Queen’s freshman season has been one of the best in program history.
No. 11 Maryland men’s basketball center Derik Queen is having perhaps the team’s best debut season since it joined the Big Ten in 2014, yet he may not win the conference’s freshman of the year award — or even finish top-three in voting.
While Queen committed to his hometown Terps, two top-five-ranked players in the 2024 recruiting class chose a Big Ten program too.
Rutgers’ Dylan Harper may be the favorite to take home the award, as he leads all Big Ten freshmen with 19.2 points per game on a rather efficient 48.7% shooting from the field and 34.5% from three. He averages 4.5 rebounds, 3.9 assists and 1.4 steals per game as well.
Harper’s teammate and the No. 2-ranked player in the class of 2024, Ace Bailey, also has a solid case for the award. He is averaging the seventh-most points per game (17.6) in the conference, while shooting 45.8% from the field and 34.6% from three. Standing at 6-foot-10, Bailey averages 7.2 rebounds and 1.3 blocks per game too.
Illinois’ Kasparas Jakucionis has been a pleasant surprise for the Fighting Illini. He played for FC Barcelona’s second team last year before making the jump to Division I college basketball. Jakucionis has led Illinois to the No. 7-seed in the Big Ten Tournament and does just about everything for the team offensively, averaging 15.2 points, 5.6 rebounds and 4.8 assists per game. He is also shooting 45.5% from the field and 33.1% from three.
But Queen does one thing undeniably better than the other three: win. Maryland is the No. 2 seed in the conference tournament and has won four more games than Illinois and nine more games than Rutgers this season.
No player on a team with a losing Big Ten record has won the award in more than 10 years. Rutgers is 8-12 in conference play this season.
This is not to diminish Queen’s stats, though. He is averaging 15.7 points on 52.6% shooting from the field, 9.2 rebounds, 2.0 assists, 1.1 steals and a block per game. His numbers are on par with any freshman in the conference, but Queen has proven to be a winner.
One could argue it’s because he has the better team, but all that does is make his numbers even more impressive. He leads Maryland in points with two flamethrowers on the wings next to him, averages multiple assists per game even though Ja’Kobi Gillespie handles the ball most of the time and corrals the third-most rebounds per game in the conference despite Julian Reese grabbing more.
Queen has also not simply benefitted from being in a great system with great players; he is the system. More than 26% of Maryland’s possessions end with the ball in Queen’s hands, more than any other Terp by nearly 4%, according to KenPom.
Defensively, Queen leads the conference with 2.5 defensive win shares — which measures the number of wins a player contributes due to their defense — and is the only freshman in the conference to average at least a block and a steal per game, according to Sports Reference.
And unlike Harper, Bailey and Jakucionis, Queen has played and started in all 31 of Maryland’s games.
From opening night, Queen has let it be known he is Maryland’s best player. He began his freshman campaign with a 22-point, 20-rebound performance in a blowout win over Manhattan, and has continued his dominance against elite competition. Queen averages 17.4 points, 8.6 rebounds, 1.9 assists, 1.4 blocks and 1.1 steals per game against ranked opponents this season.
In each of Maryland’s games against Illinois and Rutgers, Queen looked like the best player on the floor. In the Terps’ 21-point win over the Illini, Queen posted 25 points on 10-of-13 shooting, six rebounds, four assists and three steals, while Jakucionis totaled 21 points on 5-of-14 shooting, seven rebounds, seven assists and seven turnovers.
Queen’s 29 points, 15 rebounds and five assists led Maryland to a nine-point win over Rutgers, in which Harper tallied 20 points on 7-of-17 shooting and Bailey scored just four points, although he only played 24 minutes due to an illness.
“He always came to play and just never shied away from the big matchups,” Reese said when asked why Queen should win the award. “He’s been playing way further than his years, he’s not really playing like a freshman anymore. … I feel like he has the stats as well to back him up on that.”