At 10: 42 p. m. ET, the locker room air in Indianapolis felt heavier than the final score. buzz williams and Maryland had just watched a tumultuous season close with a 75-64 loss to Iowa in the second round of the Big Ten tournament on Wednesday, March 11—an ending that made the next phase unavoidable: reshaping a roster in public view, through the transfer portal.
Maryland’s last week contained both a brief lift and a hard stop. The Terps beat Oregon, 70-60, a day earlier, then fell to Iowa, officially ending a 12-21 overall record and 4-16 in conference play. It was the program’s first 20-loss season since 1988. The question now is not only what went wrong, but what gets fixed first—and how quickly—once the portal opens next month.
What does Buzz Williams need the transfer portal to solve first?
The most urgent roster problem is structure at the point of attack: Maryland lacked a traditional lead guard and, more broadly, a consistent facilitator. No Terrapin averaged more than 3. 0 assists per game in 2025-26. Graduate transfer Diggy Coit led the team at 2. 8 assists, but his role leaned score-first. Freshmen Darius Adams and Guillermo Del Pino logged minutes at point guard without standing out as playmakers.
The team’s assist profile showed how thin the margins became. Maryland ranked last in the Big Ten in assists at 10. 5 per game. While assists do not define every good point guard, the season underscored how much Maryland missed someone who could “drive and create for themselves and others, ” a deficiency that will be “critical” to address. For buzz williams, that is less a stylistic choice than a roster requirement: a lineup can’t stabilize without someone organizing it.
Where did Maryland’s season unravel on the floor?
The season’s biggest on-court stress points appeared inside and beyond the arc—two areas that often decide Big Ten nights when legs get heavy and possessions slow down.
Maryland has a strong lineage of big men—Diamond Stone, Bruno Fernando and Derik Queen are referenced as recent examples—but the 2025-26 group struggled to maintain a dominant interior presence after Pharrel Payne suffered a season-ending injury in December. Seniors Collin Metcalf, Elijah Saunders and Solomon Washington rotated through the role. The rotation could survive stretches, but the broader takeaway was blunt: Maryland needs “more size and strength to compete in the Big Ten. ”
Payne’s status adds another layer of uncertainty. It remains unclear whether he will return next season, and even if he does, the roster could benefit from another impact big man to pair with him—someone who can absorb contact, hold position, and keep Maryland from having to play uphill so often.
Then there is spacing. Saunders was Maryland’s most efficient three-point shooter, hitting 41. 1 percent. Coit made the most threes on the team with 71. Both will need to be replaced. The team finished 16th in the conference in three-point percentage at 31. 7, far behind the league’s best mark of 38. 2 percent (UCLA). In close games, that gap is more than math: it changes what defenses are willing to concede, where help comes from, and how hard every drive becomes.
What reasons do Maryland fans have to believe a turnaround is possible?
There is already one concrete reason for optimism: incoming talent. Maryland currently holds the No. 7 recruiting class in the nation, as listed by 247Sports. The group is headlined by five-star forward and Silver Spring native Baba Oladotun. Joining him are four-star recruits Kaden House (guard) and Adama Tambedou (forward) and three-star forward Austin Brown.
On paper, that class offers a reset point—fresh legs, new skill sets, and a sense that the roster’s baseline can rise quickly. But the context around it matters. A freshman class, even a strong one, is rarely a complete solution, especially after a season in which the team lacked a steady playmaker, lost its interior anchor to injury, and struggled to shoot at a competitive conference level.
That is why the transfer portal looms so large. It opens next month, and for Maryland it is described as “crucial for adding experience and refining the rotation. ” The roles are clear: a lead guard who can facilitate, an impact big man, and shooting that can replace both volume and efficiency.
Williams also brings a resume shaped by rebuilding. He went 11-22 in his first season at Virginia Tech in 2014-15, then the Hokies won 20-plus games each season from 2015-2019 and made three NCAA Tournament appearances. After leaving Virginia Tech for Texas A& M, his first season there ended 16-14 in 2019-20. The following year was limited to 18 games due to COVID-19. After that, he won 21 or more games in each of his final four seasons.
Now, he enters his second year in College Park—described as his first with a full offseason—aiming to engineer another turnaround. The full offseason matters not as a slogan, but as time: time to evaluate fit, to recruit specific roles, and to build a rotation that can withstand injuries and cold shooting nights.
Back in that quiet moment after the Iowa loss, the season’s numbers and notes could easily read like a postmortem: 12-21, last in the Big Ten in assists, 31. 7 percent from three, an interior shaken by a December injury. But seasons also become starting points. If the portal delivers the roles Maryland has identified—and if the incoming class adds the promise its ranking suggests—buzz williams will have the pieces to make next year feel less like recovery and more like direction.
Image caption (alt text): buzz williams watches from the sideline as Maryland begins the offseason focus on transfer-portal needs.
