Kevin Willard overachieved in Year One. Now, Come Expectations.

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by Jordan Beckley

Checking all the boxes

Kevin Willard overachieved in his first season in College Park.

It all started last offseason. Coach Willard took over a Terp team that went 15-17 and 7-13 in Big Ten play. As many new coaches face nowadays, Willard had an uphill battle just to keep players from leaving via the portal.

Willard scrapped together and kept Donta Scott, Hakim Hart, and rising sophomore Julian Reese. At the same time, he lost starting center Qudus Wahab to the portal and senior leaders like Eric Ayala and Fatts Russell.

Unlike many modern coaches, Willard didn’t bring with him a group of his players from Seton Hall. He needed to go to the portal and bring in new players that could replace production, leadership and much more. It was a huge win bringing in Don Carey and Jahmir Young.

The offseason paved the path for the Terps to overachieve low expectations in Willard’s first season. Jahmir Young became an All-Big Ten performer. Julian Reese was one of the best surprises of the season. Don Carey, Donta Scott and Hakim Hart formed the backbone to a tournament team.

Go down the list and Coach Willard checked all the boxes in year one.

Produced an All-Big Ten performer? Check. Protected homecourt? Check. Terps were 16-1 in Xfinity Center last year. Had some signature wins against good teams? Check. Beat IU and Purdue in College Park. Made the Tournament? Check. Won a March Madness game? Check.

Maryland fans couldn’t have expected him to check all of those boxes in his first go-round. It goes past the on court success too. Willard also hit the recruiting trail hard in a shortened window. This 2023 recruiting class could be special.

So, Willard finished in the top 5 in the Big Ten, made March Madness immediately, is returning several All-Big Ten level players, and has a ready-made recruiting class locked and loaded to fill the holes. What comes next?

Well, the expectation level has been raised. Maryland fans weren’t sure what it would look like under Willard. Now, the fans have gotten a taste, but they want more.

With expectations raised, this season will be defined by if Willard can keep overachieving.

Roster Breakdown

While Maryland brings back a lot, there were still major roster changes and a lot of new faces. Six people left in the portal including Ian Martinez and Hakim Hart. Willard brought in three players via the portal and four big recruits. I’m very high on the potential of almost everybody on the Terps’ roster so I will try to temper myself.

Guards: Jahmir Young, Deshawn Harris-Smith, Jahnathan Lamothe, Chance Stephens

It all starts with the preseason 1st Team All-Big Ten super-senior Jahmir Young. There’s not much new to be said about Young. His penetration and play out of the pick and roll is the engine of Maryland’s offense. In his first year at Maryland and under Willard, he was consistently great with only 4 games under double digit scoring and 8 games of 20+ points. Could he be a little better of a distributor and shoot a little better from three? Sure, but if he repeats what he did last year that would still be awesome.

Young’s partner in the backcourt is freshman Deshawn Harris-Smith out of Fairfax, Virginia. Although DHS is a true freshman you will not be able to tell. His high school tape shows a lightning quick guard who was too strong for his high school contemporaries. He has received a lot of hype this summer and it will be great to see what Willard can do with two dribble drive deviants in his backcourt.

The question with DHS and Young will be how each of them play off the ball. Harris-Smith’s shooting is an unknown. Young didn’t take many possessions off at 29.7 usage %. Balancing the two and figuring out weave combinations and secondary actions will be a major part of Willard’s coaching this season.

Coming off the bench are freshman Jahnathan Lamothe and transfer Chance Stephens. Chance “Sniper” Stephens is recovering from a knee injury and will miss the start of the season. That pushes Lamothe even more into the spotlight. The freshman from Baltimore played at the same high school as Julian Reese and might end up being just as good of a player for them. Lamothe can do a lot. He’s a 6’4″ big body guard who can shoot the ball well off the dribble or in catch and shoot opportunities. However, his skill really shines through with his vision. Despite projecting as an off-ball guard, Lamothe’s tape is full of assists in half court or on outlets. I love Lamothe. He won’t start, but I think his combination of defense, shooting, and playmaking will make him a perfect supporting player that earns more minutes as the year goes on.

Wings: Donta Scott, Jamie Kaiser, Jordan Geronimo, Jahari Long, Noah Batchelor

The Terps have some options on the wing too. Donta Scott will be one of the most experience players in the conference with 114 career starts. Scott brings a mixture of inside-out scoring, rebounding and defense. He is a great all-around player that will fit around whoever Willard puts out there.

Scott will start at the 3/4 and one of Jamie Kaiser and Jordan Geronimo will be the other starter. The Indiana transfer Geronimo never got a chance to really show what he could do in Bloomington. Maryland and Willard love him and will give him an expanded role. Geronimo’s long arms and athleticism give him a great floor defensively and the Terps are optimistic on what he can be offensively both around the rim and behind the arc.

