On a Wednesday night in February, even after watching a shot fall through the net that ripped out the hearts of every Terps fan in the building, leaving them stunned and silent, Scott Van Pelt felt something. He felt the juice around Maryland men’s basketball re-energized.
“This is what Maryland basketball is supposed to be,” he told The Baltimore Sun during a phone call this week.
Van Pelt had been standing beside his usual courtside seat at Xfinity Center. In the waning minutes of the prized fight between No. 16 Maryland and No. 8 Michigan State, he was seen pumping his fists with a crowd “ready to come untethered.” Then Spartans junior Tre Holloman drilled a 60-foot prayer, handing the Terps a 58-55 loss at the buzzer. The kind of shot that will haunt Big Ten highlights for eternity.
Van Pelt, an anchor for ESPN’s midnight edition of “SportsCenter” and proud Maryland alumnus Class of 1988, beelined out the gym’s nearest exit toward his car. He tried to collect his thoughts from the parking lot, posting to X, “What a shot. I have to go work now. Hahaha. Cool.”
After pulling into ESPN’s Washington studio, one of the show’s producers asked if he might have seen some vicious dunk in another college basketball game by a player whose name Van Pelt couldn’t remember. It might make for a good opener, he thought, to the aptly named segment, “The Best Things I Saw Today.” Van Pelt scoffed.
“There’s no way it’s anything other than Holloman making that shot,” he said.
Van Pelt has been as much a staunch supporter and public flag bearer for his university as anyone in sports media. His go-to line is that long after he’s the guy from ESPN, he’ll still be the guy from Maryland. This program matters to him and, amidst the rest of his busy schedule, he still finds time to stay plugged into the minutiae of College Park hoops.
He went on air and tipped his cap hours after the shot that flatlined Maryland’s Big Ten title hopes. It wasn’t his favorite thing he saw, Van Pelt said, but it was objectively the best. The best shot, but also maybe the best seminal moment for these Terps, who reached their highest national ranking since 2020.
“This team got a chance to get its love from a fan base that I felt like you could feel building as the year went on,” he said.
Van Pelt spoke with The Sun about this Maryland men’s basketball season and expectations heading into the NCAA Tournament this week as the No. 4 seed set to play No. 13 Grand Canyon. (Editor’s note: Some questions and answers have been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.)
Q: Start with the 10,000-foot view. How are you feeling about this Terps team?
A: It’s been an excellent season, obviously. They’ve really never been behind by a lot. They were down 15 the other day to Michigan, it was the first time all year that they really had a deficit like that. I think [Villanova], early in the year, they were down a bunch but they came back and won. In this game, they’re down a bunch and they come back and take the lead. They’ve lost some excruciating games, sure. But that’s what it’s taken to beat ’em.
[Coach] Kevin [Willard] has gone over each one where, as the fan base he’s echoing our thoughts like, ‘You gotta be kidding.’ It took a guy with 0.7 [seconds left] at Northwestern in overtime to hit a bucket. [Bruce] Thornton banks in a 25-footer for Ohio State, Tre Holloman makes a 60-something-foot shot at the buzzer, and [Tre] Donaldson goes the length of the court in five seconds — that’s how they lose. They haven’t gotten their [butt] kicked once. They’ve beat the crap out of a bunch of teams. They’ve been in every game. It’s been an incredible season in that regard; how competitive, slash, how much they’ve dictated the terms of each game.
When did you realize this team could be for real?
I felt when they went to Purdue and lost — I think Mackey is as good a building as there is in America — and Maryland played from in front like they have pretty much all year. They had a lead at the half. Purdue went on a really torrid stretch there in the second half, took a lead, and they lost by about five, I want to say. And at the end of it, I thought, you know, Maryland’s every bit as good as Purdue. That building is awesome and they didn’t blink.
Then they had a rough West Coast trip where, again, they led at the half over Washington, they led at the half over Oregon, and both games got away. But I remember when they came home, they played UCLA, and they beat them, and I thought — I never thought they were a wobbly, bad team. I thought they can make shots. They’re going to figure out rotations. Queen is a rare talent as a freshman. I never doubted they’d have a chance to be good. The question was, how many of these sort of gut punches can you take?
As that five really established who they were and what they were, which happened throughout the month of January, I thought, ‘Hey, this is one of the better teams in a really deep conference, and they’re gonna have a chance.’
What was your reaction when you first saw the ‘Crab Five’ nickname?
