Maryland Preview, 2025-26

Maryland Terrapins

November 15th, 2025 at Fiserv Forum

Head Coach: Buzz Williams (373-228 overall, 0-0 at Maryland)

Three-Year NET Average: 41.3

Three-Year kenpom Average: 31.7

Projected 2025-26 T-Rank: 41

Familiar face Buzz Williams brings his new-look Maryland to Milwaukee

Photo by Matt Hinton | AP Photo

State of the Program

Coming off a top-10 finish in kenpom and both the AP and Coaches polls, as well as the program's first Sweet 16 since 2016, it would seem like Maryland should be in a great place. Instead, the bizarre Kevin Willard saga left the fanbase perplexed. It started with rumors that Villanova was interested in hiring Willard, then a public back and forth about a contract extension and Willard's complaints about the state of Maryland's NIL and "fundamental changes" he felt were necessary stirred the pot. All this occurred as Maryland soundly beat Grand Canyon then got a Derik Queen buzzer-beater to secure a berth in the Sweet 16. Instead of a clear focus on the next game, Willard was non-committedly answering questions about his future. They lost to Florida and within a few days, he took the Villanova job.

Enter Buzz Williams, who can now check off "Big 10" from his coaching bingo card that includes the Big East, ACC, and SEC. If he can maneuver to a Big 12 job to complete high-major bingo he'll get a free value meal from McDonald's. Williams has been an adaptive high-floor coach who has found success everywhere he worked, but he doesn't stay anywhere long enough to give his programs a high ceiling. He should establish Maryland as a top-half Big 10 team that is routinely competing for NCAA bids, but won't likely stick around long enough to get them back to the heights Gary Williams achieved from 1994-2004 (National Title, Final Four, 5 Sweet 16s).

Rotation

Williams hit the transfer portal hard, starting with Indiana guard Myles Rice. Rice was a breakout star for Washington State's 2024 NCAA Tournament team, but his efficiency and shot creation fell off at Indiana as his turnover rate went up. His shooting tendencies are similar to Buzz's last lead scoring guard, Wade Taylor, in that Rice will shoot from anywhere, including midrange, and is more of a volume shooter than an efficient scorer. He'll put up numbers, but not likely in the most efficient way. Darius Adams is a four-star recruit who joins him in the back court. Adams is regarded as a quality shooter with solid size and defensive acumen. He'll likely start, but if he isn't ready both David Coit and Isaiah Watts provide options. Solomon Washington is one of two Texas A&M transfers to come with Buzz. He's an elite offensive rebounder and shot blocker but isn't terribly efficient at the rim or on the perimeter. Elijah Saunders joins from Virginia and after spending time there and at San Diego State, his pack line background should fit nicely with what Williams wants to do. Saunders is a good rebounder and switchable defender, but can struggle to score. The most likely star is another Texas A&M transfer, big man Pharrell Payne. He's a monster on the offensive glass and is an elite rim scorer, taking 69.7% of his shots at the rim and converting 66.7% of them. Off the bench, the man to watch is Kansas transfer Rakease Passmore. He didn't pan out in Lawrence but has a reputation as a tough, physical defender who uses his body well.

Style of Play

Historically, Buzz has adapted his tactics to his roster. At Marquette, he flipped from an up-tempo attack with the Three Amigos to a slow-paced grind and make threes offense with Lazar and the Midgets. Every year the pace and tactics seemed to shift a little bit to take advantage of his roster's strengths. Since leaving, he's had two clear eras. At Virginia Tech, he prioritized shooting, filling his rosters with guys capable of taking and making a ton of shots from the arc. At Texas A&M, his teams couldn't shoot a lick (sub-240 3PFG% all six years) but pounded the offensive glass (top-5 OR% each of the past three years). Offensively, this team seems to be built in the Texas A&M mold.

It's hard to put in perspective how offensively efficient Williams' teams have been despite being truly awful at shooting the basketball. In the past three years, there have been 342 teams to finish the year ranked #250 or worse in eFG%. Of those 342 teams, just 3 of those terrible shooting teams have finished the season with top-75 of overall offensive efficiency. Those teams were 2023 Texas A&M (#34), 2024 Texas A&M (#26), and 2025 Texas A&M (#42). Buzz is doing something no one else in the country is able to do. Expect Rice and Adams to initiate the offense and they'll likely be allowed to chuck shots. They create space with ball screens, and both Washington and Payne are devastating screen setters. When the shooters miss, Washington, Saunders, and Payne will hit the glass to get second chance looks. The Aggies were in the 100th percentile of rebound & scramble plays each of the past two years according to Hoop-Explorer and this roster sure looks like it plans to continue that trend. They won't score with efficient shooting, but the sheer physicality of their offensive rebounders to earn second chances and get to the free throw line will lead to high offensive efficiency regardless.

