Preview: Maryland basketball set to open Buzz Williams era vs. Coppin State in Baltimore

Ahmed Ghafir
Nov 3, 2025
3 min read

Maryland (0-0) vs. Coppin State (0-0)

When & Where: Monday, Nov. 3, 2025 | 6:30 PM | CFG BANK ARENA | BTN

TV: BTN | Jason Horowitz (pxp), Shon Morris (analyst)

Radio: One Maryland App | 105.7 FM (Baltimore) | 980 AM (DC) | SiriusXM channel 211/197

Betting: Maryland -29.5 | O/U: 140.5

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKyYErgYSeE

The start of the Buzz Williams era has officially arrived. Maryland men’s basketball is set to open the 2025-26 regular season vs. Coppin State at the CFG Arena in Baltimore.

Maryland is 76-30 all-time in season openers, including 11 straight, while head coach Buzz Williams is 15-3 in his career season opener. Maryland is also 2-1 all-time vs. Coppin State, though Eagles’ head coach Larry Stewart was on the team that topped the Terps, 70-53, back on Dec. 12, 1989. Now in his third season as head coach, Stewart will look to lead Coppin State to its first double digit win season since an 11-20 finish in 2019-20 after being picked to finish eighth in this year’s preseason MEAC standings.

Taj Thweatt, a Fairmont State transfer, and junior forward Khali Horton lead Coppin State into Monday’s opener as the Eagles look to rebound from a six-win season one year ago. Horton was named a preseason first team All-Conference selection after averaging 7.9 points last season, including 9.4 in conference play, while recording a team-high 12 blocks and finishing second on the team in made threes (39). Thweatt, who began his career at West Virginia, joins the program after leading Fairmont State to an NCAA Tournament berth while averaging nearly 12 points and six rebounds in 2024-25.

For a Coppin State team welcoming 14 new pieces in 2025-26, Monday’s opener will serve as a chance for them to gel together on the court – but the same could be said for Maryland.

Buzz Williams welcomed 15 new pieces, including a quartet of Texas A&M transfers, to College Park this offseason. But the bigger question heading into Monday is clear for Maryland: who will be available? Maryland was without Diggy Coit, Solomon Washington, Myles Rice, Isaiah Watts and Rakease Passmore (season) for Monday’s 82-81 exhibition win vs. UMBC, losing four impact pieces on a team looking to find its on-court identity. Collin Metcalf, who played just one minute in the exhibition, is also coming off an offseason injury as he looks to get back to full strength.

“He's probably not completely back to where he needs to be,” Williams said of Metcalf. “But from a size standpoint, he can help us. But he did not help us in the one minute and relative to the time, score, momentum of the game, I didn't think we had many possessions to give away.”

Williams shed light on the message for his team ahead of Monday’s opener.

“Everything revolving around how can we guard the ball better? How can we not be in rotation? How can our rotations be more effective when we are in rotation? And then you're not going to play perfectly, but when you get in rotation, you still have to have more physicality and more of an effort to finish the possessions with the rebound than we did on Monday.”

Former Maryland head coach Gary Williams will also be honored during a special halftime celebration the Terps’ game, the first of two games in the Hall of Fame Series on Monday.

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