Gary Williams sees physicality as need in transfer portal for Maryland men's basketball

Ahmed Ghafir
10 hours ago
3 min read

With only three regular season games remaining including two at home, Maryland men’s basketball is set to return to the court to host Rutgers on Sunday as head coach Buzz Williams looks to guide his team to a revenge win after falling, 68-57, exactly two weeks prior. But big picture, it’s one of the final games in what has proven to be another abysmal season for a spiraling program.

While Maryland will look to capitalize on Sunday afternoon’s toss-up, they’ll look to avoid losses over the final two regular season games with a trip to Madison set for next Wednesday to take on the Badgers before hosting tenth-ranked Illinois for Senior Day on March 8. With one more loss, Maryland will tie a program record for the most conference losses - somehow even surpassing the Danny Manning season - while two losses would reset the program record. Add in the fact that Maryland has now missed four of the last seven NCAA Tournaments, the program has a problem on its hands.

The good news is that head coach Buzz Williams returns several key pieces. Andre Mills has been arguably the team’s best player through February as the redshirt freshman is days removed from being named the Big Ten Freshman of the Week after averaging 30 points across the team’s two games last week, while all eyes remain on star center Pharrel Payne after being inactive and not practicing with the team since suffering an injury against Michigan in hopes of maximizing his chances of having a medical redshirt approved. Of course, Maryland could still add to its current four-man 2026 recruiting class currently headlined by Blake (MD) five-star Baba Oladotun, who remains a top ten prospect after reclassifying from 2027 into 2026. But with a need to replace Elijah Saunders and add a pair of guards including a point guard, Maryland has clear pieces to look for in the transfer portal.

Former head coach Gary Williams sounded off on the need to add physicality to a roster that lacked exactly that in year one under Buzz Williams.

“Dean Smith told me a long time ago, 30 years ago - his goal was to always have two great players on the court and then three players that would do anything to win. Dive on the floor, do all the dirty work, rebounding wise, all those things that you have to do to be a good team,” he said on The Kevin Sheehan Show. “And I think that's the key, if we can get in addition to the really good incoming freshman recruits, if we can get a couple of 22, 23 year olds that are just mean, tough basketball players, physical, built like you see in the Big Ten. The good teams in the Big Ten look more physical than Maryland this year, in addition to whatever they are talent wise in basketball. And I think that's one of the keys for Maryland to get back quick is to get physical. A lot of times your freshman, only 17, 18, years old, just aren't physical enough. They're really talented, and they're going to be great and probably playing the NBA, but you need that physical ability to compete in the Big Ten and hopefully we get that out of the portal.”

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