Jahmir Young isn’t shy about describing Maryland men’s basketball’s game Thursday night against Michigan as a “must-win.”
“But I feel like we’re built for it,” the fifth-year senior point guard said one day before the Terps (9-6, 1-3 Big Ten) welcome the Wolverines (6-9, 1-3) to Xfinity Center in College Park for a 7 p.m. tipoff. “We’ve been practicing well. So I’m sure we’ll be ready for it and ready to compete.”
Junior power forward Julian Reese, a Randallstown native and St. Frances graduate, echoed his teammate’s sentiment, saying, “It’s definitely important for us to get this win, especially for the confidence of the team. We’re struggling a little bit in the last couple of games, and we just want to get that confidence back. There’s 16 more games left, and this would be good for our confidence.”
More than halfway through the 2023-24 season, Maryland’s campaign hasn’t unfolded the way the players, coaches and fans likely envisioned. After all, last year’s team went 22-13, earned a No. 9 seed in the NCAA Tournament and made Kevin Willard the first coach in program history to reach the 20-win milestone and guide the school to the postseason in his debut.
Anticipation was high that the Terps would build on that success this winter, especially with a freshman class that represented their highest-ranked group of recruits since 2018. Instead, they have encountered some hurdles.
Maryland followed a season-opening 15-point victory over Mount St. Mary’s with three consecutive losses, including a pair to Davidson and UAB that ranked as surprising. The team needed overtime to beat a Penn State team playing for a new coach and coming off back-to-back losses.
A 67-53 setback to No. 1 Purdue on Jan. 2 was somewhat expected. But the Terps’ 65-62 loss at Minnesota on Sunday added kindling to a fire that might be making Willard’s seat warmer than it could be.
Willard, who is 31-19 overall but only 12-12 in the Big Ten in 1 1/2 seasons at the helm, understands the assignment awaiting him, his coaches and players.
“Our goal is to obviously start playing better,” he said before digressing into praising how freshmen DeShawn Harris-Smith, Jamie Kaiser Jr. and Jahnathan Lamothe (St. Frances) played in the loss to the Golden Gophers. “So I have a lot of confidence in this team.”
Fifth-year senior small forward Donta Scott said Willard holds the players accountable for their actions. Willard also continues to emphasize the team’s strengths such as being tied with Rutgers for the conference lead in scoring defense at 63.7 points per game and ranking second and third in blocks and steals per game, respectively.
“He’s been really just trying to push us to understand that even though we took some losses early, we’ve just got to fix things,” Scott said. “Once we fix things, we’ll be fine because at the end of the day, we’re one of the better defensive teams out there. Once we get our offense jumping and our defense clicks on the transition side, you might see different things.”
Ah, the offense. If there’s one source of the team’s inconsistent play, it’s an offense that ranks second-to-last in the league in scoring at 71.1 points per game and field-goal percentage at .407 and last in 3-point efficiency at .274.
Asked how he can combat the “constant narrative” of the team’s poor perimeter shooting, Willard said flatly, “There’s nothing I can do about a constant narrative.”
Another narrative involves Maryland’s dwindling odds of qualifying for an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. Gaining the automatic qualifier that comes with capturing the Big Ten Tournament championship is every team’s best opportunity to play in the postseason, but a strong overall record would help, too.
Reese seemed to acknowledge the mountain ahead of the team, saying, “Of course, we’re not really in anybody’s sights for the tournament or whatever. But just taking care of business at home like we’ve been doing, if we just do that, we’ll be good.”
And there is precedent for a comeback. Last season, the Terps opened their conference schedule at 1-3 before rallying for a 10-6 record to finish 11-9 and in a tie for fifth place in the league.
Although they face a difficult Big Ten schedule that includes matchups with No. 10 Illinois (11-3, 2-1) on Sunday, Northwestern (11-3, 2-1) on Wednesday, Nebraska (13-3, 3-2) on Jan. 27, Ohio State (12-3, 2-2) on Feb. 10, the Fighting Illini again on Feb. 17, No. 15 Wisconsin (11-3, 3-0) on Feb. 20, the Wildcats again on Feb. 28 and Indiana (11-5, 3-2) on March 3, that history is a source of inspiration.
“I believe that we’ve got a fighting chance and that we can battle back,” Scott said. “It starts with this game tomorrow.”
For his part, Willard said he hasn’t visited statistical websites to gauge Maryland’s place among its Division I peers or concerned himself with what the team would need to do to creep into the NCAA Tournament conversation.
“Just staying focused right now on Michigan,” he said. “It’s a new team every year, and right now, just getting them focused on Michigan. That’s the only thing you can really do right now.”
The Wolverines are just as hungry as the Terps for a win. They have lost to three Big Ten opponents by a combined 11 points, and sophomore point guard Dug McDaniel — who entered the game ranked seventh in the league in scoring at 17.8 points per game — was suspended Wednesday night for the team’s next six road games so that he can “work toward meeting several academic goals he has set and needs to meet,” coach Juwan Howard said in a statement.
Still, Maryland isn’t looking to be that hospitable Thursday night.
“I feel like we’re about to turn a corner,” Young said. “Yes, we dug a hole, but we dug a hole last year as well, and we can still climb out of it.”
Michigan at Maryland
Thursday, 7 p.m.
TV: FS1
Radio: 105.7 FM