– by Adesina O. Koiki
A Lot of Sports Talk editor-in-chief
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SEATTLE — In the biggest moment of his nascent college basketball career, Derik Queen received the ball in his hands, and had the city of his birth in his mind. With a couple of long strides, and then a floater that dropped in just as the buzzer sounded, he did both the University of Maryland and Baltimore, Maryland, proud.
The precocious, cherubic and talent-laden freshman provided the first true March Madness memorable moment of the 2025 NCAA Tournament, hitting a contested running shot just outside of the lane as time expired to give the fourth-seed Terrapins a 72-71 victory against upset-minded No. 12 Colorado State, moving Maryland to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2016. Queen led five players who scored in double figures for the Terrapins with 17 points.
Only a few basketball players will ever get their chance at a “One Shining Moment” moment in the Big Dance, with Queen’s turn to have any exploits replayed over the Luther Vandross track even more fleeting given his projection as an NBA first-round pick in this June’s draft. So after Colorado State’s Jalen Lake drained a three-pointer with 3.7 seconds remaining to move the Rams on the verge of being the NCAA Tournament’s first true Cinderella, Queen, according to Maryland head coach Kevin Willard, said in the huddle that “I want the M-F ball.”
“So once he said that, it was a pretty simple decision,” Willard said.
Queen’s confidence and gumption came from his upbringing in the Charm City, a sports hotbed also associated with inner city plight so well-known that it’s been depicted on television in shows like The Wire. But as Queen stepped into the national spotlight after his long strides toward the rim turned into his flick that went off the glass before swishing through, he carried the weight of the city and its youth — many of them probably fixated on their screens watching the hometown kid made good — on his shoulders.
“First of all, I just want to put out for Baltimore. A lot of people don’t really make it out of Baltimore, and then I just wanted to come [to College Park] and make a change,” Queen said. “And hopefully I did make a change, so Coach Willard can keep getting a lot of local kids.”
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