The Maryland Terrapins 2023-24 men’s basketball team had their annual Media Day to introduce this year’s team which began with head coach, Kevin Willard, doing a press conference for the media. Afterwards, it was a team photo, player interviews, and then a quick view of the team practicing.
With Willard beginning his second season at the helm of this basketball program, he spoke to two of his two biggest challenges from last year was getting acclimated to the Big-Ten conference and NIL (name, image likeness). He spoke about that the Terps will play Georgetown next season in what will be an annual DMV rivalry.
The season begins on Nov. 7 against Mount St. Mary’s in a non-conference game, and the Terps look to improve upon their 22-13 record from last year and trip to the NCAA Tournament.
The team returns three key starters from last year’s team with Jahmir Young, Donta Scott and Julian Reese. Young, who transferred from Charlotte last year, is perhaps Maryland’s best player. In 2022, he averaged 15.8 points, 3.1 assists and 1.3 steals per game.
“I have so much more confidence with the fact that my point guard has more confidence”
— head coach @KevinWillard
at Media Day
The team also had a great recruiting class bringing in from Northern Virginia two stand-outs in Deshawn Harris-Smith and Jamie Kaiser Jr. The have both known each other since sixth grade, and played against each other. Kaiser grew up in Burke, Virginia and came to his first Terps basketball game when he was six years old. He told stories of some of his favorite games. As a Terps fan, he was an easier recruit, and was actually a two-sport athlete as a quarterback that Terps head football coach Mike Locksley was also recruiting. He decided to just play basketball after considering playing both sports.
While Willard wouldn’t reveal his starting five for that Nov. 7th opener, he said that he hopes to get more players into each game for playing time.
