Maryland Basketball: Rebuilding Isn't Easy (VIP)

Year One of the Buzz Williams era has had some early bumps

One of the biggest made by some pundits and fans is the thought that in the NIL/Transfer Portal Era, is that rebuilding a program has a shorter time span.

To rebuild a program, it can’t be a lightning-in-a-bottle year. It must be a model that is sustainable season-after-season even with college basketball roster changing each season.

In Durham, Jon Scheyer understands that no matter what, rosters flip so why not stack four- and five-star players knowing that all of them won’t have NBA draft value because of the depth on the professional level is as deep as it has ever been. Then he strategically uses the portal to fill in the gaps.

It’s a model that can be used at Duke because it’s Duke. As Pete Guillen once said “they’re on TV more than Leave It to Beaver” reruns.

For other programs, it isn’t that simple.