Where did Maryland's Derik Queen land on ESPN's ranking of college basketball's best freshmen?
It's been a long time since Maryland basketball has had a freshman like Derik Queen. How does he stack up against the best freshmen in the country so far this season?
It's been a long time since Maryland basketball has had a freshman like Derik Queen. The Terps big man is averaging team-highs of 17.5 points, 8.7 rebounds and 60.9 percent shooting, and he's tied for the team lead with 1.1 blocks per game.
The accolades are piling for Queen and the season's only one-third done. Via UMTerps.com:
- Since 2008-09, there have been 35 20-point games by Maryland freshmen. In his first ten games, Queen has five. It's the second most in that span behind Melo Trimble (10).
- He's averaging just two fewer points per game than Joe Smith did in his Maryland freshman-record freshman season.
- Queen's points per game mark (17.5) ranks second-best among Maryland freshmen dating back to 1947-48. Joe Smith has the best per-game mark (19.4). Furthermore, 18 of the top 26 freshmen scorers in program history were NBA Draft picks.
- Since 1993-94, he's one of just 13 Terps to post a double-double in their rookie seasons. He's tied with Diamond Stone (2015-16) for the third most double doubles in that span, chasing Smith.
So how high does he rank among the best freshmen in the country so far? ESPN's Jeff Borzello ranked him No. 4 on his top 10 list this week. He wrote:
"A skilled 6-foot-10 big man from Baltimore, Queen stayed home for college, and Kevin Willard has to be grateful every day for that decision. Queen is averaging 17.5 points, 8.7 rebounds and 2.4 assists, also adding more than one steal and one block per game. He opened his career with 22 points and 20 rebounds against Manhattan and has barely slowed down since then. Queen is coming off a 26-point, 12-rebound effort against Purdue, in which he also hit his first two 3s of the campaign."
Maryland is enjoying an extended break because of finals. St. Francis (Pa.) on Tuesday before traveling to Brooklyn to face Syracuse next Saturday. That game once looked like big-name non-conference matchup, but it's one only in name. The Cuse is 5-4 this season and had had close calls against Colgate and Le Moyne.
Ahead of Queen in ESPN's rankings, Cooper Flagg (Duke), Dyan Harper (Rutgers) and Kasparas Jakucionis (Illinois). After Queen, Rutgers' Ace Bailey rounded out the top five, followed by Tre Johnson (Texas), Jeremiah Fears (Oklahoma), Boogie Fland (Arkansas), Egor Demin (BYU) and Asa Newell (Georgia).
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