396 replies to this topic

[BSLZackKiesel]

From the Sweet 16 to one of the worst seasons in program history. Simply pathetic on so many levels.

 

I do wonder how much of an impact this will have on the fanbase. Maryland's fans are pretty fickle to begin with, but this feels like it might take awhile to recover from.

[BSLMikeLowe]

From the Sweet 16 to one of the worst seasons in program history. Simply pathetic on so many levels.

 

I do wonder how much of an impact this will have on the fanbase. Maryland's fans are pretty fickle to begin with, but this feels like it might take awhile to recover from.

I can only judge by what I see on TV during games, but I feel like fan interest has been steadily fading for quite some time. This certainly won’t reverse that though.

[BSLChrisStoner]

From the Sweet 16 to one of the worst seasons in program history. Simply pathetic on so many levels.

I do wonder how much of an impact this will have on the fanbase. Maryland's fans are pretty fickle to begin with, but this feels like it might take awhile to recover from.

Its year to year.

If they rebound next year, this season will feel as distant as last year does.

We will know everything we need to know by April 15th.

Meaning we will see what the roster looks like then.

[JeremyStrain]

You can't lose your entire roster and even remotely think you're going to perform close to what you were before. Losing Queen alone was enough to drop us a tier or two. 

 

This was always going to be a rebuild year, built on late, unsigned players and transfers. As he has a chance to get his draft classes in here, then we can evaluate. But no coach should be looked at too closely for roster composition before year 3. 

[BSLChrisStoner]

You can't lose your entire roster and even remotely think you're going to perform close to what you were before. Losing Queen alone was enough to drop us a tier or two. 

 

This was always going to be a rebuild year, built on late, unsigned players and transfers. As he has a chance to get his draft classes in here, then we can evaluate. But no coach should be looked at too closely for roster composition before year 3. 

It's a bit different in this portal era. 

 

The expectation is definitely a quicker build. 

 

I do believe if Payne is available all year, and Rice (who was All Pac 12 as Freshman 2 years ago) wasn't a zero contributor... this team is a below average middle of the pack / outside the bubble team.... vs. a disaster team. 

Oh well, one more game, and it doesn't matter. 

Then it's full focus to getting the additional year for Payne (which is the expectation), getting Adams and Mills back... adding Oladotun, House, Tambedou, and Brown...  maybe retain Del Pino, and Turkson.... 

Then have to add 3 impactful players in the portal. 

MD has to rebound significantly next year, and it's my expectation they will. 

My expectation is that MD is a tournament team, which flirts with the Top 25, and goes into the Tournament thinking S16.

That should be realistic imo.

There were 2,600 players in the portal before the 2025-26 season. 

Buzz has to identify and land several impactful additions. 


In 6 weeks we will know if there is reason to have optimism about next year or not.

[BSLMikeLowe]

You can't lose your entire roster and even remotely think you're going to perform close to what you were before. Losing Queen alone was enough to drop us a tier or two. 

 

This was always going to be a rebuild year, built on late, unsigned players and transfers. As he has a chance to get his draft classes in here, then we can evaluate. But no coach should be looked at too closely for roster composition before year 3. 

There is no rebuilding in college sports anymore. Your roster turns over significantly every season. While it is unique in MD’s case for every single scholarship player to be new, many other teams compete with massive turnover of rotation players. There was no excuse at all for being this awful. Injuries brought bad luck, but there was poor talent evaluation here too imo.

[glenn__davis]

There is no rebuilding in college sports anymore. Your roster turns over significantly every season. While it is unique in MD’s case for every single scholarship player to be new, many other teams compete with massive turnover of rotation players. There was no excuse at all for being this awful. Injuries brought bad luck, but there was poor talent evaluation here too imo.

 

As usual I think the answer is somewhere in the middle.  Program-building is not nearly as much of a thing as it used to be but I think to say there is "no rebuilding" goes too far to the other extreme.

 

I don't think it should be the expectation that you can replace an entire roster and have significant success.  It has worked in some instances and not worked in many others.  With as bad as the season has been I am confident that all of the following are true:

 

1. The roster was not very good from start, in no small part due to the attrition and the late start from Buzz.
2. Injuries to the team's best player and to the presumptive starting PG further depleted the roster.
3. Buzz and his staff did not do a good job coaching / getting the best out of the roster that remained.

