Maryland’s Julian Reese, Angel Reese’s brother, has emerged as vital piece for pleasantly surprising Terrapins

Maryland on Wednesday won its sixth game in its last seven outings with a 76-68 defeat of No. 17 Wisconsin to remain alive in the Big Ten title race just months after being picked in the preseason media poll to finish 10th in the 18-team league. The Terps were led by big performances by their star big men with senior Julian Reese, the younger brother of former LSU star and current WNBA player Angel Reese, turning in 14 points and eight boards to add to fellow center Derik Queen’s 12-point, 12-rebound outing.

Reese has been one of the catalysts of Maryland breaking out from the pack in a loaded Big Ten and is playing a vitally important role alongside Queen, one of the best freshmen in the country, who at first brush seemed an odd fit beside one another. Instead, Reese is averaging a career-best 13.7 points and 3.2 offensive boards per game while co-leading the Big Ten in Win Shares and standing at third in the league in Player Efficiency Rating (PER).

“[Julian] got us through the first half,” Maryland coach Kevin Willard said Wednesday night after Reese had nine of his 14 points in the first half of the Wisconsin win. “He was physical and dominant.”

Hooping runs in Reese family

Basketball brilliance seems to run in the family for Julian, whose older sister, Angel, began her career at Maryland in 2020 before finishing it as one of the most well-known stars in the sport at LSU. Angel was second nationally in rebounding, fourth in blocks and the third-leading scorer in the SEC last season before being selected No. 7 overall by the Chicago Sky in the 2024 WNBA Draft. 

“He’s pretty shifty for his size,” Angel said of her older brother a few years ago. “He does a little behind the backs, can block shots. Shifty, I guess. He’s not as shifty as me,” she added with a smirk, “but he’s shifty.”

Their mother, Angel Webb, starred in college basketball for UMBC from 1988-1992, where she played four years and accumulated 1,390 points and 932 rebounds. Their father, Michael Reese, played three years of college basketball beginning at Boston College before finishing his career at Loyola (MD). He averaged 19.8 points and 8.5 rebounds per game in 1993-94 and earned All-MAAC honors in his final season.

More about Julian Reese

Recruited by then-head coach Mark Turgeon and later developed by interim head coach Danny Manning early in his career, Reese was the highest-rated signee for the Terrapins in the Class of 2021. A four-star recruit out of St. Frances Academy in Baltimore, Maryland, he led his team to a 53-5 record in his final two high school seasons — punctuated by a 15-1 record in his Covid-shortened senior season — that ended with a Baltimore Catholic League championship game appearance after winning it the previous year as a junior. 

“He’s very young for his class and is a player with tremendous upside,” Turgeon said at the time of Julian’s signing in 2020. “He can score around the basket and beyond the 3-point line. He can handle and pass the ball. He’s a tremendous defender and shot blocker. As you’ve seen over the years, it’s really nice to have a shot blocker whether its Bruno Fernando, Jalen Smith, Alex Len, you name it – across the board we’ve had some pretty good shot blockers here at Maryland, so Julian is going to give us that. He’s a local kid and his sister Angel is here this year, so we’re excited to have him.”

Reese signed in the same class as fellow four-star prospect Ike Cornish, who was once an AAU teammate of his. Cornish transferred after his redshirt freshman season and is now at Nicholls State. 

Maryland’s season 

Coming off a disappointing 16-17 season in 2023-24 in which Maryland finished next-to-last in the Big Ten’s regular season standings, preseason expectations understandably were tempered. The Big Ten media preseason poll pegged Maryland at No. 10 behind the likes of Indiana, Rutgers and Ohio State. The Terps were even lower in the CBS Sports preseason Big Ten poll.

Their outlook changed quickly with an 8-1 start to the season that included a narrow loss to Marquette and a dominant win over Ohio State. The season has continued on an upward trajectory since, with the Wednesday win over Wisconsin moving them to 17-5 on the season and 7-4 in conference play. 

Everyone in the league is chasing Michigan State, a perfect 9-0 in the Big Ten and leading the Terps in the race by three games. But Maryland remains 1.5 games off second place pace of No. 10 Purdue.

Before the win, Maryland was projected by Jerry Palm as safely in the 2025 NCAA Tournament field as a 10 seed. The win moved Maryland up one spot to No. 18 in the NET rankings overnight and improved its record in Quadrant 1 opportunities to 4-4 on the season.

Better with Reese

Maryland this season is 5.8 points per 100 possessions better on offense with Reese on the floor and 3.4 points per 100 possessions better on defense with Reese on the floor, per EvanMiya.com lineup data, which rates as the third and fourth best on the team thus far. The numbers are particularly jarring given just how much shine freshman big man Derik Queen has gotten, as Queen rates 1.8 points per 100 better on offense and 4.8 points per 100 better on defense for a net that falls just shy of Reese’s overall impact. 

The truth, however, is that Queen and Reese are coexisting. Per CBB Analytics data, Maryland’s most used lineup combo includes both Reese and Queen on the floor together along with Ja’Kobi Gillespie, Rodney Rice and Selton Miguel. The net rating of those five on the floor is +32.4. And Maryland’s most efficient lineup per CBB Analyics — which rates in the 99th percentile — also involves Queen and Reese as well as Gillespie, Rice and Deshawn Harris-Smith. That lineup has played just 30 minutes total this season and 44 possessions but is +71.2.