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There are any number of theories as to why Maryland Terrapins big man Derik Queen appears destined to become the most misevaluated player in the 2025 NBA Draft, including the one that is most logical and comes from a significantly authoritative source.
“He’s not super flashy. He’s not going to dunk on somebody. He’s not touching the top of the backboard,” Villanova’s Kevin Willard, who coached Queen’s one season with the Terps, told Sporting News. “He’s an old-school type player … He’s efficient. He’s so good of a player that I don’t think people really were looking in and digesting what he was doing because he wasn’t doing it in a flashy way. He was just being a really good freaking basketball player that wins wherever he goes.”
It all makes perfect sense, with a consensus of NBA mock drafts published by Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, ESPN, Hoops HQ, The Athletic, the Draft Review and CBS Sports placing Queen as the 11th overall selection, with no one higher than No. 9 and four sending him to the Bulls at No. 12.
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And, still, I prefer my theory: It’s the sleeves.
Queen played his entire college career – one season, 36 games, 16.5 points and 9 rebounds on average – wearing a long-sleeve shirt under his uniform top. Name any elite draft prospect who’s played in that sort of apparel. Take as much time as you need. Even Patrick Ewing’s omnipresent t-shirt through four seasons at Georgetown usually had short sleeves that covered only his shoulders.
I honestly wonder if that throws off those scouting him. What’s he hiding under there? Muscle? Maybe not so much?
“I don’t hate your theory,” Fox Sports and Big Ten Network analyst Robbie Hummel told SN. “But I don’t know how we’d prove that. It’s like a guy that wears rec specs: He can’t be a player, but then you see him, and he is.”
Willard never even asked Queen why he wore the shirt. Because it didn’t matter.
“The kid has the total game,” Willard said. “It was the most fun I ever had coaching a player, by far.”
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Queen measured at 6-9¼ in bare feet at the NBA Combine last month, which mean’s he’s basically a 6-11 basketball player weighing 248 pounds once he puts on his sneakers. Only one player among 68 tested ranked lower in standing vertical and max vertical leaps. In agility and speed drills, he also landed near the bottom of the list.
None of which surprised his coach, or anyone who has scouted him over the years. “Sometimes the NBA gets stuck on that,” Willard said.
Derik Queen and the 'Baby Jokic' nickname
This is where it is tempting, though hazardous, to mention that Nikola Jokic, at age 19, had his vertical leap measured at 17 inches. To compare Queen in any way to an MVP and NBA champion is ambitious and not entirely fair, but there are reasons such Terps teammates as DeShawn Harris-Smith and Julian Reese referred to him as “Baby Jokic.”
“I just think he’s one of those dudes who’s like a 5-on-5 player,” Big Ten Network analyst Rapheal Davis told SN. “You get some guys in a workout, they look really, really talented. You see their athleticism. You see they can do trick layups off the backboard, can show a different skill set. But it doesn’t really work in a 5-on-5 game. You look at Jokic, the best player in the game, how he goes about it: The simplicity of his game, it’s the same as Derik Queen. He doesn’t rely on his athleticism. And he’s a ready-made player.
“The way (Queen) plays the game, he just makes it look easy. He makes it look slow. And he does it in an unathletic body. And that’s harder to do. He has that grown-man strength. He has that body control to where he can hit you, but he can stay on balance and finish off of one foot. He can get into the lane and get that shoulder dip into you, but then you bounce off and he finishes with that right hand little floater shot. His strength has always been impressive.”
Originally from Baltimore, he began his high school career at St. Francis Academy, where he scored 56 points in a game – as a freshman. Queen transferred to Montverde Academy in Florida for his final three prep seasons and played his senior year on a loaded squad that featured Cooper Flagg, Asa Newell and Liam McNeeley. They went 33-0, and Queen tied Flagg for the team lead in rebounding and was one-tenth of a point from tying him as top scorer, as well.
At Maryland, he introduced himself to Division I basketball by scoring 22 points and grabbing 20 rebounds in his first college game, against Manhattan. It was a mid-major victim, but if 22 and 20 was easy against anybody, well, everybody would be doing it. In his first game against a major opponent, Queen delivered 24 points, 7 rebounds and 3 assists. Among the others he hit for 20 or more points: Villanova, Purdue, Minnesota, Illinois, Rutgers, Nebraska, Michigan in the Big Ten Tournament and Florida in the NCAAs.
