After finishing the regular season 24-7 and earning the No. 2 seed in the upcoming Big Ten Tournament, No. 11 Maryland had four players honored on postseason league teams headlined by Derik Queen being named the Big Ten Freshman of the Year.
Queen was also named to the All-Big Ten First Team by the coaches, the All-Big Ten Second Team by the media, and was a unanimous selection to the Big Ten All-Freshman Team. He is the first Terp since Melo Trimble in 2014-15 to earn All-Big Ten First Team honors.
Ja'Kobi Gillespie was an All-Big Ten Third Team selection by both the coaches and media, while Julian Reese earned honorable mention accolades from both groups as well. Selton Miguel was chosen as the Big Ten Sportsmanship Award honoree for Maryland.
Queen leads the Terps, averaging 15.7 points per game. Queen was second on the team in rebounds at 9.2, which is also the third-best mark in the Big Ten. Queen scored a career-high 29 points against Rutgers on Feb. 9, and has finished with 20 or more points in 10 games this season. Queen finished the regular season with 488 points, which is the third-most points scored by a freshman in program history. Queen finished with double-figure rebounds in 15 games, and is second on the team with 13 double-doubles - the most by any freshman nationally. The Baltimore native is one of only two Division I players ranking in the top two on his team in points, total rebounds, assists, steals and blocks. He is on pace to be the second Maryland player this century to be top two in each category in a single season, with the other being Aaron Wiggins during the 2020-21 season.
Queen becomes the second Terp to earn a major player award from the Big Ten joining Wiggins who was the 2019-20 Sixth Man of the Year. He is the program's third-ever Rookie/Freshman of the Year joining the elite company of Buck Williams (1978-79) and Joe Smith (1993-94). Queen, who was named the Big Ten Freshman of the Week five times this season, is the second straight Terp to earn First Team honors alongside Jahmir Young who did so last year. Overall, he is the seventh player since 2014-15 to earn All-Big Ten First Team recognition.
Gillespie finished second on the team in points during the regular season, averaging 14.9 points per game. He has finished in double figures in all but six games this season, and scored a season high 27 against UCLA on Jan. 10. Gillespie is one of the top point guards in the Ben Ten with 4.7 assists per game - the sixth-best mark in the conference. Gillespie had a penchant for taking the ball away from opponents with his 1.9 steals per game mark tied for the third-most in the Big Ten. He also leads the conference in three pointers made (76) which also ranks as the fifth-most for a single-season in Maryland history.
Reese made his final season in College Park a special one. The senior forward finished with 13.2 points and 9.3 rebounds per game. His 9.3 rebounding mark ranks as the second-best in the conference, while his 14 double doubles is the league's best mark and tied for the 12th-most in the country. The Baltimore native was one of the top shot blockers in the Big Ten, ranking third in blocks with 49 and blocks per game at 1.6. Over his four years, the forward has over 1,400 points (1,420) and 900 rebounds (976) in his career at Maryland. He is one of just five players in program history that has reached those career thresholds. He currently ranks third all-time in career rebounds and is on pace to become just the second player in program history to go over 1,000. That would put him alongside the legendary Len Elmore for one of the most prominent statistical records in Maryland basketball history.
This marked the third consecutive season for Reese to be a member of the All-Big Ten Honorable Mention Team. Reese joins Melo Trimble and Anthony Cowan, Jr., as the only Terps in the Big Ten era to earn an all-conference honor three times during a career. Overall, he is the 16th player in program history to earn all-conference honors three times.
Miguel finished his lone regular season at Maryland averaging 12.0 points per game. He scored a season-high 24 points on two occasions (Dec. 17 vs. Saint Francis & Dec. 21 vs. Syracuse), and scored in double figures in 23 games this season. The Luanda, Angola native led the team with a 42.7 three-point field goal percentage, tied for the 11th-best mark in the conference. Miguel had multiple games where he was effective from behind the arc, knocking down three or more shots from behind the arc in 13 games. Miguel led the Terps in double figure scoring games all season and has 1,562 points during his career.
