Maryland is the poster child for college basketball’s volatility era

The Maryland men’s basketball team made the Sweet 16 last year 🙂. It just finished its worst season in 37 years 🙁. It has a Top 10 recruiting class incoming 🙂. Welcome to modern college basketball!

Mar 13, 2026

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Maryland has been one of the more successful men’s basketball programs this century. The Terps have a national title, two Final Four appearances and 15 NCAA Tournament berths since 2000. Last year they lost in the Sweet 16 to the eventual champs.

This season, however, has been a very different story. The team lost more than 20 games for the first time since the 1940s, and finished 17^th in the 18-team Big Ten. Fans, including some famous ones, have been vocal in their frustration.

Their complaints mirror those felt nationally across college basketball’s upper middle class, where good years are less likely to be sustained and bad ones can turn just as quickly. Maryland’s new coach has no ties to the school, national recruiting has diluted the presence of local stars, and there’s very little roster continuity from one year to the next. Ten years ago, a talented freshman like Andre Mills might have Terrapins fans excited for his future; now they’re worried he’ll be in a different jersey next year. Even the team’s 2014 move to the Big Ten, which provided critical financial stability, still rankles fans nostalgic for the Duke and UVA rivalries of the ACC.

To dive deeper into what’s happening at Maryland—and with dozens of programs across college basketball—Club Sportico recruited five Terps fans from four different decades of life to talk about their relationship with the program, their frustrations with this season, and their level of optimism moving forward. Their comments below have been edited for clarity, but the full video from Tuesday’s conversation can be found here.

The Participants:
Mike B: 29, Maryland grad, 3x season-ticket holder
Mark M: 29, Maryland grad, 4x season-ticket holder
Molly G: 34, Maryland grad, Sportico editor
Adam O: 56, Maryland grad
Adam G: 70, grew up local, Terrapins fan for 50+ years

This Season

In their first year under head coach Buzz Williams, the Terrapins finished 12-21, winning just four conference games. It was their lowest winning percentage since 1988-89.

Molly G: For the first time, I have had a different experience following the season. I think between things going south early… and just them being non-competitive in so many games, it’s the first year that I have stopped watching every game. I’ve stopped feeling like I have to plan my life around Maryland basketball games. I have felt apathy creep in.

Mark M: It’s tough this year. I can tell you as a season-ticket holder, this is the fewest games I’ve gone to, by far…. The silver lining that keeps you coming back is the memories of those Purdue nights, the games you were there where you have that emotion, but it’s tough to get a 30-year-old guy out to a game right now when that’s the product.

Mark M: It feels like we’re kind of in a place of cursed fandomship,

Molly G: This is just how college sports is now. Last year you had a great year and then you can have this year right after. I think you’re always going to be kind of looking at things on a year-to-year basis now.

The Roster

Only one player remained on Maryland’s roster after last year’s Sweet 16 run: walk-on Lukas Sotell. Williams brought in 10 transfers (including four from Texas A&M) and five freshmen. None hail from Maryland.

Mike B: It is a very disconnected team because nobody’s local. Like you have all these guys who came over from Texas A&M. You have a bunch of kind-of fifth year seniors like Diggy Coit who came over from Kansas just looking for some playing time. And there was no kind of connection to the area, no familiarity that we can hang our hats on and be able to root for.

Adam G: I think that’s a really good point about not being local. I grew up with a team that was recruiting from Dunbar and DeMatha, powerhouse programs in the D.C. area, right? And we were the first choice for many of these stars. We’ve lost that. And it happened before Buzz Williams, frankly, but we need to try to get that back.

Adam O: You almost feel like these guys are free agents and it’s hard to root for a team we haven’t really experienced yet.

Molly G: You look at a guy like Andre Mills having this season, maybe the only silver lining of the season, and… is he going to come back? Are you going to get to reap the future seasons of an Andre Mills?

Mike B: I think going forward, it’s going to be a real challenge, just the continuity of the team and kind of getting that buy-in back, like the familiarity and the local kids.