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Derik Queen's March Madness moment
His grandest moment of the 2024-25 season came in a harrowing second-round NCAA Tournament game against Colorado State, in which the Terps trailed by as many as 9 points in the second half, rallied to lead by 4 with 96 seconds remaining but surrendered a 3-pointer with 6.1 seconds left to fall behind by one.
Maryland got the ball to midcourt with 3.6 seconds left and called timeout. And Queen called for the ball as if he were Jimmy Chitwood in “Hoosiers”.
“We were kind of stunned they made the shot, because it was like the ninth time someone made a shot on us,” Willard said. “But when we went to the huddle, I looked around and I told everybody ‘calm down. This is our turn to win. It’s our turn to hit a buzzer-beater.’ I said, ‘I just want to know: Who wants the ball?’ And without hesitation he said, ‘Give me the mother-f-ing ball.’ I said, ‘You got it, big fella.’ And you know what? Everyone else was hoping he said it, too.”
Willard had a play ready for the occasion, something the team had run several times before. And this is where the promise of what Queen can be as a pro was on full display. Reese set a down screen to keep his man from interfering. The two Terps wings flared to the corners to clear space in the lane. Queen came charging up from near the baseline to accept the inbounds pass at the top of the key, which left him one-on-one vs. guard Ethan Morton, a top defender who should have been able to control Queen’s dribble toward the goal. He did not. Queen drove left, gained space by taking an angle slightly away from the goal and banked in a game-winning jumper.
Maryland's Derik Queen buzzer beater over Colorado State, as called by Johnny Holliday. WOW! #GoTerps pic.twitter.com/UWm5eyx0HI
— Vinny the Terp 🏀 (@vinnytheterp) March 24, 2025“You think about Maryland’s team, they had plenty of options,” said Hummel, who called the Colorado State game for TBS. “It’s funny, because if it didn’t work and that story got out, people would have been just all over Willard. But it worked, and he makes the play he did, and it looks like a genius move. It’s a real show of confidence. It was a heck of a play.
“To make that shot, that showed a lot of guts and moxie. There’s not many guys that play the game at that level that get to make a shot in those types of moments, and Derik Queen proved he could be that type of guy.”
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Hummel looks at Queen as a player whose position will need to be defined. The issue with Queen as a center is rim protection. He averaged 1.1 blocks at Maryland, which is unexceptional, and his measurables suggest that’s unlikely to change much at the NBA level. If we want to overwork the Jokic comparison, though, he got only .6 per game for the Nuggets last season.
“I think he’s underrated defensively. People will say defense is a problem, but he's underrated with his IQ,” Davis said. “He’s intelligent. He understands angles. When he switches out on a ball screen and he has to guard quickness, he understands how to give a little room. He doesn’t go for head-fakes. He stays down. He forces you to make it over him. There were plenty of times when he was beaten, but he was blocking it off the backboard from behind because he could still time it. There weren’t too many times when he was caught out of place.”
| PPG | 16.5 |
| RPG | 9.0 |
| APG | 1.9 |
| BPG | 1.1 |
| FG% | 52.6 |
| 3FG% | 20.0 |
| FT% | 76.6 |
Queen made just seven 3-pointers as a freshman at a 20 percent rate, but Pacers big man Myles Turner only was 17-of-62 in his one season at Texas and now has 756 makes in a 10-year career.
“Derik Queen is a lot of other things. He can really handle. He can be a nightmare to deal with in dribble handoffs, where he’s initiating offense and making plays for other people,” Hummel said. “So as long as you have a coach with a vision for him and a creative mind …
“Derik Queen’s jumper hasn’t extended to the 3-point line yet. I think I might have seen him make all of his threes at Maryland. That hasn’t necessarily shown itself to be consistent yet, but his shot does look good from 15 feet. His jumper looks like it could eventually go in with a bit of work.”
Willard perceives that NBA teams are starting to appreciate Queen as a prospect more, although it’s not necessarily reflected in the mock drafts.
“I’ve talked to everybody in the lottery about 100 times so far,” he said.
“As the season went on and especially we got into March, everyone’s like: Wait, now I see what that bald guy’s talking about. This kid is special.”
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