The college basketball offseason is in full preseason mode now with summer workouts in full swing. Maryland basketball is set to open the season on Nov. 4 vs. Manhattan before Marquette heads to College Park just eleven days later as head coach Kevin Willard looks to mesh the new and returning pieces together in what he hopes is a bounce-back year three. Willard joined SiriusXM Big Ten Radio on Tuesday to talk about the state of college basketball, whether there is a true ‘offseason’ anymore, how Derik Queen and Julian Reese can play together and more on expectations for the upcoming season. On whether there is a true ‘offseason’ “Obviously it's drastically different and just in the last three or four years with the transfer portal now being such a big part of recruiting. I mean, it's just -- your season ends and then really April, May and half of June is really just, you really have to focus on the portal and your own team and then you hit July, you go out there and you see the high school kids and you have your team here. I think the portal – there's no more offseason just because of the portal.” On how roster retention factors into the offseason “The biggest change is unfortunately, once your season's over, you're sitting down with your players literally the next day. You get home and you're literally just saying, ‘okay, what are you doing?’ Because it's – with NIL, really, the only way for kids to kind of get their true value is to kind of go into the portal, unfortunately. And the fact that you can transfer as many times as you want, the retention thing is really hard. So you have to go into the year, the offseason looking at, you're probably going to have at least eight or nine new guys every year, whether it's three freshmen, five transfers – however you want to balance it out. And then trying to retain your main guys is, that's partly just an NIL deal now.” On whether Willard approaches roster retention on a one-year basis “I mean, I think it's unfortunately, it's just, that's the world we're living in. And again, it's not the kids’ fault. This is the system that we've provided them. This is the rules that we have given them. So it's nothing – you go out there and you coach your team as hard as you can coach them. You're going to try to win a championship every year, but you have to understand because of, again, because of adults have messed up this system and messed up the sports so bad, the kids are gonna play by the rules. And so you go in there and you try your best to. I think it’s you have a lot more fun with them now and just because you might only have them for a year. So you coach them hard. You have fun. You try to do the best that you can do for them. But at the end of the year because of – just because we have messed up this system so bad, they're going to play by the rules and that's what they're doing.” On whether Willard tracks the rules as they evolve “I don't think we have rules. I don't know what rules we really have, to be honest with you. And they don't – unfortunately, the NCAA doesn't listen to the coaches. It's one of the most frustrating aspects of the rules processes that we really don't have a say into what goes on in our sport. Whether it's the rules of the game, whether it's transfer rules, NIL, whatever it is. You sit in coaches' meetings and we all come up with somewhat good ideas for the better of the game, for the better of the kids…we have no seat at the table. So when you don't have a seat at the table, you kind of just go out there and you just kind of roll with the punches and see what they throw at you and see what they do. I think the new settlement is going to be, I think that's a really big game changer now that we're going to more of a profit-sharing model with the kids, how that evolves now that the universities are paying -- are going to pay players directly. I think that's going to be something that's really interesting and how that evolves. You just gotta be flexible. You sit there and you just gotta do what's best for your university and what's best for your players.” On the current roster and offseason workouts “We finally just got everybody on campus I think July 8th and I think most of the summer, we spend most of our time just doing individual instruction, individual improvement, trying to see where guys can improve their games. We've only had a full team practice once now so I'm excited about the guys we have. I'm excited about the options that we have, but to be honest with you, I couldn't tell you what we're going to look like right now just because of we just finally got everybody on campus.” On the presence of freshman Derik Queen and early contributor potential “I think the biggest thing I learned last year, we had five freshmen on our roster last year. And it was really, really difficult just because, especially with the COVID year and the extra year, grad years, it's really hard for freshmen right now, to be an impact player just because they're going up against guys who've been in college for six years, some guys seven years. And Derik is a tremendous talent and he is going to be able to have a huge impact, but what we did as a staff is, knowing that we had Derik coming in, we wanted to make sure that we weren't as young as we were last year. So we went out and got some really, really good guys in the transfer portal to put around Derik so that Derik won't have the pressure that unfortunately some of the freshmen last year had to deal with.” On this offseason’s portal additions and their impact “The biggest thing was I wanted to get some guys at that had good experience, that came from really good programs. One of the things that you look for is the guys that they played for, how well are they coached, what kind of system they ran? It's just not how good of a player they are. It's more or less can they fit in with the way we play? How did they play at the former school? I think we brought in five transfers and all came from really, really good programs, guys that got coached, guys that we knew both before that we have maybe recruited or evaluated so we knew their personalities, we knew what type of kids they were. So I think we did a really, really good job just kind of make a sure that everyone that we brought in is someone that can play our style and also fit with the guys that we’re returning, that we had coming back. We had three starters coming back so we wanted to make sure the guys we brought in were going to fit with those guys' personalities and so far it seems like we've done a pretty good job at that.” On the evaluation of a transfer portal process