{"id":132091,"date":"2025-04-01T13:32:02","date_gmt":"2025-04-01T17:32:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=132091"},"modified":"2025-04-01T13:32:02","modified_gmt":"2025-04-01T17:32:02","slug":"maryland-no-longer-destination-job","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/04\/01\/maryland-no-longer-destination-job\/","title":{"rendered":"Maryland Basketball Is No Longer a Destination Job"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Maryland Basketball finds itself standing on the edge of chaos\u2014or perhaps that chaos has swallowed this once-famous program. Rumors of now ex-coach <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/03\/30\/kevin-willard-to-leave-maryland-for-villanova\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Kevin Willard&#8217;s departure for Villanova<\/a> before the Terrapins Sweet 16 game were enough to drive people up a wall. Now, after the fact, it turns out it was confirmed that he was leaving.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Kevin Willard&#39;s comments on his future after Maryland&#39;s Sweet 16 loss to Florida<a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JPFinlayNBCS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@JPFinlayNBCS<\/a> <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Terps?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#Terps<\/a> <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Dv2lGEU0hN\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/Dv2lGEU0hN<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; NBC4 Sports (@NBC4Sports) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NBC4Sports\/status\/1905453406774341857?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 28, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Willard&#8217;s quote following Maryland&#8217;s loss against Florida was very telling. &#8220;I don&#8217;t know what I&#8217;m doing,&#8221; he said. No, you do know what you&#8217;re doing, you straight-up left the Terps high and dry. Honestly, nothing should be surprising in this era of college basketball. All the Willard move proved was that Maryland Basketball is no longer a destination job.<\/p>\n<h2>Maryland Basketball Is No Longer a Destination Job<\/h2>\n<p>Maryland Basketball during the 2024-25 season was special. They had an awesome starting five, nicknamed &#8220;The Crab Five.&#8221; This group had a cohesiveness that helped the Terps reach the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2016. Not to mention, star freshman <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cbb\/players\/derik-queen-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Derik Queen<\/a> delivered on the highest of levels.<\/p>\n<p>But all the momentum this team had built for the program is gone. The coach left, Queen&#8217;s likely gone to the NBA, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cbb\/players\/julian-reese-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Julian Reese&#8217;s<\/a> eligibility spent, and now two of the most important pieces have hit the transfer portal. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cbb\/players\/jakobi-gillespie-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jakobi Gillespie<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cbb\/players\/rodney-rice-2.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Rodney Rice<\/a> will be looking elsewhere to continue their collegiate careers. It&#8217;s hard to blame them, especially when the coach leaves the program high and dry like Willard did. But this has a much bigger impact on the history of<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/02\/04\/are-terps-a-big-ten-dark-horse\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\"> Maryland Basketball<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h3>Coaching Search Won&#8217;t Be Pretty<\/h3>\n<p>The Terps find themselves looking for a new coach for the third time in five years. This program is certainly far from what Basketball Hall of Fame Gary Williams turned them into. I mean, who can they target at this rate? Others in the Big Ten have easily scooped up a lot of the hot names. Niko Medved (Minnesota), Darian DeVries (Indiana), Ben McCollum (Iowa). Does Drake University have any other former coaches who want a Big Ten job?<\/p>\n<p>According to Daniel Lewis from <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbssports.com\/college-basketball\/news\/maryland-basketball-coaching-search-2025-candidates-hot-board-names-to-watch-by-terrapins-experts\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">CBS Sports<\/a><\/em>, George Mason&#8217;s Tony Skinn could be of interest. But he&#8217;s still pretty unproven, given that the Patriots haven&#8217;t made the NCAA Tournament. This whole situation has Maryland Basketball in freefall.<\/p>\n<h3>Slap in the Face to Terrapins Everywhere<\/h3>\n<p>Willard&#8217;s sudden departure has left some important people in <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2022\/02\/07\/maryland-coaching-options\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Maryland Basketball<\/a> avenues disappointed. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cbb\/players\/len-elmore-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Len Elmore<\/a> played for the Terps in the early 70s before spending a decade in the NBA. He had plenty to say about how things went down to end the Willard-Maryland tenure. He didn&#8217;t want to speak publicly, but after plenty of contact with other former Maryland players from several different eras, Elmore spoke out. He spoke freely about the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.baltimoresun.com\/2025\/03\/31\/former-maryland-basketball-players-incensed-after-kevin-willard-exit\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> situation with the Baltimore Sun<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I wouldn&#8217;t have done it except I&#8217;ve been approached by a number of former Terp basketball players across generations- some of Gary&#8217;s guys, some of Lefty&#8217;s guys, guys from my class, &#8221; Elmore, who is still the all-time career leader in rebounds at Maryland, said. &#8220;They&#8217;re incensed. They may not be the big money donors who bought their way into influence, but these guys&#8217; blood, sweat, and bodies to the university, and we weren&#8217;t getting NIL money. So that further cements our loyalty and love for the university as a tradition and institution.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Elmore wasn&#8217;t alone. ESPN staple and famed Maryland alumnus Scott Van Pelt didn&#8217;t hold back on his podcast.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Final Four PREVIEW \ud83d\udd2e + SVP reacts to Kevin Willard leaving Maryland \ud83d\udc40 | SVPod\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/hFTNtI9x0tg?start=2762&#038;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Maybe you don&#8217;t take a giant sh*t on the front steps of the house you&#8217;ve lived in for the last three years, &#8221; Van Pelt said. &#8221; You don&#8217;t do damage to the university and program where you&#8217;ve been for three years.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He isn&#8217;t wrong. Maryland Basketball finds itself in a dark place, and who knows how long it will take to get out of it?<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"modal-image-setImageMetadata\">\n<p class=\"ng-binding\">Photo credit: \u00a9 Kyle Terada-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Maryland Basketball finds itself standing on the edge of chaos\u2014or perhaps that chaos has swallowed this once-famous program. Rumors of now ex-coach Kevin Willard&#8217;s departure for Villanova before the Terrapins Sweet 16 game were enough to drive people up a wall. Now, after the fact, it turns out it was confirmed that he was leaving. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5169,"featured_media":132233,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,773],"tags":[3338,2447,852],"class_list":["post-132091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-college-basketball","tag-gary-williams","tag-kevin-willard","tag-maryland-terrapins"],"modified_by":"Eamon Cassels, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5169"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132091"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132091\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":132235,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132091\/revisions\/132235"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}