Only a few members of Maryland men’s basketball’s coaching staff were around before Julian Reese arrived in College Park in 2021. They say it feels like an eternity ago.
Recruits weren’t on campus because of COVID-19, so basketball performance director Kyle Tarp tried learning about Reese from his sister Angel, then a freshman at Maryland.
“Oh, he’s a baby. He’s not gonna be able to handle what you do,” Tarp, who runs Maryland’s strength and conditioning program, recalled Angel Reese saying.
Maturity is a common answer to how Reese has changed since getting to Maryland, but Tarp said the then-17-year-old never complained about being in the weight room.
Reese eventually showed he could handle a lot more than a tough workout, too.
That showed when the assistant coach who recruited him left for another school; and when his first head coach stepped down after eight games; and when he had to change his play style for his next coach; and when his mentor got a head coaching job elsewhere; and when opponents constantly double-teamed him during one of the program’s most disappointing seasons; and when he had to take a back seat to a freshman as a senior.
While everything moved around Reese, he didn’t. Some of his coaches worry he’s the last of a dying breed in college basketball. Now, after being part of some of the program’s most turbulent years, Maryland’s success has justified his loyalty.
“I knew what I had here in Maryland and the potential we had,” Reese said. “And just knowing the coaching staff so well, and them knowing me, them working with me as well, that relationship just outcasted everybody else, and it just was a no-brainer for me [to stay] this offseason.”
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Reese has spent the last few weeks thinking about Saturday’s game against Northwestern — his final one at Xfinity Center.
Understandably, it’s a sentimental game for Reese. The same goes for coach Kevin Willard, who said he’s been “a wreck” for several senior nights during his career. Saturday will be one of the hardest.
“This will be a senior night I do not want to go to,” Willard said on the Talkin’ Terps radio show. “He’s been one of my favorite players by far of all time. I’m just so thankful for him.”
Reese is the only player on this year’s roster who was on Willard’s first Maryland team in 2022-23. Assistant coach Greg Manning Jr., who’s been at Maryland since 2018, said one of the first things Willard did was sit down with Reese.
Manning said Reese was likely the most talented player Willard inherited from former coach Mark Turgeon’s team. But he was still a baby-faced teenager who was 30 pounds lighter than he is now, and averaged just 5.7 points that season.
In 2022, Maryland had its first losing record in 30 years during Turgeon’s last season, Reese’s sister left Maryland for LSU and the transfer portal was as popular as ever. Still, Reese gave Willard a chance.
Longtime radio broadcaster Johnny Holliday and Willard joked about that version of Reese being like a bobblehead — he did a whole lot of nodding and not much speaking.
This year, Reese’s voice dominates Maryland’s practices, locker rooms and huddles. He’s particularly been a mentor for his former high school teammate Derik Queen.
Willard said the freshman’s success is largely due to Reese, and that Queen has to get him “a huge present” because of it.
“Derik’s kind of funny, goofy, outgoing. Ju’s a more serious, more focused kid, and that’s kind of rubbed off on Derik,” Manning said. “There’s been some times on camera where Ju was on him, but that’s what we need, that’s what leaders do.”
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Many all-conference caliber players would be off-put by their coaching staff going all-out for a recruit at the same position. But when the staff asked Reese if he was okay with that, he said absolutely.
“I knew we would kind of be able to mesh well because of how great of a player Derik is and how smart he is on the court and how good I am on the court,” Reese said. “It doesn’t exceed my expectations at all.”
A large reason why they fit so well is because they’re surrounded by a trio of dynamic guards who are all strong shooters. But Willard said he started mapping out how this year’s team would play last January — a time when many speculated that Reese would transfer.
After enduring two losing seasons in three years, Reese and the Terps look to wrap up their best regular season in years with a win on Saturday. Doing so would tie the program record for Big Ten wins and essentially guarantee their highest AP ranking under Willard.
The senior has improved significantly at the free-throw line and at staying out of foul trouble — Reese’s two biggest weaknesses in his first season under Willard.
Reese initially had to adjust to his coach. The two have opposite personalities and Willard uses more colorful language than any coach Reese has had before. But in a situation where many would leave right away, the pair forged an unlikely, close relationship.
The senior’s name litters Maryland’s record book — he’s No. 3 in all-time rebounds, No. 8 in blocks and No. 25 in scoring. But it feels likely that fans will remember him as the bridge between two eras of Terps basketball.
Reese thinks he and Willard’s legacy might be partially connected given that he was one of the coach’s first and biggest building blocks. Willard thinks it will extend far beyond that.
“I really believe one day Julian’s number will be hanging from the rafters,” Willard said. “In an era where kids show no loyalty … [he’s] stayed the course and been as true to the University of Maryland as any player probably ever has.”
