A Fresh Slate: Terps Open Season with Vastly Overhauled Roster Nearing Tipoff

The long wait for college hoops is officially over. Tonight, head coach Buzz Williams leads a brand-new iteration of the Maryland Terrapins onto the hardwood of the XFINITY Center to spark the 2026–27 campaign in an out of conference game against the Bucknell Bisons. Following a disappointing 12-21 season last year, the pressure is firmly on Williams to engineer a swift turnaround—and the path forward rests on a drastically reworked roster.

Maryland returns just four players from last year’s squad, anchored by frontline forces Pharrel Payne and guard Andre Mills. Recognizing the need for depth and dynamic scoring, the coaching staff was incredibly aggressive in the offseason, landing the nation’s No. 14-ranked recruiting class alongside seven impactful transfer portal additions, including highly anticipated guards DJ Wagner and Michael McNair Jr.

Early returns on the new-look Terps have been overwhelmingly positive. Maryland secured two impressive, high-energy exhibition victories last month, taking down former ACC foe Georgia Tech 85-70 before grinding out a thrilling 90-81 overtime victory against West Virginia.

Tonight’s regular-season opener against Bucknell offers the first real look at how Williams intends to deploy his weapons. While returning veterans like Payne provide the physical baseline, all eyes will be on a touted freshman class featuring explosive guard Kaden House and five-star forward Baba Oladotun. House looked sharp and ready for immediate rotational minutes during the preseason, while wings like Adama Tambedou and Austin Brown could carve out unique depth roles early on.

“I don’t know how to compare — I don’t think that’s fair to the guys who were on our team last year, nor to the people who are part of our team this year,” Williams said. “Starting last December, we began to reconfigure a lot of different things as we were learning about Maryland, as we were learning about what we want to be in the Big Ten. Our staff was almost perfect, in my opinion, in their evaluation of the intangibles relative to the 11 players that we signed.”

The visiting Bucknell Bison arrive in College Park grappling with heavy roster turnover of their own. On paper, the Terps hold a distinct athletic and size advantage, making tonight less about the final margin and more about cementing defensive identity, rotational chemistry, and giving 11 offseason newcomers their official College Park debuts.

The Terrapins are hunting for their 13th consecutive season-opening win tonight. With rivalry matchups against Georgetown and No. 9 Virginia looming just days away on the November schedule, establishing early momentum on home court is critical.

How to Catch the Action:

• Tipoff: 7:00 PM ET
• Venue: XFINITY Center — College Park, MD
• Live Stream: Exclusive to B1G+
• Radio: Maryland Sports Radio Network; Johnny Holliday (pxp), Chris Knoche (analyst) Walt Williams (analyst); Flagship Stations: Baltimore: WJZ-FM 105.7 The Fan (Flagship), Washington, D.C.: The Team 980 AM (Flagship)