The transfer portal window closed Tuesday. Count former coach Matt McCall among the fans of what coach Buzz Williams and Maryland did.
“You look at what he did at Virginia Tech and then at Texas A&M, and I think Maryland is about to explode,” said McCall, an analyst for NBC Sports, SiriusXM and the Field of 68 who coached Chattanooga from 2015 to 2017 and UMass from 2017 to 2022. “And with what he’s bringing in transfer-wise, nobody’s going to work harder. He’s proven that throughout his career.”
In the 15 days that the transfer portal was open for players to enter, the Terps were active. They landed power forwards Tomislav Buljan (New Mexico), Maban Jabriel (Queens) and Robert Jennings II (Oklahoma State), shooting guards Bishop Boswell (Tennessee) and Michael McNair (Boston University) and point guard DJ Wagner (Arkansas).
Maryland also welcomes a freshman class consisting of five-star forward Baba Oladotun, four-star shooting guard Kaden House and four-star power forward Adama Tambedou. The team’s group of newcomers, including both freshmen and transfers, is ranked fourth overall in the nation, trailing Duke, Texas and Tennessee, according to 247 Sports.
Here is what McCall and Maryland Sports Radio Network analyst Chris Knoche noticed.
Among the many issues that contributed to the team’s 12-21 overall record that tied a school record for most losses in a season were Maryland’s 3-point shooting woes. The Terps made just 31.7% of their shots from beyond the arc, the third-worst percentage in the Big Ten.
Maryland appears to have addressed that liability. McNair shot 44.4% from behind the line, while Boswell (38.5%) and Wagner (34.6%) were better than Maryland’s average from last season. Even Jabriel knocked down 43.2% from long range.
McCall said the influx of 3-point shooters was intentional.
“If you’re a team that can’t shoot it from a high clip from behind a 3-point line, with the day and age that we live in now with college athletics and knowing that this is the transfer portal era, this is what we’re dealing with,” he said. “You have to get better, and you go find some of the best shooters in the country, and that’s what they did.”
Storybook sequence as Navy football duo selected 4 picks apart in NFL draft
Navy slotback Eli Heidenreich drafted by hometown Steelers in 7th round
Navy defensive lineman Landon Robinson drafted by Bengals in 7th round
UMD students vote to remove regent named in Epstein files
Bang-bang goal gives No. 19 Loyola Maryland men’s lacrosse 13-12 victory over Navy
In a related vein, Knoche likes that Boswell, McNair and Wagner have played at least two years of college basketball. Knoche said the Terps were just too young at critical places.”
“That maturity level, the experience level is really going to help them,” he said.
If 6-foot-9, 250-pound senior power forward Pharrel Payne gets a medical redshirt for a right knee injury that sidelined him for the final 22 games of last season, he will be joined by some bulk in the frontcourt in 6-9, 250-pound Buljan, 6-9, 205-pound Jabriel and 6-7, 230-pound Jennings II.
Williams’ decisions to bring in that trio to combine with Payne are a response to how NCAA and Big Ten champion Michigan relied on 7-3 Aday Mara, 6-9 Morez Johnson Jr. and 6-9 Yaxel Lendeborg. Illinois, another Final Four team, had 7-1 Tomislav Ivisic, 6-9 David Mirkovic and 6-7 Andrej Stojakovic.
“That’s the world that we’re in,” McCall said. “It’s the three really big frontcourt players, and two out of the three better be able to shoot it from behind the perimeter, and everybody else needs to be physical enough to be able to guard multiple positions. He was looking at the best teams in the Big Ten, and the two best teams that just went to the Final Four had positional size, and they could shoot it from every single position.”
Knoche said Buljan is an upgrade from undersized power forward Solomon Washington, who sparked the team after Payne’s injury.