At age 49, Kevin Willard is borderline (or perhaps over the line) when it comes to keeping up with the warp speed of social media information. Willard is from Long Island — the accent is still evident — and coached Seton Hall in New Jersey before moving down the Eastern seaboard to take over at Maryland, where he has guided the Terps to a No. 4 seed in the West Regional.
So, when Willard heard that the Terps’ starting unit had a viral nickname that’s a spinoff on a local delicacy and Michigan’s ground-breaking freshmen recruits of the early 1990s, a thought balloon with a question mark could have appeared over his head.
“I’ll be honest, it took me a little while to get it,” he said. “Then I realized — Maryland and crabs and all of that.”
After the starters scored all the points in Maryland’s 83-75 victory at Nebraska in mid-February, a Terps fan took to social media and revealed his nickname. Maryland is now The Crab Five. (Just to review for you young folks, Michigan reached the 1992 Final Four starting all freshmen — The Fab Five.)
The Terps (25-8) will face No. 13 seed Grand Canyon in their first-round game Friday (4:45 ET, TBS) in Seattle. With the Crab Five about to receive national attention, here’s an introduction:
- Derik Queen, 6-foot-10 freshman center: Averages 16.3 points and 9 rebounds per game. Makes 52.9 percent of his shots. NBA scouts like his footwork and moves in the low post. Named Big Ten Freshman of the Week five times.
- Ja’Kobi Gillespie, 6-foot-1 junior guard: Team’s second-leading scorer at 14.1 per game. Leads team in three-pointers, assists and steals. Makes 41.2 percent of his threes and is 86.4 percent from the free throw line.
- Rodney Rice, 6-foot-4, sophomore guard: Averages 13.9 per game. Second on the team in three-pointers and assists. Makes 80 percent of his free throws. First full season of college basketball after two seasons at Virginia Tech, one cut short by injury, the other a redshirt.
- Selton Miguel, 6-foot-4 senior guard: Averages 12.1 per game. Most accurate three-point shooter at 41.6 percent. Fifth year in college. Previously played at Kansas State and South Florida.
- Julian Reese, 6-foot-9 senior forward: Averages 13.1 points per game. Tied with Queen for the team lead in rebounds with nine per game. 14 double-doubles is 12th in Division I. The brother of former LSU and current WNBA star Angel Reese.
Maryland is one of four major conference programs with all five starters averaging double figures while starting at least 50 percent of the team’s games. The starters have a combined scoring average of 69.6, the highest among all major conference programs.
Willard is fortunate the Crab Five is so productive. Or, perhaps it’s cause and effect. The Terps are 342nd in Division I, averaging 12.6 bench points per game. And it’s a bonus when the reserves contribute. Maryland is 7-0 when its bench outscores the opponents’ reserves.
The Terps were 16-17 last year in Willard’s second season in College Park. This season’s turnaround happened thanks to recruiting Queen (whom Willard called a “once-in-a-lifetime” talent) plus Reese returning for his senior season. To support those two front-court players, he added perimeter players Gillespie (Belmont), Rice (Virginia Tech) and Miguel (South Florida).
At Thursday’s news conference in Seattle before the first round game, Gillespie said he had no inkling that he was going to be part of a such a potent starting five.
“I didn’t really know that the Crab Five would become a thing,” he said. “I think it’s worked because we’re all really good players but also unselfish and like to see each other playing good and succeeding. I feel like we all like to work together.”
Maryland was picked to finish 10th in the Big Ten preseason poll but finished tied for second with Michigan. They lost at home to regular-season champion Michigan State, a No. 2 seed, on a buzzer-beating half-court shot. The Terps are also angry over their 81-80 loss to the Wolverines in the Big Ten championship game.
“We’ve got a little bit of an edge to us,” Willard said. “We’ve got something to prove. We’ve got a bad taste in how we played (in that game).”
