Terped: Maryland Basketball Is Still A Punch Line

As we mentioned the other day, we’ve really lost track of Maryland since they left the ACC in 2014 for the Big Ten. What we do see periodically are mostly the problems, although Derick McQueen’s buzzer beater last March was impressive.

However, that was against the backdrop of the ugly breakup with coach Kevin Willard, who left the fanbase infuriated because, in a nutshell, they absolutely hated him by the end.

And in fact, still do: Maryland fans showed up at Georgetown when Willard brought his new team, Villanova, down for a Big East matchup.

That’s right: they showed up just to boo Willard. Here’s the headline from Testudo Times: ‘It’s a hate fest’: Inside Maryland fans’ trip to boo Kevin Willard.

That stacks up with a growing disdain for new coach Buzz Williams.

He’s always been a better-than-average coach but not really great. But he has shown that he can at least compete with the great programs…until this year, anyway.

Currently, Maryland is 9-14 after Sunday’s win over fellow sad sack Minnesota, currently 11-13.

Thing is, Minnesota is typically not very good. They’re in a remote corner of the country and there’s just not that big of a draw for y0ung players, not even in the age of NIL. Maryland won because David Coit basically doubled his scoring average.

Maryland should be different. They are in the richest talent bed in the country, with great players coming out of the DMV every single year. Patrick Ngongba and Darren Harris chose Duke, along with Maliq Brown. Duke recruiting has really feasted in the DMV over the years, with Johnny Dawkins, Tommy Amaker, Danny Ferry, Jeremy Roach, Nolan Smith, Nate James and Quinn Cook, just to rattle off a few (imagine how different college basketball history would be if Mike Krzyzewski had been hired at Maryland in 1980).

When Lefty Driesell got to College Park, he said that he wanted to make Maryland the UCLA of the East, which sounded a lot better in 1969 at the zenith of the UCLA dynasty than it does today, when UCLA is struggling in the Big Ten.

On second thought, the Bruins are 17-7 so maybe it sounds not so bad after all.

Anyway, back to the theme: new year, new coach to loath. Maryland fans are turning on Williams in record time and keep in mind that with Willard and Mark Turgeon, this is the third straight coach the fans have turned on. Keep this up and they will have a lot of trouble finding a chump new guy to take the job after they run Williams off.

When the current guy has had enough, they should probably take a deep look at former Terp Duane Simpkins. Currently at American, he’s 51-38 and doing well.

He would fit the bill in many ways: he’s a Maryland guy, which many fans and former players want, he’s local, having played for the legendary Morgan Wooten at DeMatha High, and he knows the lay of the land at Maryland and all the high schools in the area.

They might turn on him too, but it would take longer.

To sum up, Maryland is still not the UCLA of the East, not even by today’s standard, Maryland is still hemorrhaging money and Maryland fans are still the worst, most delusional fans in all of college basketball who are, however, world-class at running off coaches.

So basically, nothing has changed except for conference affiliation.