Texas A&M's shot chart was hideous, but offensive rebounds still led to the #42 offense

Shot chart from CBBAnalytics.com

On defense, Maryland will likely adapt Buzz's Seattle 3 defense. When he arrived at Texas A&M, he brought with him a matchup zone that sought to double-team ball-handlers and collapse inside to give backside help to rim protectors. Teams started to exploit that because they left corner threes open. The new system uses fewer double-teams but still collapses the paint to provide help defense on dribble drives. Buzz's defenders are now aggressive attacking closeouts and the interior defenders are schooled to read shots so they know where the ball is most likely to come off to limit offensive rebounds.

2025-26 Outlook

This team is going to be very difficult to prepare for and to play against. Few teams play with as much energy and physical abandon as Buzz's teams do. However with so many players new to the system, it will likely take time before they really gel. I can see Rice and Adams developing into a Wade Taylor/Zhuric Phelps type combo, and the offensive rebounding is already there. However counting on second chance scoring is a dicey proposition because eventually the defense will get a rebound, and a unique defense that blends multiple concepts will take time to institute. I'm expecting this to be a NCAA Tournament team, but don't be surprised if it isn't until late January or February that they really hit their stride. It will be an emotional game at Fiserv and I expect Marquette's fans to propel the team to a win over a less cohesive Terps squad.

What We've Learned

Early returns on Maryland haven't been great. In terms of meeting expectations, they have failed to cover the spread in all three outings and in the process fallen from #34 at kenpom to #60. Offensively, their only truly plus efficiency play type is after offensive rebounds, but unlike Buzz's past seasons Maryland has a 35.2% offensive rebounding rate, good for #102 in the nation. Pharrel Payne has been fantastic in that regard (13.1 OR%) but isn't getting much support. Marquette is actually better on the offensive glass this year (36.4%, #83). Health is also an issue, as Myles Rice only played one game so far in their home loss to Georgetown. In that game, Rice and Payne were the only players with over 100 Adjusted Offensive Rating, per kenpom. Beyond those two, their biggest weapons offensively have been threes from David Coit (36.8%) and Andre Mills (43.8%) but the rest of the team is shooting just 18.6% from deep so if you can limit those two like Georgetown did, Maryland is vulnerable. 

Chase Maryland from those left corner threes and their offense looks weak

Shot Chart from CBBAnalytics.com

The biggest problem for the Terps might be style of play. They are turning the ball over on more than 20.1% of their possessions, and even if Rice is back ball protection has never been a strength of his. Their defense is turning teams over, but their #22 defensive turnover rate might be a bit misleading as they are #195 in steals and #5 in Non-Steal TO%, so it's likely more a case of Coppin State and Alcorn State throwing the ball away than anything Maryland actually did. Every indicator in this young season is that Marquette should be able to get a far better result against Maryland than they did Indiana.

Marquette Connection

"I'll be here as long as they'll have me." Buzz Williams said that to Jason King of Yahoo! Sports in 2010. When he left four years later, many fans felt like Buzz was going back on his word. But in retrospect, while the on-court results (Sweet 16 in 2011 and 2012, Big East regular season title and Elite 8 in 2013) earned him the ability to keep coming back, what happened off the court sullied the positives of Buzz's Marquette tenure.

There were signs of trouble early on, such as when Marquette recruit Monterale Clark was charged with sexual assault. Clark never signed a Letter of Intent or arrived on campus, but his character was certainly revealed. There was also the recruitment of D.J. Newbill, which for years spoiled Marquette's reputation in Philly and to this day has prevented Williams from recruiting a single player from Philadelphia. It continued with the Vander Orange incident, which resulted in battery charges that didn't help ingratiate Williams' players to the Marquette community. The most notorious incident was when Marquette students were allegedly raped by basketball players on Williams' team, as detailed in a Chicago Tribune cover story. There was the time half the team got in a fight at Club 720 and cited for underage drinking. There were a spate of suspensions, including the bizarre time Marquette suspended three players for the first half and one for the second half against West Virginia so they would still have enough players to field a team. Assistant Scott Monarch was fired and Williams himself was suspended for recruiting violations on his watch.

Amidst all this, Athletic Director Steve Cottingham resigned over the sexual assault allegations. A rumored power struggle between Williams and administration ended with the resignation of President Rev. Scott Pilarz at the start of the 2013-14 school year and the departure of a second Athletic Director Larry Williams before Christmas of that same year. Maybe both were just ready to be done with the President/Athletic Director portions of their respective lives, but as Pilarz later returned to be President at University of Scranton and Larry Williams went on to be Athletic Director at Akron, that rationale would seem flimsy at best.

Ultimately, Buzz left Marquette for Virginia Tech in 2014. The belief at the time was that he was the one that wanted to go to Blacksburg, and suddenly "I'll be here as long as they'll have me" felt hollow. But after the recruiting scandals, the coach and player suspensions, the sexual assault allegations, the fights, and the multiple resignations, maybe Marquette had simply had enough. No one would argue Buzz was fired by Marquette. He wasn't. But they sure didn't put up much of a fight to keep him.