 

Buzz made comments a few weeks back that he did not do a good enough job this year.  I haven't heard much from him in terms of excuse-making even though I think there are some convenient ones that he could lean on regarding points 1 and 2 above.

 

To Chris's point - This season will be forgotten soon enough.  Burn the tape, and let's see what happens in the portal.

[BSLMikeLowe]

As usual I think the answer is somewhere in the middle.  Program-building is not nearly as much of a thing as it used to be but I think to say there is "no rebuilding" goes too far to the other extreme.

I’ll disagree, as it pertains to basketball. Football you can still do some degree of program building because the roster is so much larger and a much smaller percentage leaves year over year.

 

To the point, how many of the current MD players do we feel reasonably confident will be back next season? How many do we even want to see back?

[BSLChrisStoner]

 

 

To the point, how many of the current MD players do we feel reasonably confident will be back next season? How many do we even want to see back?

 

5.  Payne, Adams, Mills, Del Pino, Turkson. 

 

[BSLMikeLowe]

5.  Payne, Adams, Mills, Del Pino, Turkson. 

I would be very surprised if all five of them return.

[BSLChrisStoner]

I would be very surprised if all five of them return.

I'd like all 5 back.  Will they?  It's 2026, so who knows?  Guess the odds say no.

[BSLZackKiesel]

It sounds like there's a pretty good likelihood that Adams and Mills are back. Payne should also be back if he's deemed eligible for a medical redshirt (the assumption is that he will be). As for the others, who knows.

[BSLMikeLowe]

It sounds like there's a pretty good likelihood that Adams and Mills are back. Payne should also be back if he's deemed eligible for a medical redshirt (the assumption is that he will be). As for the others, who knows.

My understanding is the end of the calendar year is the cutoff for basketball, so since Payne last played Dec 13th he would seem to be eligible. But even though MD would help him apply for the waiver, that doesn’t preclude him from going in the portal and playing elsewhere if the waiver is granted.

[glenn__davis]

5.  Payne, Adams, Mills, Del Pino, Turkson. 

 

 

Adams is really testing me here lately.  Hitting a bit of a freshman wall I'm sure but he certainly looks like a very over-hyped 5* at the moment.

 

Payne and Mills, sure.  I like GDP as a developmental type player but he's got a long way to go.

 

Turkson is fine as like a 10th guy off the bench to give energy and fouls.  He'd probably be well-served to drop down a level IMO.  And so would GDP for that matter.  I like him because he's a Spaniard and quite frankly he's the only one on the roster right now who even pretends to play point guard, but he's probably not a high D1 player.

 

I do think Aleks Alston has potential but he has not flashed much in the opportunities he's been given.

[You Play to Win the Game]

You can't lose your entire roster and even remotely think you're going to perform close to what you were before. Losing Queen alone was enough to drop us a tier or two. 

 

This was always going to be a rebuild year, built on late, unsigned players and transfers. As he has a chance to get his draft classes in here, then we can evaluate. But no coach should be looked at too closely for roster composition before year 3. 

We need to stop with the apologists stuff. I know Maryland being an after thought has become normalized, which really stinks, but this should never be the floor. It's inexcusable regardless of any context whatsoever.

 

Teams ranked above MD in KenPom:

• Illinois Chicago
• UC San Diego
• Liberty
• Navy
• Seattle
• Southern Illinois
• Pacific
• Cal Baptist (never even heard of these clowns)
• UT Rio Grande Valley
• UC Santa Barbara
• Sam Houston State
• Bradley
• Duquesne
• William & Mary
• McNeese
• Dayton
• Northern Iowa
• Yale
• Utah Valley
• Stephen F. Austin
• Miami OH 

Buzz's attitude and mindset since he arrived has been way too accepting of this year being a lost cause. That's not leadership. Being liked by your players, isn't leadership. 

 

Someone who knows Buzz made a comment on social media a few weeks back that he's the type of person that would tank a season to make the rebound in year 2 even more "impressive." That isn't acceptable to me. 

 

Zack is right about the apathy. It's just hopeless. Even sneaking into the tournament next year - so what? That's what we're hoping for as an upside?

[BSLMikeLowe]

Cal Baptist’s NIL game is a force to be reckoned with.

[JeremyStrain]

We need to stop with the apologists stuff. I know Maryland being an after thought has become normalized, which really stinks, but this should never be the floor. It's inexcusable regardless of any context whatsoever.