Kaiser is a freshman from Virginia played his ball at IMG Academy. He is a capital S Shooter and projects as a perfect 3&D wing right away. He will play a lot of minutes at the three this season. I’m interested to see how much of his off the bounce and midrange game will translate. Kaiser is not a guy that will beat you with his first-step.

After those guys we have a couple guard-like wings in Long and Batchelor. I don’t expect much from either of them, but Long probably will get about 8-12 minutes as a backup and maybe more at the start of the year with Stephens out.

Bigs: Julian Reese, Caelum Swanton-Rodger, Mady Traore, Braden Pierce

One of the biggest X-factors for Maryland will be how much of a breakout performer Julian Reese can be. We know he will breakout and be one of the best bigs in the Big Ten, but how good can he be? In the last 17 games of the season Reese averaged 13ppg, 7.5rpg and 1.5 bpg. His slippery prowess as a roll guy and finishing (63 fg%) is tough for many of the Big Ten bigs to guard. Reese doesn’t need to be a shooter, but he does need to shoot better from the line (53% last year). Can he improve more as a rebounder? Could he be an All-Big ten level defender? What about making an extra pass a little more? We know what Reese is awesome at already. It will be the little things that elevate him as a player and Maryland as a team.

Behind Reese, Willard has a couple different backup bigs. Caelum Swanton-Rodger had a nice foreign tour and might be the main backup. Mady Traore is a transfer from New Mexico State. The rising sophomore is a 3&D big with D standing for Dunk. Pierce is a freshman also from IMG Academy. He has a similar player mold to how Willard uses Reese, but he might be more likely to redshirt than be a contributor this season.

There’s a lot to like with this roster. They have a well defined 8-9 man rotation with clear starters and even well defined stars and supporting roles. Yet, is that a good thing or is it just easy to visualize what this team is supposed to be?

Having a defined rotation before the season is nice, but it means there is limited potential. Defined superstars and supporting rotations are nice, but that insinuates the three freshmen and the transfers in those roles all work out.

The Terps could be closer to a mid-table Big Ten team than a top four team, if things don’t go their way. Their depth is a concern and one injury or underperforming player could really hurt. However, the Julian Reese and Jahmir Young two man game should be enough for this team to win 10+ Big Ten games. There are more reasons to believe in the freshman than to not believe in them.

Again, I’m optimistic for Maryland, I just have to point out how it can go wrong. And you know who will really be optimistic? The Maryland fans. Can Kevin Willard live up to their expectations?

Take Two

You want to talk about expectations?

Jahmir Young was 1st Team All-Big Ten in the Big Ten Preseason Poll. DHS had 5 votes (the second most) for Freshman of the Year. Julian Reese would have been a Third Team selection if they did that in the poll. Oh and the media picked the Terps to finish 3rd.

How could Willard not live up to the hype?

Last year, Kevin Willard was picked to finish 10th. So, there has been a big jump up in what people expect out of College Park.

Given the school’s history, Maryland fans will expect Willard to compete for the Big Ten Title and eventually Final Fours.

Mark Turgeon’s Terrapin tenure was actually pretty good, but he never could live up to the expectations that Gary Williams had set.

But Kevin Willard knows all this and that is why he took this job. He wants to build a National contender in College Park. He left a program with lower expectations in Seton Hall to make that jump as a head coach and try and compete nationally.

Willard wants to come to Maryland and take them back to the heights Gary Williams reached. He wants to do it by staying in the DMV area too. I mentioned earlier where all the freshmen were from on purpose. Virginia, Maryland and Virginia. Willard has been intentional already about building from the DMV.

So, with the raised expectations how can Maryland improve in Year 2 under Willard?

First off, they can improve offensively in several areas offensively. The Terps were middle of the pack in field goal % and in the back end for 3 point %. Some of these sharp shooting newcomers are supposed to help that. What will also help the shooting is if players help each other out with better passing. Maryland was dead last in the Big Ten in assists per game last year.

Fine tuning the offense will go a long way to helping to fix Maryland’s biggest problem last year. The Terps went a miserable 2-9 on the road last year. Flipping two close losses to road wins out of Ohio State, Penn State, and Nebraska last year would have had Maryland finish 2nd in the Big Ten. Good teams win games at home. Great teams win games on the road.

That’s really it. Cleaning up a bit offensively will help them to win the tough games on the road. Willard already installed a top defense and protected home court. If the Terps keep improving under him they can make that jump to be at the top of the conference each year.

Maryland fans won’t settle for tying for 5th with 6 other teams and earning a 9 seed. Moving up in seeding and in the Big Ten table must happen. But, Willard knows what is expected of him and is up for the challenge.

The Terps have a fun recruiting class, tempting transfers, returning stars and a guy they believe in at head coach. Yes, the expectations are raised, but Willard is ready.