Inside the Maryland huddle, his team down to its last 3.7 seconds to save its season, head coach Kevin Willard got right to the point. He wanted to know who felt comfortable taking the last shot with the Terrapins trailing Colorado State by a single point.
It was then that freshman Derik Queen stepped forward and said five words that will forever be part of Maryland basketball lore.
“Give me the MF ball,” the projected lottery pick told his coach.
“Once he said that it was a pretty simple decision,” Willard said. “I could see everyone’s body language perk up a little bit because he was so confident.”
The courage and self-assurance that Queen displayed turned out to be more than empty words. The skilled 6-foot-10 center caught an inbound pass at the top of the key, drove left and banked in a floater at an impossible angle as time expired. That shot lifted fourth-seeded Maryland to a 72-71 victory over Colorado State and sent the Terrapins to their first NCAA tournament Sweet 16 appearance since 2016.
“That was my first game winner,” Queen told reporters during Maryland’s postgame news conference.
Seated two seats to Queen’s right, Willard quipped with a grin, “I wouldn’t have given it to him if I’d known that!”
That Maryland advanced to the Sweet 16 on a buzzer beater is a bit of karmic justice for a program that has been on the wrong side of last-gasp shots all too often this season. The Terrapins (27-8) last lost a game some other way nearly three months ago at Oregon.
First came a fadeaway baseline jumper as time expired at Northwestern. Next was a banked-in 3-pointer in the final seconds at Ohio State. Then there was the buzzer beater that Willard calls “the real gut punch” — Michigan State guard Tre Holloman’s heave from beyond mid-court to win a Feb. 26 showdown of Big Ten title contenders.
As if that wasn’t enough, Maryland’s hopes of winning the Big Ten tournament also perished because of a last-second shot. Michigan’s Tre Donaldson weaved through Maryland’s press and went coast-to-coast for a game-winning layup with four-tenths of a second left.
So when Jalen Lake drilled a rainbow 3-pointer on Sunday to give Colorado State the lead with six seconds to play, no one in Maryland colors was all that surprised. If anything, Willard felt fortunate Maryland had time to respond.
“Guys, for the first time we have time left,” Willard told his players in the huddle. “It’s our time to make our moment happen. We haven’t had that chance.”
Maryland players mob Derik Queen after he nailed the game-winning jumper as time expired against Colorado State on Sunday. (Alika Jenner/Getty Images)
There’s a reason Willard had no hesitation putting the ball in Queen’s hands once the freshman from Baltimore declared he wanted it. The five-star center has worked his whole life for moments like this.
Queen enrolled at famed Montverde Academy after leading St. Frances Academy in Baltimore to an undefeated regular season as a ninth-grader. An assistant coach from the Florida prep school juggernaut scouted Queen and eagerly extended an invitation to the MaxPreps national freshman of the year before the 2021-22 school year.
As a high school senior, Queen teamed with fellow future first-round picks Cooper Flagg, Liam McNeeley and Asa Newell to lead Montverde to an undefeated regular season and to the prep school national title. Flagg was the most hyped prospect on that super team, but Queen actually matched Flagg’s statistical production and was often the go-to option late in the rare close game Montverde played that year.
When Queen chose Maryland over the likes of Kansas, Indiana and Houston, that was a big vote of confidence for Willard and his staff. Queen has gone on to endear himself to everyone at Maryland not only for his team-high 16.2 points and 9.2 rebounds per game but also for his permasmile and fun-loving personality.
“He’s so fun to be around because he’s always positive,” Willard said. “He just has such a great energy about him that when you’re around him, you’re going to smile, you’re going to laugh, you’re going to hug him.”
Everyone at Maryland certainly wanted to hug him after his game winner. Queen’s teammates mobbed him within seconds of the ball falling through the net.
It was the exact opposite feeling for a Colorado State team that entered Sunday’s game having won 16 of 18, including a first-round takedown of fifth-seeded Memphis. One of the Rams instantly buried his head in his hands. Another chucked the ball at the basket stanchion in disgust.
“Obviously just an absolutely gut-wrenching loss for these guys,” Colorado State coach Niko Medved said later. “I thought we defended that last play pretty well. It was about all we could ask for. He made a friggin unbelievable shot. That’s what happens in March Madness. Sometimes you’re on their side of it. Sometimes you’re on ours.”
Maryland has been on the wrong side often enough. So while Willard sympathized with Medved, he was also giddy to have secured an opportunity to face top-seeded Florida on Thursday in the West regional semifinals.
Here’s another angle of Derik Queen’s game-winner for Maryland against Colorado State on Sunday. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
Willard has been to the NCAA tournament seven times in his coaching career. Never has he been to the Sweet 16 before.
“It’s haunted me, to be honest with you,” he said. “I know it’s always been on my back. It’s always been a stigma. But I had confidence in myself that if my teams keep getting to this tournament, you’re eventually going to knock the door down.”
The door has been kicked in now. Willard owes it to a gregarious freshman from Baltimore who had the confidence to ask for the ball when his team’s season was on the line.
“When he said he wanted the ball and the way he said it, I knew something good was going to happen,” Willard said. “Good things happen to good people, and he is a great person.”