 

Teams ranked above MD in KenPom:

• Illinois Chicago
• UC San Diego
• Liberty
• Navy
• Seattle
• Southern Illinois
• Pacific
• Cal Baptist (never even heard of these clowns)
• UT Rio Grande Valley
• UC Santa Barbara
• Sam Houston State
• Bradley
• Duquesne
• William & Mary
• McNeese
• Dayton
• Northern Iowa
• Yale
• Utah Valley
• Stephen F. Austin
• Miami OH 

Buzz's attitude and mindset since he arrived has been way too accepting of this year being a lost cause. That's not leadership. Being liked by your players, isn't leadership. 

 

Someone who knows Buzz made a comment on social media a few weeks back that he's the type of person that would tank a season to make the rebound in year 2 even more "impressive." That isn't acceptable to me. 

 

Zack is right about the apathy. It's just hopeless. Even sneaking into the tournament next year - so what? That's what we're hoping for as an upside?

Looking at the replies I got on this I think kinda sums up what I'm saying. It is NOT transfer portal saves the day. The players in the portal are OK players 99% of the time, but they aren't game changers. They are a lot of players that thought they were going to play more than they did, a lot of players that think you form a super team and someone else does all the work, and a lot of players that are never going to play again (33% of players that hit the portal never come out). 

 

NOW, in fairness most of my conversations and work are coming in different NCAA sports than basketball, but I'm talking to coaches REGULARLY and a lot of those have been having conversations with the other coaches (football, basketball etc) to ask how their experience has gone. 

 

I think everyone thinks the portal is the top 10%. The big NIL guys, people playing NCAA like it's FA. Some of them are out there, but those guys are staying to the top power schools. 

 

We got a lot of guys from A&M because that's where Buzz was going to be. A couple scattered guys from other places who saw MD as WIDE open playing time. We didn't get POY candidates. We didn't get starters from Duke. 

 

Fan expectations crept in, and people wanted to be optimistic and the ideas of what we were going to be got out of hand. We lost our entire roster. A roster that was largely role players for the one star we had. We lost another valuable player to graduation (Seriously 18 and 20 last night????) We were decimated. 

 

We were never going to be good this year, but fan optimism runs wild sometimes, and I think people fooled themselves into thinking that maybe we will be ok, THIS guy COULD be good, and THIS guy might be good, and it just snowballed. 

Realistically though, and I can't wait to see when people really start tracking it analytically, most players out of the portal aren't going to be big time players. It depends on the sport sure, but it's mostly support guys and role players. 4 stars that got replaced by 5 stars the next year, or another 4 star that transferred ahead of them. Stuff like that. Everyone talks about how it's changed everything, but it's funny, what it's changed the most is that those kids that come in with the giant egos that get out played and out worked. They don't sit the bench and wait for chances anymore. They hit the portal and find someone else to take them. There are a lot of guys just working the system to collect some bags, but won't ever touch the NBA. There are some that kill it and declare for the draft. But yeah 33% are the ones that enter, and never get picked up, career just over. You'd think that'd be enough to get guys to start being more patient. Start watching the NBA draft and noticing how many players come from where, you'd think they'd learn. 

 

2025:

30 First Round Picks

18 Freshmen

6 from overseas

1 Soph

2 Jr. 

3 Sr. 

 

Second Round almost ALL seniors or overseas. 

 

I'm looking forward to seeing out of those players how many of them have gone through the portal at some point. It's going to end up a tiny number and teams are going to stop investing in them. 

[You Play to Win the Game]

My point is simple: nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing, justifies this kind of season ever taking place at Maryland. 

[Mackus]

Most coaches in America would've gotten more wins out of the players Buzz had available to him than Buzz did, IMO.  Lots of things went wrong with the injuries, but Buzz has also been a part of the problem and the record is worse than it would be had he been doing a good job.  He simply was unable to ever get through to these players and get them to play as a group.  The team defense is evidence enough of that.  This still isn't a tourney team even if he'd done the best job of his career, so I'm not saying his coaching was the fatal flaw of this team, but it was a contributing factor.  A co-morbidity.

[BaltBird 24]

Texas A&M are 20-10, 10-7 in conference and they have an entirely brand new roster, just like Maryland. Injuries didn't help, but this season has been inexcusable.