among coaches “Whether your kids are going into the portal or someone else's kids are going to the portal, once they're in the portal they’re gone. So most coaches are very open and honest. You give them a call. Everyone calls me when my guys go on the portal. You don't want to see anybody get fired in this business and I think that's one thing that. We want the best for what's best for the kids, but we also want what's best for each other. So there is honest and open dialogue. I see guys on the road and I ask them how my guys are doing. I want my players who go in the portal to be successful. I think all coaches are in this business now, I think we all understand that the portal is here, it's going to stay and kids are going to go in it so let's try to do what's best for everybody.” On Derik Queen’s impact at Montverde alongside Cooper Flagg “When I first got the job, Derik was the first guy we went down and saw down at Montverde. And I think you got to give Kevin Boyle down Montverde a lot of credit for being patient with Derik and helping Derik kind of evolve into the player he is now. He played on a great AAU team, had a great mentor, Team Thrill up in Baltimore, but also went to a great high school career. Got coached hard every day and Derik, big guys, you have to sometimes just be patient. Derik has always had a lot of talent. It just took a little time for Derik to realize he's got to put the work ethic into it. I think being around guys like Cooper Flagg really helped him to see how hard those guys’ work. It's been fun to see Derek from his sophomore year to now Derik being on campus. Just how hard he's worked. And I think he's had a great support system. Great high school, great AAU. His mother is tremendous. I think he's been very lucky that he has such a great support system. I want to see him be successful.” On the biggest sell to Derik Queen “It was a combination of things. We were really the first guy's really recruiting him hard. We developed a great relationship with him. But I think being from Maryland, coming home. Our goal is for Derik not to be in college for really long. To come for his mom to be there at every game, for his friends to be there. To kind of come back home was a big, big draw. It's the University of Maryland, it's got unbelievable tradition. We've had great, great big guys come to our program. So, I think the relationship, how hard we recruited him. Also and just the fact that being able to come home and playing in front of your friends and family – you'll never get that in the NBA. So for this chance, Derik was really excited about it.” On how Derik Queen & Julian Reese can coexist “Luckily Derik’s been on campus since June and obviously has been here the whole time. You know what's really what's really been interesting was one we had them on the court at the same time, unfortunately someone's got to guard either one of those. No team has played two bigs. And so the mismatches that we've been able to create, the way they've been able to work high-lows. They've been able to work very well together. Just understanding, they're both very smart basketball players, extremely smart. And so kind of the talking to each other about, I got this mismatch. You have this mismatch. Let's do some roll, replace, get some guys ducking in. They really worked well together and the true part is they're probably not going to be on the court together all that much. Obviously starting the games, big guys get in foul trouble, big guys have to get subs. I'm looking at like 12 to 15 minutes a game that they're going to be on the court together. But when they are on there, they work very well together.” On whether Queen’s arrival gives Reese a chance to become more versatile “Ju’s really worked hard on his shot this summer. Really trying to concentrate on that, becoming a little bit more consistent at that 15-footer, which he started getting towards the end of the year. And for Julian, it's kind of like, well, if you've been to put a five man on him, we're going to bring him out and we'll put Derik down low. If you're going to put a four-man on , good luck to you because no one's going to be able to stop him down low with a four-man. excited about it because it's given him different opportunities not just being on the block, he's going to be on the perimeter much more because Derik can be down low. So it's given a lot more chances to kind of play differently than he has last couple of years.” On the next step for DeShawn Harris-Smith in 2024-25 “I think the biggest thing for Deshawn is again, freshmen last year – I think in all of college basketball, there was only 16 freshmen average double digits. Again, it was such a hard year for freshmen all around college basketball, especially at the high majors, just because of its extra COVID year and the guys he was going against. I think he had a really, really good freshman year. I think the biggest thing for us is what we're trying to do with DeShawn this year is get him to be a little bit more of a playmaker. He has an unbelievable court sense to him. He's able to see the floor, make reads off pick-and-rolls. We're going to get him involved, much more involved with him on the ball and helping him create offense because he's really good at it.” On the NBA Summer League “Jahmir’s getting out there, Donta’s doing well. I really don't watch anybody else besides my guys, but they're out there, they're doing well. I'm happy for them. It’s a big jump for Jahmir and Donta, but they're doing great." On the new-look Big Ten in 2024-25 and whether it changes Maryland’s approach “I think the conference being coast to coast is unbelievable. We're the only college athletic conference that goes from the east coast to the west coast. The players are excited about it. I know the coaches are kind of – I'm excited about going, I mean, I'm not excited about going to play Oregon and Washington, but the fact that our players are going to be on the news, in LA on the news and Washington, DC, New York, Chicago. It gives us a real advantage on the recruiting trail. It gives us a really advantage for our guys with the NIL space that we go coast to coast. So I think it's phenomenal. I think it's something that, the travel is really not that big of a deal. So I think from a player's perspective, from a coach's perspective, I think, and especially for the fans, you know, to bring in four great not only universities, but football programs, basketball programs, women's basketball programs, I think it's a home run all around.” Related Links
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