Maryland basketball knew roster priorities ahead of 2026-27: "you better have good fits"
Those inside the Maryland men's basketball program know there's dispute that year one of the Buzz Williams era fell far short of expectations. The 12 total wins, along with four Big Ten wins, marked the fewest since the 1992-93 season en route to Maryland missing the tournament for the third time over the last five seasons. That's why this offseason offered a chance for Williams and his staff to grow from the "good lessons" that the 2025-26 season commanded.
Assistant Lyle Wolf admitted there was an adjustment to the "new style of play" in the Big Ten, despite similarities to the SEC grind. Assistant head coach Steve Roccaforte knew one of the lessons was much more direct: "you better have good players."
"You better have good players and you better have good fits for what you're doing. And we know that if we're going to be any good, that we need positional size across the board, and we need depth," Roccaforte added.
After piecing the foundation together in year one, the result was what associate head coach Devin Johnson described as a "Buzz Williams-type team" ahead of year two.
Maryland's first move of the offseason was prioritizing Tomislav Buljan in the transfer portal, making the Croatian forward the first commitment of the offseason. The 6-foot-9 sophomore was credited by Pharrel Payne for improving Maryland's efforts on the glass in practice, but zeroing in on Buljan was made possible due to associate head coach Devin Johnson's relationships with Buljan's agency.
"Throughout the year, our talent acquisition team, kind of headed up by our associate head coach Devin Johnson, we're just kind of looking at potential prospects from all spaces – high school, international basketball, other colleges because of the transfer rule. And so Tomislav has been on our radar for a long time," Wolf said.
Williams then went head-to-head with NC State for Tennessee transfer Bishop Boswell, eventually winning over the veteran guard who now elevates Maryland's perimeter defense in 2026-27. DJ Wagner then bolted the SEC and set his sights on becoming Maryland's new point guard, eventually drawing the nickname Julio in College Park even if Wagner isn't crystal clear about the origin of the new nickname.
Veteran forward Robert Jennings Jr. was recruited by Maryland for the second time out of the portal, but it was the second pursuit that proved to be successful as the 6-foot-8 forward is expected to be an integral part of the frontcourt rotation. Devin Johnson pointed to shooting as a clear roster need with Boston transfer Mike McNair Jr., who went 6-of-8 from three point across the two public exhibition games, filling that role.
Joined by the return of Pharrel Payne and Andre Mills, the multiple impact portal additions adds the versatility that Maryland wanted out of the portal.
"When you name Tommy, when you name Robert, Bishop, DJ, just versatility and experience. And that's what we were going for with the size," Devin Johnson added. "We were going for experience. We were going for versatility. We were going for guys that can do multiple things, and all of those guys provide that. Plus, they're physical, and they really, really good rebounders in Tommy, really good rebounders in Rob, and that just goes back to a coach Buzz team."
The return of Payne, though, "puts [Maryland] in position to be in position," as Lyle Wolf described it. After being fully cleared ahead of the start of summer workouts, Payne is expected to be a focal part of the year two identity after Wolf described the redshirt senior as a "unicorn talent."
"From a culture and a family and a retention standpoint, I think that is felt within our program at a little bit more depth than people recognize. He followed us from Texas A&M to Maryland, no questions asked, and he did not reach his peak NIL opportunity even in that transition," Wolf added. "But he trusts the staff, and him being a part of the family and the culture allows us to build on what we want to build on, and so him as a player again puts us in position to compete to win the league. But him staying and being a voice of our program and helping to recruit other talented student athletes, it helps our long-term vision slash play."
The freshman class will play a key role in the identity of the 2026-27 roster with Devin Johnson pointing to five-star freshman Baba Oladotun potentially being "a better passer than a scorer," describing defensive specialist Kaden House as "tough nosed, a Buzz Williams guard" while pointing to Austin Brown's outside shooting. All in all, the new additions add the "positional size from point guard all the way up to your five man" ahead of a hopeful bounceback season.
"Any time we have positional size across the board, any time we're as big and physical as we are, any time we're as deep as we are, we're normally pretty good," Roccaforte said.
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