ESPN evaluates how pair of top-100 signees fit under Buzz Williams, Maryland men's basketball

Ahmed Ghafir
4 days ago
3 min read

Head coach Buzz Williams is roughly one week into reshaping his year one roster with nearly the entire team on campus and with 15 scholarships filled, now comes the chemistry piece.

"We're the youngest team in the country [and] the youngest team in the Big Ten as it relates to experience at Maryland,” head coach Buzz Williams said during a virtual meeting with fans last week.

While Maryland found themselves on the right side of ESPN’s first 2025-26 bracketology, the biggest question mark is what will next year’s team look like? For Maryland to have a successful year one, they’ll need big seasons out of incoming transfers Pharrel Payne and Myles Rice, the lone two signees ranked inside ESPN’s top 100 offseason transfers.

Payne’s outlook with Maryland: We've seen Payne produce at the Power 5 level, and we've seen him produce in Buzz Williams' system. As a result, the fit at Maryland -- especially with two other Texas A&M transfers around him -- should come without issue. We're expecting him to make a jump statistically in College Park.

Payne’s pre-commitment analysis: Could Payne's final two games in a Texas A&M uniform portend a breakout senior season? Payne had 25 points and 10 rebounds against Yale in the first round of the NCAA tournament, then went for 26 points and five boards against Michigan. He averaged 10.4 points and 5.1 rebounds this past season.

Rice’s outlook with Maryland: Rice took a step back going from Washington State to Indiana, but a season in the Big Ten should help him under Buzz Williams in College Park. As things stand, Rice is the likely starting point guard for the Terrapins and will look to regain his freshman form.

Rice’s pre-commitment analysis: Rice was a sought-after name in the portal a year ago, but didn't reach expectations during his one season at Indiana. That said, he still averaged 10.1 points and 2.8 assists while improving his 3-point shooting from 27.5% to 32.5% season-over-season.

For Payne, he benefits from prior Big Ten experience after spending his first two seasons of college basketball at Minnesota prior to his Texas A&M transfer. He started in 23 games and played in 61 total for the Gophers where he posted four double-doubles and averaged nine points and 5.5 rebounds over his two seasons, while against Maryland, Payne scored 17 and 14 points while shooting at least 63% in both games as a freshman. Now back in the Big Ten, Payne will anchor the frontcourt with Northeastern center Collin Metcalf stepping in as the veteran backup in the rotation.

As for Rice, he’ll have the chance to run the show for Buzz Williams as he takes over as lead guard with Isaiah Watts likely filling the starting two role. After starting all 35 games as a redshirt freshman while averaging just shy of 15 points at Washington State, Rice had an up-and-down year in his lone season at Indiana while being named team captain. After starting the first 24 games of the season, Rice stepped into a backup role to close the 2024-25 season while averaging just over ten points per game on 41.2% shooting.

Rice arrives in College Park looking for stability under a “staff that believes in me.”

“I definitely think, with even playing point guard, regardless, you're an extension of the head coach,” Rice said last month. “So you're automatically going to be put in a position to lead others and not only just lead them, to lead yourself as well, hold yourself to a certain standard to be great every single day, night in and night out. And that's just the type of person I am, and that's type of player that I am. I'm a guard that leads, not necessarily just on the offensive end or defensive end, but just in the whole game. And I think that's what coach Buzz wants me to do. I think that's what entire coaching staff want me to do. And I believe that my teammates there, they're going to allow me to do that as well. So just being that leader and that voice and that extension of Buzz Williams is all that I can really put out there, and that's what you're going to get me to do.”

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