Maryland star guards Ja’Kobi Gillespie and Rodney Rice entered the transfer portal on Monday, a day after Kevin Willard accepted the vacant job at Villanova amid a cloud of conflict with power-brokers. The news essentially seals what Maryland fans feared: No member from the beloved ‘Crab Five’ is staying behind in College Park. Maryland’s starting five was among the most productive in the sport.
Maryland star forward Julian Reese and guard Selton Miguel are out of eligibility. Star center Derik Queen will likely head to the 2025 NBA Draft as a projected lottery pick.
All five Maryland starters averaged at least 12 points per game. The Terrapins were the only team in Division l basketball to do so. Maryland’s starters combined to score 69 points per game total — the 10th most by an NCAA Tournament team in the last 10 years.
Rice transferred to Maryland following the 2022-23 season and did not play last year. In his first season playing for Maryland, he averaged 13.8 points, 2.2 rebounds and 2.1 assists. Gillespie transferred to Maryland last offseason after spending two years with Belmont. He averaged 14.7 points (second-most on the team), 4.8 assists and 2.8 rebounds.
Maryland finished the 2024-25 season 27-9 and lost to No. 1 seed Florida 87-71 in the Sweet 16.
What’s next for Maryland?
By Isaac Trotter
Texas A&M’s Buzz Williams is pushing hard for the job, according to Jeff Ermann of InsideMDSports. The 52-year-old, who does not have an agent, has coached in the Big East at Marquette. He’s coached in the ACC at Virginia Tech. He’s coached in the SEC at Texas A&M. All that’s left is the Big Ten and the Big 12 to complete the high-major quintet.
Williams would keep the floor very high at Maryland. He built four straight 21-win teams at Texas A&M. He’s gone to the NCAA Tournament six times in the last nine years. His teams play extremely hard and win the extras by dominating the glass. Poaching an SEC coach wouldn’t be easy, but basketball is everything at Maryland, which isn’t the case at Texas A&M. That’s attractive.
Maryland basketball coaching search 2025: Candidates, hot board, names to watch by Terrapins experts
Daniel Lewis
Willard’s departure a fog over College Park
By John Talty
There was optimism within Maryland in the days leading up to Friday’s Sweet 16 game against Florida that Willard would stay after the school offered him a contract that would make him one of the top 10 highest-paid coaches in college basketball, according to multiple sources. When pressed on the Kevin Sheehan Show on Tuesday, Willard said “As of right now, I’m staying.” There was obvious instability within the school without a permanent AD but with Ullmann, the right-hand man of school president Darryll Pines, directly dealing with Willard, Maryland believed it had met all of its basketball coach’s demands.
That optimism, however, soon turned to frustration that Willard was not negotiating in good faith and would be leaving for Villanova regardless. That all the public complaints were simply an attempt to build a case for a decision he had already privately made.
“He played us like a drum,” Maryland booster Barry Gossett, whose name adorns the forthcoming $52 million, 44,000-square foot basketball performance center, told CBS Sports.
‘He played us like a drum’: Inside Kevin Willard’s turbulent Maryland departure
John Talty
The timing of Willard’s departure puts Maryland in a precarious position. Without a permanent AD and a roster ripe for poaching, time is of the essence for the Terrapins to find a solution. The school is ready to commit significant resources — from revenue sharing to coaching salaries — to find the right person to lead the program. It was — and still is — one of the top basketball jobs in the country, the kind of place where you can win a national championship and have one of the best home-court environments anywhere inside the Xfinity Center. Maryland has a 65.8 win percentage since the 2014-15 season, its first in the Big Ten, which ranks 36th nationally and sixth in the conference in that span.
In what has been the ugliest week for Maryland hoops in recent memory, with the upcoming days critical for the future of the program, there are some who still see a silver lining to Willard’s childish antics.
“I think this got the attention of the top administration about what we really need to do to run a top basketball program,” said Harry Geller, the founder of Maryland basketball collective Turtle NIL. “So in the end, that is good.”
InsideMDSports was on top of what was unfolding behind the scenes with Kevin Willard as Maryland was making its Sweet 16 run. Now the Terps are looking for its next head coach. Stay up-to-date on the search from the No. 1 source for Maryland basketball news with this limited-time 50% off offer. From the list of candidates to roster movement, InsideMDSports is your place for all things Terps. Activate your fandom here!
Read the full article here