I think what was cool about it was, you know, obviously Fab Five and Crab Five rhymes, and it’s five dudes, and it’s pretty simple. But what [Under Armour founder] Kevin [Plank] and I talked about is Maryland, anyone that’s been to the game, there’s this sequence where they do the ‘I’m so and so, and I have Maryland pride.’ Well, Kevin and I are two guys that are Maryland grads who, by the way, could never get into the university today, but, they like to claim us, and we’re happy to be claimed, and we are happy to show we have Maryland pride. So I just literally texted him. I was like, ‘Hey, man, you got a clothing company. This seems like something that’s a layup.’ And he’s like, ‘What are you thinking?’ He was traveling on a trip, and I’m just texting him ideas. It was just two guys spitballing an idea around this Crab Five. … It was a fun thing but it was just truly an organic thing that was born out of this idea of Maryland pride.
What impresses you the most about Derik Queen?
How long have you got? He has an innate understanding of the game that’s so unusual. In this era of just like high risers and incredible athleticism, that’s obviously not the thing that jumps off the screen with him. It’s the savvy and the understanding of how and when to go fast, how to go slow, his handle, his vision, his passing ability, his ability to draw contact, get to the line, his ability to take and make shots of all varieties.
Look, I think we all understood as Maryland fans that when he decided to come here, that it was probably going to be a one-year opportunity to see what he could show. The last game that we saw ahead of the NCAA Tournament, I mean, he scored 31 and it was bananas. He kind of single-handedly was fueling that comeback. It’s been remarkable to see it translate at this level, and at the same time understanding that it won’t every game. Michigan State locked him and [Julian Reese] up. Well, that’s because that’s [Coach Tom] Izzo, and that’s a tough-minded team that was like, “We’re not going to let those guys do their thing. We’re going to try to take something away.” And they managed to do that. Because not every night is going to be easy, even as talented as he is. So I think the fact that he’s managed to play through games that are tough and not have one game become another, that’s impressive to me too.
I love that the [Nikola] Jokic comparison happens because so many times, and I joke around about this with my colleagues, like [NFL analyst] Ryan Clark when we talk about football. A receiver will come out, and if he’s a white receiver, then the comp has to be another white receiver. And it’s like, well, no, we can make comparisons based on your skill set in your game. It doesn’t need to be along racial lines. So the fact that a kid from Baltimore gets compared to a European big man who’s a white guy, I just love that people are smart enough to understand that the comparisons can be made based on the skill sets that are rare in these two guys. He’s been a treat on every level.
How does this Maryland team compare to past teams dating back to your time as a student? Do you have a good comparison, either for roster construction or energy around the program?
That’s interesting. I don’t know. I’m older than probably a lot of Maryland fans. I’m able to go back a long, long ways. It’s such a different era to compare it back to the Lefty [Driesell] days of the 80s. It’s just a different time. Maryland fans do a really bad job of acting like the Xfinity Center was dead during Mark Turgeon’s time or something, which is just a lie. They finished in the top-four a lot. They had huge games against big-time teams and won a lot of them. So when Maryland fans act like this was some moribund program, it drives me insane. It’s a complete and utter lie. That said, I think what you felt happening as this year went on, and really the Michigan State game — what I’d say is that night felt like some of the nights that I can remember.
When Wisconsin came in in like ’15, they were really good. When it’s at its best, the building feels like it’s teetering on maybe being mob rule. Like the building could become unhinged. And it felt like that clearly during the Duke years. Greivis [Vasquez]’s senior year was truly a special one. He stayed for four. Won ACC Player of the Year. His last night they beat Duke to tie for the ACC. That night, for me, is the best night I ever saw that building. When they beat Purdue a few years ago, Purdue was, I want to say No. 1, that building was nuts that night.
What do you think this team’s ceiling is? And what are reasonable expectations for how far they can go?
I think it’s convenient that the team everyone thinks is going to win the title is the one that’s opposite them if they make it to next weekend [Florida]. So you’re in a perfect spot where, if you can win a game — and there’s no guarantee that you will — but if you can beat Grand Canyon, and then if you play either Memphis or Colorado State — who, by the way is favored, and I see a lot of brackets, people projecting them to [win] — hell, you might be able to wear the underdog role against Colorado State, if they win, and if Maryland wins.
And then there’s big bad Florida on the other side, like, well, you get to be the underdog. And they would be, by the way, Florida’s been great. So I think most Maryland fans would tell you, and I’m a Maryland fan, and I’ll tell you, I’d love to see them get a chance to have a game that means that much to make it to next weekend. And if you get to take on Florida, well, guess what? You don’t ever win a title without having to test yourselves against great teams. You don’t get to hide and duck them. You’re gonna have to play them eventually.
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