Will $10 million boost Maryland basketball's recruiting? Plus, Queen, Gillespie, a wild portal and guard scoop
Just when Maryland men's basketball appeared to be heading in the wrong direction, Kevin Willard's team screeched into an abrupt U-turn, reeling off a bunch of wins and ending its road slump. The Terps, who'd lost three of five, have won three in a row, five of six and two straight road Big Ten games a row for the first time in Willard's tenure.
Then came the icing on the cake: an anonymous $10 million donation to the men's basketball program. Will that donation boost their ability to get top recruits and retain their best players? Should you feel good about their chances of a major addition? Here's the scoop.
I'm told the donation hasn't been earmarked yet, nor is the cash in hand. The word "commitment" should be emphasized here. So, I wouldn't look for it to affect their recruiting in the sense of getting Player A out of the portal, but the yearly dividends will be spread around to cover scholarships and other costs.
I asked a university source whether the money will be used for revenue-sharing. The answer was no, because that $20.5 payroll has already been budgeted. Still, it surely eases some strain of sharing that revenue by covering other expenses. So indirectly, it should support revenue-sharing. Perhaps Steve Schanwald's $10 million donation in December helped to fund it. The numbers aren't accessible publicly, at least not yet.
It sounds like Maryland basketball will have around $6-to-7 million for next season's roster. Which is solid ground, but not elite.
Maryland will need a lot of money. There's already chatter about other schools who will be eyeballing Ja'Kobi Gillespie, who's made a brilliant transition from the Missouri Valley to the Big Ten and is easily a million-dollar-a-year guy at this point. That's how it goes these days. You can't count on anyone returning with 100% confidence. He's also crept onto the NBA radar.
And any chances of getting Derik Queen back, slim as they seem, would probably require $1.5 million. And Rodney Rice's impressive debut season has made him a valuable commodity.
The analytics site Evan Miya ranks Gillespie as the 10th-most valuable player (offensively) in the country. Julian Reese is 36th and Derik Queen is 93rd, but they were expected to be elite players. In what's essentially been his first year, having only played in seven games at Virginia Tech, Rice is 116th out of the more than 3,000 players rated. And he's made an inordinate number of big plays in key moments that you can't measure with a formula.
They'll also need a couple of Bigs after Willard passed on high school centers. So, the spring portal season should be a wild ride.
I'm hearing Maryland has a realistic shot at Chance Mallory, the No. 7 point guard overall and the top uncommitted point guard in 247Sports 2025 basketball prospect rankings. One source last week gave Maryland a five out of 10 score on the confidence meter, but another source this week was significantly higher on their chances.
As I reported last week, Mallory isn't in a rush to make a decision. It was reported over the weekend that he'll take official visits to Tennessee and Vanderbilt, two of the three schools that are threats along with Virginia Tech. He could wait it out until the spring to see what those rosters look like. That might include seeing what Gillespie does.
This season has officially become exciting during the past couple of weeks. If Willard can keep his team on an upward trajectory, it could become one of the program's most compelling March months in a while. A win against Wisconsin on Wednesday (20% off Maryland-Wisconsin tickets with checkout code "IM" at Seat Geek) would get them into the top 25 after a two-year absence that might feel more like 10 years.
The starters have been logging heavy minutes lately and the bench still hasn't outscored a Big Ten opponent's bench. But with Reese playing at an elite level in the past four games (18 points, 11 rebounds and 2.3 blocks per game on 50% shooting) the guards shooting well (Maryland is fifth in the Big Ten in 3-point shooting at 36.5 percent) and Queen starring intermittently, they haven't needed much scoring help.
The starting five has looked increasingly cohesive and ranks the most efficient starting five in the country among units with more than 300 possessions together. They'll need to continue that progression and avoid falling back into the road struggles.
The Terps, who'd lost three of five, have won three in a row, five of six and two straight Big Ten road games a row for the first time in Willard's tenure. Then came the icing on the cake: an anonymous $10 million donation to the basketball program. What does it mean and what's the latest on a big possible addition?
Just when Maryland men's basketball appeared to be heading in the wrong direction, Kevin Willard's team screeched into an abrupt U-turn, reeling off a bunch of wins and ending its road slump. The Terps, who'd lost three of five, have won three in a row, five of six and two straight road Big Ten games a row for the first time in Willard's tenure.
Then came the icing on the cake: an anonymous $10 million donation to the men's basketball program. Will that donation boost their ability to get top recruits and retain their best players? Should you feel good about their chances of a major addition? Here's the scoop.
I'm told the donation hasn't been earmarked yet, nor is the cash in hand. The word "commitment" should be emphasized here. So, I wouldn't look for it to affect their recruiting in the sense of getting Player A out of the portal, but the yearly dividends will be spread around to cover scholarships and other costs.
I asked a university source whether the money will be used for revenue-sharing. The answer was no, because that $20.5 payroll has already been budgeted. Still, it surely eases some strain of sharing that revenue by covering other expenses. So indirectly, it should support revenue-sharing. Perhaps Steve Schanwald's $10 million donation in December helped to fund it. The numbers aren't accessible publicly, at least not yet.
It sounds like Maryland basketball will have around $6-to-7 million for next season's roster. Which is solid ground, but not elite.
Maryland will need a lot of money. There's already chatter about other schools who will be eyeballing Ja'Kobi Gillespie, who's made a brilliant transition from the Missouri Valley to the Big Ten and is easily a million-dollar-a-year guy at this point. That's how it goes these days. You can't count on anyone returning with 100% confidence. He's also crept onto the NBA radar.
And any chances of getting Derik Queen back, slim as they seem, would probably require $1.5 million. And Rodney Rice's impressive debut season has made him a valuable commodity.
The analytics site Evan Miya ranks Gillespie as the 10th-most valuable player (offensively) in the country. Julian Reese is 36th and Derik Queen is 93rd, but they were expected to be elite players. In what's essentially been his first year, having only played in seven games at Virginia Tech, Rice is 116th out of the more than 3,000 players rated. And he's made an inordinate number of big plays in key moments that you can't measure with a formula.
They'll also need a couple of Bigs after Willard passed on high school centers. So, the spring portal season should be a wild ride.
I'm hearing Maryland has a realistic shot at Chance Mallory, the No. 7 point guard overall and the top uncommitted point guard in 247Sports 2025 basketball prospect rankings. One source last week gave Maryland a five out of 10 score on the confidence meter, but another source this week was significantly higher on their chances.
As I reported last week, Mallory isn't in a rush to make a decision. It was reported over the weekend that he'll take official visits to Tennessee and Vanderbilt, two of the three schools that are threats along with Virginia Tech. He could wait it out until the spring to see what those rosters look like. That might include seeing what Gillespie does.
This season has officially become exciting during the past couple of weeks. If Willard can keep his team on an upward trajectory, it could become one of the program's most compelling March months in a while. A win against Wisconsin on Wednesday (20% off Maryland-Wisconsin tickets with checkout code "IM" at Seat Geek) would get them into the top 25 after a two-year absence that might feel more like 10 years.
The starters have been logging heavy minutes lately and the bench still hasn't outscored a Big Ten opponent's bench. But with Reese playing at an elite level in the past four games (18 points, 11 rebounds and 2.3 blocks per game on 50% shooting) the guards shooting well (Maryland is fifth in the Big Ten in 3-point shooting at 36.5 percent) and Queen starring intermittently, they haven't needed much scoring help.
The starting five has looked increasingly cohesive and ranks the most efficient starting five in the country among units with more than 300 possessions together. They'll need to continue that progression and avoid falling back into the road struggles.
