With exhibition games looming, Maryland men’s basketball headed to Rosemont, Illinois, for Big Ten Media Day Thursday. Transfers DJ Wagner and Robert Jennings III joined head coach Buzz Williams to preview the 2026-27 season.
The Terps tied the program record with 21 losses last year, but enter the second season of Williams’ tenure with optimism to bounce back. Maryland brought in 11 offseason additions, highlighted by five-star freshman Baba Oladotun.
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“Baba is an elite talent. Offensively, he’s a three-level scorer,” Jennings said. “His willpower to want to learn is going to speed up his curve as a freshman, and I can only imagine what the end of the season is going to look like for him.”
While the bulk of the Terps’ roster is new to College Park, Andre Mills and Pharrel Payne are the top returners.
Mills averaged 12.2 points and operated as the team’s primary ball handler during his redshirt freshman season. He poured in double-digit points in 11 of the final 13 games, including a career-high 39-point performance against Northwestern.
But injuries forced Mills to shoulder more of the offensive load than Williams initially expected.
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“Some of the things that he did for us were incredibly good, but also somewhat inefficient,” Williams said. “It was because we were asking him to do something that he really wasn’t quite prepared for. We were asking him to be something different than what we anticipated he was going to have to be.”
That increased involvement came after Payne went down with a season-ending injury. The redshirt senior posted a team-high 17.5 points per game before missing the final 22 games of the season. Payne’s return adds size to a Maryland team that lacked a true paint presence.
“We both know how it feels to not be able to play for a season, and you can tell every day that we step on the floor,” Jennings said. “We don’t take that for granted.”
Maryland’s first on-court action comes against Georgia Tech in an exhibition game on Oct. 11. The Terps’ first regular-season game will take place Nov. 2 against Bucknell at the Xfinity Center.
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