Maryland basketball will kick off its 2022-23 season against Niagara on Monday night in the first game of the Kevin Willard era.
Willard has gone on record that the Terps will play faster than fans are used to seeing in College Park, but senior guard Jahmir Young emphasized that with offseason practice coming to an end. “Had an idea, but we do play really fast, little, more than I expected. We get after it, we shoot a lot of threes, we defend well and we get out and transition,” Young added. Maryland will lean on Young to lead the Terps new-look backcourt alongside Don Carey as the lineup caters to a guard-dominant roster. “Playing fast ultimately just means, I think it’s more opportunities for me and my teammates to showcase our, skill set,” Carey added. “More possessions in the course of a game and it’s just fun and exciting really for our team.
“I feel like we’re a very athletic team,” Young added. “I feel like we excel when we’re in transition and we’re getting up and down so just being able to, we’re a veteran team also, so just being able to get up and down and make the right plays and we trust each other, so being able to make quick decisions and great plays in transition. Coach trusts us.”
While Young became the first DeMatha product to suit up in College Park in 20 years, Maryland also added a Georgetown transfer for the second consecutive offseason as Don Carey steps into the starting spot at the two. Carey cited the distance to home as one of several reasons he opted to transfer to Maryland. “It’s Maryland, which is a great university [to] come play basketball at and the winning culture here.”
While the summer has been spent implementing new systems and routines on a roster that welcomes several new faces, Maryland had a pair of closed scrimmages, first against Virginia then against Villanova, to give Willard and the staff another test ahead of the season opener. After coming up just short against a ranked Virginia squad, Maryland put a more complete performance together against a hampered Villanova squad. Willard took note of one key takeaway from the pair of preseason performances. “The improvement we made from the Virginia scrimmage. They watched film, they saw what we had to correct and they did it and they really embraced what we had to kind of change or improve on from playing somebody else.”
Maryland will look to capitalize on the first three games of the season to iron out the rotation, a group that Willard admitted he has “a really good feel for.”
“We’re still messing around with the guys and different positions,” he added. “We feel we have ten guys that can play right now. Trying to make sure that, I think the biggest thing we’re messing around with right now with our second group is moving some guys into different positions to kind of help them defensively or help us offensively. A guy like Noah Batchelor who is a guard but we’re playing him some at the power forward spot as a trail four to utilize his shooting to help that second unit spread the floor a little bit, things like that.”
While forward Donta Scott has trimmed nearly 30 pounds heading into his senior year, it’s the other starter whose impressed Willard so far.
“I’ve challenged Julian tremendously on and off the court and I think Grant [Billmeier] has been great for him but Julian has answered the bill. He’s been phenomenal in practice, he doesn’t come out of practice, he’s here early every day. The player I saw last year compared to the player I think people are going to see this year is night-and-day.”
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