‘Maryland is about to explode’: What to make of men’s basketball’s revamped roster

Shooting their shot

Among the many issues that contributed to the team’s 12-21 overall record that tied a school record for most losses in a season were Maryland’s 3-point shooting woes. The Terps made just 31.7% of their shots from beyond the arc, the third-worst percentage in the Big Ten.

Maryland appears to have addressed that liability. McNair shot 44.4% from behind the line, while Boswell (38.5%) and Wagner (34.6%) were better than Maryland’s average from last season. Even Jabriel knocked down 43.2% from long range.

McCall said the influx of 3-point shooters was intentional.

“If you’re a team that can’t shoot it from a high clip from behind a 3-point line, with the day and age that we live in now with college athletics and knowing that this is the transfer portal era, this is what we’re dealing with,” he said. “You have to get better, and you go find some of the best shooters in the country, and that’s what they did.”

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In a related vein, Knoche likes that Boswell, McNair and Wagner have played at least two years of college basketball. Knoche said the Terps were just too young at critical places.”

“That maturity level, the experience level is really going to help them,” he said.

Adding some beef

If 6-foot-9, 250-pound senior power forward Pharrel Payne gets a medical redshirt for a right knee injury that sidelined him for the final 22 games of last season, he will be joined by some bulk in the frontcourt in 6-9, 250-pound Buljan, 6-9, 205-pound Jabriel and 6-7, 230-pound Jennings II.

Williams’ decisions to bring in that trio to combine with Payne are a response to how NCAA and Big Ten champion Michigan relied on 7-3 Aday Mara, 6-9 Morez Johnson Jr. and 6-9 Yaxel Lendeborg. Illinois, another Final Four team, had 7-1 Tomislav Ivisic, 6-9 David Mirkovic and 6-7 Andrej Stojakovic.

“That’s the world that we’re in,” McCall said. “It’s the three really big frontcourt players, and two out of the three better be able to shoot it from behind the perimeter, and everybody else needs to be physical enough to be able to guard multiple positions. He was looking at the best teams in the Big Ten, and the two best teams that just went to the Final Four had positional size, and they could shoot it from every single position.”

Knoche said Buljan is an upgrade from undersized power forward Solomon Washington, who sparked the team after Payne’s injury.

“The team fed off his energy and his incredible effort, and not only did they replace that with a guy who kind of does the same thing in the kid from New Mexico, but he’s three inches taller and much more gifted offensively than Solomon was,” he said. “So that’s a big upgrade from a guy who already had given you a lot of effort, a lot of heart.”

Balancing input with output

Adding six players via the transfer portal and four incoming freshmen to the roster meant saying goodbye to six players who contributed to Maryland last winter. That group includes shooting guards Darius Adams, Nick Blake, Myles Rice and Isaiah Watts, small forward Jaziah Harper and power forward Aleks Alston.

Rice played 17 games with four starts, Watts and Alston chipped in off the bench, while Blake and Harper did not get on the floor. But Adams’ departure was mildly surprising considering the freshman averaged 10.8 points while leading the offense in free throws made (100) and attempted (140).

But Adams struggled from beyond the arc, connecting on just 24.6% of his 134 attempts. Wagner, McNair and Boswell might offset his productivity, Knoche said.

McCall echoed that sentiment, saying, “It’s what everybody is doing. And you can talk about style of play or how he didn’t shoot it great from behind the perimeter or whatever. But the norm is leaving. The norm is not staying.”

Have a news tip? Contact Edward Lee at eklee@baltsun.com, 410-332-6200 and x.com/EdwardLeeSun.