Derik Queen is ready to take the plunge.
As expected, the Maryland freshman announced early Saturday morning on “SportsCenter” with Scott Van Pelt that he will enter the NBA draft early. The 6-foot-10, 245-pound center from Baltimore is projected by some publications as a lottery pick when the annual event begins June 25 at 8 p.m.
“It is a lot of off the court stuff, just me and my teammates being around each other all the time,” Queen said of what he will remember most from his time in College Park. “Making jokes, locker room. They’re my guys. Just gonna miss the moments.”
The second-highest recruit to sign with the Terps behind only Diamond Stone in 2015, Queen lived up to that billing, frequently in spectacular fashion. In his college debut, he scored 22 points and grabbed 20 rebounds in a 79-49 walloping of Manhattan.
With that performance, Queen became only the second freshman in college basketball since the 1996-97 season to record a 20-20 game in his debut, joining Kansas State’s Michael Beasley (32 points and 24 rebounds) in 2007. That was the first 20-20 outing by a Maryland player since Joe Smith (31 points and 21 rebounds) against Texas in the 1995 NCAA Tournament.
Queen’s 26 points in a 83-78 setback at No. 8 Purdue on Dec. 8 were the most by a Terps freshman in a true road game since Terrell Stoglin and Justin Jackson posted 28 points each in 2011 and 2017, respectively. And his showing of career-best 29 points, 15 rebounds and five assists in a 90-81 victory over Rutgers on Feb. 9 in front of 47 NBA scouts helped him become only the third freshman nationally since the 1996-17 season to produce a 25-15-5 line in a single game.
And Queen will be forever etched in Terps lore after banking a fadeaway jumper before the final horn sounded that cemented a 72-71 win against Colorado State on March 23 that sent the team to its first Sweet 16 since 2016. He became only the fourth freshman in NCAA Tournament history to hit a buzzer-beating, game-winning shot and the first since Gonzaga’s Jalen Suggs did so in the Final Four of the 2021 NCAA Tournament.
Queen amassed 594 points, surpassing the previous freshman record of 582 held by Smith during the 1993-94 season, and totaled 12 20-point games, which trailed only Smith’s total of 15 among Maryland rookies. Queen led all freshmen in double-doubles with 15, was named the Big Ten Freshman of the Year, and earned a spot on the conference’s first team.
Queen joined Stone as the only players in program history to enter the NBA draft after just their freshman years in College Park. Stone was taken by the New Orleans Pelicans in the second round of the 2016 NBA draft.
For much of the season, former Terps coach Kevin Willard had prepared fans by voicing that he thought Queen would be a one-and-done player. So Queen’s decision was not a shock to those close to the program.
“You can’t look at these kids and say, ‘Oh, you have to be so dedicated to this school,’ when it’s about your family and who is expressing the most interest,” said former forward Walt Williams, who was selected seventh overall by the Sacramento Kings in the 1992 NBA draft. “A grown man ...
