One of Maryland men’s basketball’s biggest questions entering the 2024-25 season was how it’d make the Derik Queen-Julian Reese tandem work. Four games in, coach Kevin Willard is still searching for an answer.
It’s difficult to confidently judge the effectiveness — the sample size is small, it takes time for new players to gel and three of the Terps’ four opponents have been outside KenPom’s top 250 teams — but it remains to be seen exactly how Willard will make the pairing work.
“It’s the one thing with Derik and [Reese] that we got to kind of figure out a little bit,” Willard said. “It’s just kind of getting them in better spots.”
Reese spent the final three minutes and 55 seconds of the Terps’ 78-74 loss to No. 15 Marquette on the bench. The Golden Eagles repeatedly targeted the Terps’ big men in ball screens to isolate them onto one of their guards.
That was particularly evident with Marquette guard Kam Jones, who scored a game-high 28 points and punished the switching Maryland defense.
[Maryland men’s basketball battles but falls to No. 15 Marquette, 78-74]
“The way Maryland was defending was different than what we typically see,” Marquette coach Shaka Smart said. “They pretty much switched everything, including with Queen and Reese, and that meant that there was going to be some different matchups out there.”
The lack of switchability is part of why the defense has been at its worst with both of them on the court together. Maryland’s offense has been best with the pair of Baltimore natives, but so far this season, Reese hasn’t found much of a rhythm — or been given many chances to.
Reese has totaled 23 shot attempts across the Terps’ first four games after needing just two contests to reach that mark a year ago. The senior said he doesn’t think he’s been forced to adjust by sharing the court with Queen specifically, but all the new teammates are still getting used to each other.
“When you put this many new guys out there with him, there is a learning curve, understanding where he likes the ball, when to get [him] the ball, where to get the ball,” Willard said.
Willard has tried to figure out how to manage the rotation, and more specifically, his big men’s minutes.
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The coach wants to keep at least one of the two big men out there but said doing so is more complicated than it looks — he likes having both, but feels that requires one of them on the floor for at least eight straight minutes, which he said is hard for big men playing at this level.
Still, Willard wants to make the pair work.
“I just don't like giving the other team a free pass, not having one of them on the floor,” Willard said after the season opener on Nov. 4. “I don't care who you are, if you gotta guard Julian Reese and Derik Queen all game long, and you never get a break, you're going to be in for a long night.”
The Terps have four more games before their first Big Ten contest against Ohio State on Dec. 4. They’ll likely be favored in each of those games — the only notable opponent is a struggling Villanova on Nov. 24.
Queen and Reese have immense talent. Smoothing out the pairing of two of its best players could be one of Maryland’s most important tasks before entering Big Ten play.
