COLLEGE PARK, Md. (AP) — Maryland coach Kevin Willard needed some time before he understood the new nickname his starting five has earned.
The “Crab Five” — as it’s called on social media — has become one of the top starting units in college basketball, and the name fits nicely as a nod to a local delicacy. The moniker also happens to rhyme with another famous Big Ten group — Michigan’s Fab Five from over three decades ago.
“I think it’s great,” said Willard, who is from Long Island and coached at Seton Hall before taking over at Maryland. “I’ll be honest, it took me a little while to get it. Then I realized — Maryland and crabs and all of that.”
Maryland’s starters are averaging 69.2 points per game, easily the top mark in Division I. And lately, the Terps have leaned even more heavily on their starting five. The bench has scored just 36 points in the past nine games, but Maryland has won eight of them. The reserves were shut out completely in a matchup at Nebraska on Feb. 13, and the Terrapins won 83-75.
Now the Crab Five — Derik Queen, Julian Reese, Ja’Kobi Gillespie, Rodney Rice and Selton Miguel — face a massive test Wednesday night, when the No. 16 Terps host No. 8 Michigan State.
Willard is in his third season at Maryland. The Terps reached the second round of the NCAA Tournament in 2023, then had a losing record last season. After a substantial offseason overhaul, the 2024-25 Terrapins have an outside shot at a Big Ten title, trailing league leaders Michigan and Michigan State by two games with four to play.
In conference play, Maryland’s starters have scored 91.1% of its points. Only Evansville — at 91.3% in the Missouri Valley — is getting a higher share of scoring in league play from its starting five.
Players in the Crab Five enjoy the new nickname but don’t want to slight Maryland’s backups. Only one of the starters averages over 30 minutes a game, so the Terps do use their reserves, even if they aren’t counting on them for much scoring.
“It’s cool to have that nickname, but we do have a whole team,” Gillespie said. “It isn’t just us out there.”
That type of unselfishness serves Maryland well — there’s exceptional balance within the Crab Five. Each member averages between 11.9 and 15.9 points.
The 6-foot-10 Queen is the team’s top scorer and one of the nation’s most impressive freshmen. Gillespie, Rice and Miguel all arrived as transfers and have provided production on the perimeter. Julian Reese is the unit’s lone holdover from last season and the brother of WNBA star Angel Reese. He’s averaging 14.0 points and shooting 59% from the field.
Last year, the Terps were done in by poor 3-point shooting. When Willard set out to build around Queen and the 6-foot-9 Reese this season, that was a priority.
“I needed to have guys that could shoot the basketball. It was a non-negotiable,” Willard said. “If you could not shoot the basketball, we were not bringing you in off the portal. We had a couple guys, some really good players, that wanted to come to Maryland. It just didn’t fit.”
This group — which still hasn’t played together that long — clearly meshes well. That’s true on both ends of the floor, although some offensive numbers in particular stand out. Gillespie, Rice and Miguel are shooting 40.9% from beyond the arc, and they’ve made 182 3-pointers, the most of any Big Ten trio this season.
Meanwhile, Reese and Queen are the top rebounding duo in the league, averaging a combined 18.4 per game.
“They all have an unbelievably great attitude,” Willard said. “They all walk in. They’re always smiling, they’re always laughing. They walk into the gym and they’re not in a bad mood, they’re not cranky. Every one of them hasn’t had a bad day of practice.”
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Noah Trister, The Associated Press