If they don’t get the playing time or if they don’t feel like they’re being valued at Maryland, they’re just going to go somewhere else. And I think that’s the new reality of college sports. It’s not just a Maryland issue; it’s a college sports issue.

The Coach

Williams was hired by Maryland in April, following the end of Maryland’s tumultuous marriage with Kevin Willard (who decamped for Villanova). Buzz brought a power conference pedigree, coming off four straight winning seasons at Texas A&M, and DMV knowhow, having previously piloted Virginia Tech to a Sweet 16 berth in 2019. Notably, neither he—nor his assistants—came with any Maryland ties.

Adam O: Buzz seems just like a mercenary. I just don’t feel any connection to him and the program right now. I hope that changes, but right now there seems to be a feeling of disconnection between the fanbase and what he’s building.

Molly G: Buzz didn’t bring any assistants from the area either, right? Which was a departure from usual. That makes a difference.

Adam O: I figured we would hire another Maryland guy…. We didn’t even interview anyone who has any relationship to the Maryland program.

You have programs that have rich histories that are hiring guys that either A) came from the program, or B) have a respect and appreciation for the legacy and history.

When Buzz said in one of his last press conferences, he didn’t really understand the rich history of Maryland basketball. I mean, how do you say that in February after you’ve been on the job for almost a year?

Mark M: This is kind of like a perfect storm. Like, this is the worst season we’ve had in the past 100 years, it’s the least conference wins we’ve had. That’s really bad and you hate to see a stat like that, but a couple factors want me to have one more year with (Williams) and see what happens.

The Conference

Maryland moved from the ACC to the Big Ten in 2014, leaving behind rivalries that many Terps fans loved, including standing games against Duke and UVA. The Big Ten has obviously given the program new financial stability, but the football-motivated move also delivered opponents like Oregon and UCLA with whom Maryland has little history.

Adam O: We are a basketball program masquerading as a football program. And now, because of that, we suck at both. If we just would have leaned into being We are a basketball-first school, I’d be okay with every five, six, seven years, the football team being surprisingly good. As long as basketball was the staple because we are a basketball school.

Adam G: Going back to the ACC days, I think we lost something big there. And yes, the ACC as a conference up against the Big Ten and others, you know, they maybe come down a peg other than Duke, obviously, and UNC. But those were— Wow, those were titanic matchups. All of them. I don’t care who was coming in to Cole Field House, there was going to be blood on the floor. It was part of Maryland basketball.

Mark M.: Yeah.

Adam G: We lost all the rivalries. I think that’s the biggest challenge a program like Maryland has.

The Future

Maryland has a Top 10 recruiting class incoming, and Williams’ previous coaching stops typically produced big jumps from Year 1 to Year 2. The status of Mills, the star freshman, is a big uncertainty, but fans are optimistic that things could rebound quickly.

Adam O: Babatunde Oladotun coming next year, who is a local kid, hopefully he’ll have some success

Adam G: The question though is if Maryland starts winning next year, how do we all feel?

If Buzz Williams, mercenary he may be, were to bring a winning tradition back to Maryland next season, I think Maryland would rally very quickly.

But in terms of the glory days, the coaches that were with us for many, years, almost for full careers, I have a feeling that not just in Maryland, but in other places, that’s going to be a thing of the past.

Mark M: I have seen the ebbs and flows you can go through and it is one of the rejuvenating things. So I am optimistic, cautiously.

Mike B: I’m personally very optimistic.

Molly G: I need to see the transfer portal class before I can truly have high expectations for next year or even moderate expectations, but I do think it’s trending in the right direction.

Adam G: We’ll all look back on this interview and say, “Wow, you know, those were the tough days, but look what’s happening now. Maryland’s back. They’re back in the tournament. They have their game. Buzz Williams, once again, by his legacy, has turned a program around” etc.

But I do also think that we all realize that sports have changed. And the way it’s organized, the way people are recruited, it has just changed. And even if they make some alterations, I think we’re looking at the new world and, um, wistfully looking back at the old world.

Mark M: Go Terps!

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