Maryland men’s basketball freshman Derik Queen is declaring for the 2025 NBA draft, he announced Saturday on ESPN’s SportsCenter.

The big man told his decision to Maryland alum Scott Van Pelt while sporting a shirt that read “I’m From Baltimore.” Queen was unable to contain his wide grin as he thanked God, his mom, former coaches and inner circle for helping him reach this point.


The 20-year-old is a projected lottery pick after averaging 16.5 points and nine rebounds in 36 games with the Terps. Queen became Maryland’s first Big Ten Freshman of the Year and third conference rookie of the year. He was selected to the All-Big Ten First Team, becoming the first Terp freshman to make a first team in a decade.

Queen could become Maryland’s highest draft pick since 2013, when Alex Len went fifth overall.

But the Baltimore native didn’t start the season on many draft boards. Queen’s conditioning was one of his biggest questions in the offseason. A grueling summer helped him enter the year in the best shape of his life. That only improved as the season went on.

“When I got here, my conditioning was like a four. Now it’s probably like a seven, eight,” Queen said in March.

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Defense and “playing every play” were two other aspects Queen said his trainer stressed to him. While both issues arose at points during the season, they weren’t enough to take the freshman off the court — he averaged 32.7 minutes in Big Ten play.

He began his college career with a 22-point, 20-rebound performance against Manhattan on Nov. 4, and followed that with 24 points and seven rebounds in a loss to then-No. 15 Marquette on Nov. 15.

Queen suffered a self-admitted freshman slump in January, averaging 12.4 points on just 44 percent shooting across nine games. He averaged at least 16 points in every other month.

Queen averaged 18.8 points and 10.1 rebounds in his last 14 games in February and March. He scored double-digit points in each.

Some of his most memorable performances came in the postseason. He scored a career-high 31 points in Maryland’s one-point loss to Michigan in the Big Ten semifinals, and became the first Terp to make the conference’s all-tournament team.

Just a week later, Queen made headlines after he hit a buzzer-beater against Colorado State in the NCAA tournament to send Maryland to its first Sweet 16 in nine years. He averaged 18.7 points and 8.7 rebounds across three March Madness games.