Diggy Coit on career night, improvements for Maryland men's basketball ahead of Vegas

Ahmed Ghafir
16 hours ago
6 min read

Wednesday started as a monumental day for the Maryland men’s basketball program after inking five-star Baba Oladotun over Georgetown and SEC interest, but it ended with a career night inside the Xfinity Center.

Diggy Coit poured in a career night in College Park with his 41 points not only marking a game-high in the eventual 95-90 overtime win vs. Mount St. Mary’s, but a new career-high for the Northern Illinois and Kansas transfer. Coit’s 41 points also mark the most by a Terp inside the Xfinity Center, while it marked the program’s first 40-point game since Greivis Vasquez finished with 41 in a double overtime win vs. Virginia Tech back in 2010, also tying Coit with the late great Len Bias for the third-most in any game in program history.

Coit also did so efficiently, finishing 11-of-17 from the field and 8-of-10 from three-point while finishing perfect in his 11 attempts from the free throw line. But arguably no shot was bigger than the game-tying three with eight seconds left to send the game to overtime while helping Maryland avoid a potentially detrimental Quad Four loss.

“You want the shot,” Coit said postgame. “I mean the play was for me. I want the best shot we can get. I'm not trying to be selfish and say, I want this shot. If [Elijah] is going and he's hot, we need to get in the ball. I want him to have the ball. I don't really care. I thought it was gonna be for [Isaiah Watts] because he just hit a big one. I didn't know it was for me. They kind of messed us up with the zone. So I thought I had a good look so I took it.”

Wednesday also marked the team’s first game with star forward Pharrel Payne, who avoided a major injury with optimism around a quicker return in 2025-26.

“I knew going into this game with Pharrell out now I was gonna have to play a lot of minutes, so just trying to do my best to impact winning and knowing that it's probably not a sub coming,” senior forward Elijah Saunders said postgame. “So just doing the most I could try to help the team.”

More from Coit and Saunders after the win:

Coit on what worked well

“I think what was working was my teammates put me in position to score, spacing, us reading the game, making the right decisions and I think it just flowed into me scoring tonight. Every night is gonna be somebody different. Every night it's gonna be somebody else scoring or making the plays so I just tried my best to make the right play. And I did that for most of the time. I made a lot of mistakes, but most of the time I tried to make the right place so I think I was just put in position to score and was able to get some shots going.”

Coit on scoring late in the second half

“I was just trying to make the right play, like trying to read the game. I understand that we went small. They were switching certain things. They was face guarding. So I was just trying to be smart. There was a play where I ghosted it so [Andre Mills] could get downhill. He made a big free throws. [Darius Adams] make big free throws. We all, like, made big plays. So I was not trying to be selfish, or, oh, I'm scoring tonight, let me score. It was more like, okay, what's the right play right now? And I was just trying to make the right play. And I felt like everybody made the right play. There was a possession where I was over dribbling. I dribbled like 12 times just to pass it to him to make a shot. And I think selfish thoughts got in my head, like, okay, I'm hot. I can score. He wide open, make the play. So I was just trying to make sure that I stay focused on making the right play.”

Saunders on adjusting to no Pharrel Payne

“I would say this whole season so far, it's been an adjustment. We’ve been adjusting with guys coming in and out and in and out of the lineup. So we know what Pharrel brings in terms of physicality and what he brings in the paint. So we knew someone was gonna have to step up. And we all put it together. But Dig I mean, 40, I've never seen that in the game with anyone on my team.”

Coit whether he knows the type of game he’s having in the moment

“Nah. I was just like, it don't matter if we don't win. Then I know that a lot of people think like, when you [are] in the zone, you think about your shots, but we got to win this game. That's all I'm thinking about. Like, what can I do to help us win this game? What can I say for saying the right thing to help the team make the right play to win this game? Because big performances and moments like this, it really don't matter if you don't win. This kind of - it'll be another day. It still is another day. I just end up got it going, had it going tonight, and I know that that's gonna be somebody else. I don't know if it's gonna be this much. I don't know whatever God wanted to be, but I just wanted to win. So bad cause [Pharrel] going down is like, people say things, people expect things. So for us getting this win and going into Vegas 4-1, I feel grateful. I feel blessed. I feel like we're a little bit more motivated and we're gonna take things a lot more serious, even though we do already.”

Coit on what the team can improve on

“Everything. We’ve got to improve on everything. Obviously, guarding the ball, offense, playing against drops, making the right reads, not panicking, understanding. We got to understand how they went on that run. What do we do to compound each play for them to go on that run? I think we got so many guys out, young guys playing, people that really never played together, practice together a lot. So it's like we gotta really start from square one. Understand, like we built to get to this point, but we gotta, like, come together more because everything is gonna matter, because we don't know when [Pharrel] is coming back. We're not doctors, so we got to be ready, though.”

Saunders on 11 points in the first half, what Mount St. Mary’s did differently in the second half and overtime

“First half, I felt I was just being more aggressive. Second half, I was really just settling for threes. And then in overtime, the ball comes to me, I feel like I'm gonna make my next shot. So just being comfortable with when your name gets called to shoot a shot.”

Coit on an expanded role at Maryland compared to Kansas

“I think coach Buzz just said something. When you go through bad things or negative things, you view it as that, and it might be the best thing to ever happen to. So I felt like those moments at Kansas were what I needed, and Coach [Bill] Self helped me in a lot of ways, ways that I liked, ways that I didn't like, to put me in this position. And I feel like coming to coach Buzz knowing I had to make a big change of - and who I was and the type of leader, type of person I was. I think that was the main reasons that I was able to put together performance, or be able to make this big of a jump that I did. But I had to credit this coaching staff and my teammates because they believe in me. Any player knows, any person knows when the people around you believe in you, it just gives you the utmost confidence, and I feel like they believe in me to make those plays so I'm grateful for who's around me.”

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