Derik Queen Becomes a March Madness Hero

Steven Ruiz: With his team trailing by one and just seconds away from elimination, Queen told his coach, “Give me the motherfucking ball.” Then he went and did this. 

Imagine being that cool as a freshman in college. I’ve been a Maryland basketball fan all my life and I’ve never seen a player as cool as Queen. Whenever the Terps needed a bucket, they could just give it to him at the top of the key, clear everyone out, and let him hoop. He could hit dribble pull-ups off a crossover, Euro-steps through the lane, and, as Colorado State found out, one-legged fadeaways off the glass. The debate over whether Queen traveled (he didn’t) overshadowed just how sick this play was. That’s a 6-foot-10, 246-pound big man driving left, stopping on a dime after two long strides, and kissing it off the glass while rotating in air … all with a defender close enough to smell his breath. Just pure, ethical hoops. 

It was a fitting end to one of the best college basketball games of the year. Colorado State was the better team for most of the night and appeared to have won the game when Jalen Lake sank a 3 to put the Rams up a point. 

Lake’s bucket would have been the fifth game-winner against Maryland in a two-month span. And you’ll notice that Queen was the defender closing out on Lake’s shot. That just adds to the lore of Queen’s subsequent game-winner and his demand for the ball in the huddle. The freshman said, Enough of this shit. I’m not going out like that. Then he backed it up.