lot.”

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