Despite controlling the game, Maryland’s lead was dwindling in the second half against Rutgers on Sunday. Anyone who’d watched the Terps cough up a 17-point lead on Thursday in their loss at Ohio State had to share the same thought: here we go again.

“We talked about that in a very positive way, about, we’re kind of doing the same thing we did at Ohio State. And we had gotten out of that rhythm, we did the same thing at Indiana. We got up nine at Indiana and we let them come all the way back. This is a confident group, which is great, but sometimes they just let, they take their foot off the gas a little bit,” Maryland coach Kevin Willard said.

“I think what they’re learning is you cannot do that in this conference. Where they might have come from, I mean we have four starters from four different conferences last year, you might have been able to get away with that last year. And I think they’re starting to respect the conference. They’re learning and they’re understanding.”

Thanks to Derik Queen’s dominant 29-point, 15-rebound performance, though, the Terps were never truly threatened in a 90-81 win at Xfinity Center. It was a breakout game for Queen, who’s gone through some ups and downs lately.

“I’ve seen that all year. So, I mean, I don’t think that’s the first time we — his first game he played in college, I think he had 22 and 20. So I don’t think it matters who’s playing or who’s watching, he’s just that good of a player. He went to Purdue and had 26, so this is nothing surprising.”

More below from Willard on a key reserve missing, his unexpected bench cheerleader and his rush to leave: