SAN FRANCISCO — For the fourth-seeded Maryland men’s basketball team, the sting of losing to No. 1 seed Florida, 87-71, in the NCAA tournament’s Sweet 16 on Thursday provided plenty to bear. Uncertainty surrounding the future of Coach Kevin Willard added another layer of discomfort as a resurgent season concluded at Chase Center.
In the aftermath of Maryland (27-9) falling short of advancing to its first Elite Eight since 2002, Willard remained noncommittal when asked whether he would be coming back to College Park next season. He also declined to address whether reports linking him to vacant coaching job at Villanova were accurate.
“No, I don’t know what I’m doing,” he said. “I’ll just be honest with you. I haven’t talked to my agent. I haven’t talked to my wife. I made a promise to this team that I was going to just focus on this team, and that’s all I’ve done, so I haven’t talked to anybody. I have an agent. I’m sure he’s talking to people because that’s what agents like to do, but I don’t know.”
Derik Queen led the Terrapins with 27 points on the way to setting the Maryland record for points in a season by a freshman (594), passing Joe Smith (582 in 1993-94) in what might have been his final game in a Terps uniform. The Big Ten freshman of the year is a projected lottery pick in June’s NBA draft, but he indicated Thursday he isn’t ready to announce whether he would be declaring for it.
Queen’s stock rose during the NCAA tournament, in which he demonstrated range from behind the three-point arc. He made one against the Gators (32-4), who will face No. 3 seed Texas Tech in Saturday’s West Region final for a spot in the Final Four.
“I’m not sure yet,” said Queen, who sank all 10 of his free throw attempts. “I have to talk to my mom, my agent, Coach Willard, all the coaches, see what I’m doing.”
Point guard Ja’Kobi Gillespie added 17 points before fouling out with 2:54 remaining. Rodney Rice and Julian Reese (12 points each) also scored in double figures for Maryland, which got outrebounded 42-20. It also ended at a 29-3 deficit in bench points, underscoring a roster that depended overwhelmingly this season on the starters dubbed the “Crab Five.”
Maryland trailed just 40-38 at halftime, but a 10-2 Florida run to begin the second half allowed the Gators to take a 50-42 lead with 16:22 to play. Center Rueben Chinyelu capped it with back-to-back dunks, leading to Willard calling his first timeout of the game. Sloppy ballhandling on the Terps’ ensuing possession yielded a ninth turnover going into the first media stoppage of the second half.
The margin swelled to 74-56 with 7:09 to play, and Maryland never got closer than 12 the rest of the game.
Florida had six players score in double figures, led by 15 from guard Will Richard and 14 from guard Alijah Martin.
Active hands throughout the first half helped Maryland force 13 turnovers and close a double-digit deficit to two at halftime. The Terps led by as many as three points and went to the free throw line 15 times in the half, making a dozen, including both ends of three straight one-and-one opportunities from Queen.
The Gators suffered a major blow to their lineup in the first half when starting forward Alex Condon fell to the floor clutching his right foot with 12:15 to go. The 6-foot-11 sophomore required assistance to get to the bench but reentered in a second half in which Florida took much better care of the ball, committing just four turnovers.
Maryland’s first appearance in a region final since 2016 came courtesy of one of the most memorable moments in program history during Sunday’s second-round victory over No. 12 seed Colorado State in Seattle. With 3.6 seconds left in the second half, Queen gathered an inbounds pass from Gillespie, dribbled left and banked in a contested jumper an instant before the final buzzer.
The cathartic triumph briefly shifted attention from the events of several days before, when Willard offered candid remarks about the program and his status with the Terps.
The third-year coach revealed then-athletic director Damon Evans had provided him and his agent a term sheet for a reworked contract. Willard followed by saying he had not signed the deal because of the impending transition in athletic department leadership, adding he needed to receive assurances for significant upgrades in resources for the men’s basketball team.
The following day, SMU introduced Evans as its next athletic director, and Maryland posted to its website a farewell letter from Evans, who hired Willard, formerly with Seton Hall, in March 2022.
Additional speculation about Willard leaving arose this week given he still had not signed the new contract despite an agreement from the university to meet his requests, according to people familiar with the negotiations who spoke on the condition of anonymity to address a sensitive matter.
“My biggest concerns in life right now — I don’t know who my boss is going to be,” Willard said Thursday night. “The guy that brought me here who I really liked and [am] appreciative of him bringing me to College Park is not here anymore, and I don’t know who we’re going to hire. In today’s day and age, that worries me a little bit. I’m just being honest.
“My honesty got me in trouble, might as well keep getting me in trouble, so this is going to be a family decision. I love College Park. I love Maryland. But when you’re at this point in your career and you’re looking at things, I have to take everything into consideration moving forward, but I have not even talked to anybody, so I don’t know what I’m doing.”
