Glenn Clark: Appreciate the four -year trip of the Julian Reese from Maryland Men Basketball

“Are you real?”

I am not sure how to answer when friends who are more casual Maryland basketball fans, ask me this question. It has appeared a few times lately. I understand it. What you ask is: “We know that it is not realistic to expect a national championship, but can this team achieve something that feels important and justify us if we invest our time, know these players, to watch the games, maybe make a trip to the college park or … even a road trip?”

It is an impossible question to answer because there is really no way to define it. Is a sweet 16 “real?” A Mark Turgeon team made a sweet 16 … once. How do you like to remember exactly that?

The question cannot be answered. And trust me, I have every college basketball analyst that I can summarize in my show to make something similar to you. You gave me a version of “maybe” that of “EHHH … To “maybe !!”

This is a very good basketball team in Maryland. It is really one of the better starting positions in the history of the program. But it is also nothing more than that. The depth (a total of six banking points in the last two games of the TERPS) may not be dramatically important during the NCAA tournament if the benches are usually shortened. However, it could be critical if there is an injury or real bad problems. So, you know, “maybe!?”

But I am here to tell you that I have not regretted a single moment that I saw Maryland Basketball this season. This is a really good basketball team and maybe just as important to see a really pleasant basketball team.

Derik Queen is a legitimate superstar. Yes’kobi Gillespie has proven to be one of the best transmission acquisitions in the program history. Selton Miguel is particularly fun because he can just get started for routes. Rodney Rice made the greatest shot of the season in Indiana.

And then there is my favorite part of the team. I hope we don’t miss the meaning of it. I don’t say that funky. I am not sure if we will ever see a story like Julian Reese in Maryland. How … ever.

It is not the case that Reese is the only player in the fourth year at the same school and succeeds in college basketball this season. Marquette, for example, is headed by the trio of Kam from Kam Jones, David Joplin and Stevie Mitchell. Everyone is Golden Eagles in their fourth year and have the chance to shape themselves at the NCAA tournament. But on the other hand, this trio did not go through what Reese went through in college.

Think about it. Born in Baltimore, in Turgeon, committed to arriving his trainer a few months later. He was then trained by Lame Duck Danny Manning for most of his first season. Then he put it out and enjoyed a groundbreaking campaign in the second year with a NCAA tournament victory under a third head coach (Kevin Willard). His sister (Angel Reese) decided to leave the school. He decided to go out. His junior season was … a chaos. His problems with the free throw were far from the most important problem of the team, but certainly part of the story, since the team suffered below 0.500 during an unusual season.

There were so many opportunities for Reese to rethink his commitment to “at home”. After a few early success and coaching changes, nobody would have accused him of having decided to find a more comfortable place. When he turned out to be a valuable mail presence, he could have gone to a program in which money could be a factor. After the catastrophe from 2023-24, he could have decided to simply get out and hope to land somewhere with more viable titles.

But Reese stayed through everything. He decided to graduate and frankly rewrite his place in the history of Maryland basketball. Saint Frances Alaun was completely spectacular this season. He posted double double in five of his last seven games. It increased his free throw from 53.3 percent in his second season to 73.2 percent this year, an increase of 20 percentage points!

We experienced the ups and downs during the tenure of Reese. He has the opportunity to help a emphatic chapter.

I am not sure how many of them will see again. A player can be professional if he is really transcendent. A player can transmit one or two levels if he fights. (I can’t help but ask myself whether Deshawn Harris-Smith could accept this option.) A player can also transmit any money elsewhere if he is successful. We will simply not see many four-year-old players at a school, let alone those with a Marvel-character-like act of action during their career.

This is so cool for Julian Reese. I am so happy that he can experience it. I am not sure if we will ever see something like that again, so I hope that we appreciate it.

See also: Baltimore built: Julian Reese and Derik Queen from Maryland Men Basketball

Photo loan: Kenya Allen/PressBox