In another life, Julian Reese might have been a stagehand.

In the cast of Maryland men’s basketball, Derik Queen — with his flashy cross-court passes and array of post moves — courses with headliner energy. Rodney Rice and Ja’kobi Gillespie both have a knack for splashy 3-pointers. Selton Miguel finds himself leading fast breaks, helping finish some of the Terps’ most electric sequences.

By comparison, Reese sometimes seems like he’s just chugging along. But, even in the games when it feels like he’s playing a smaller role than his teammates, he’s quietly essential. On Wednesday at Michigan, Reese had just six points and four rebounds — and yet at the end of the game, it was Maryland’s lone four-year veteran making stops on the most consequential defensive possessions.

His sister, WNBA star Angel Reese, is famously outspoken and brash. Julian Reese’s temperament registers as almost the polar opposite — understated and stoic. He admits freely that he can be stingy with genuine, ear-to-ear smiles, but Maryland’s No. 13 ranking this week has him warming up.

“I just like to win,” he said. “I guess that’s what gets me excited.”

Heading into his last home game at Xfinity Center as a Terp, Maryland (23-7, 13-6) has won 10 of its last 12 games — the best stretch of conference play during Reese’s tenure. The success gives the program reason to thrust Reese, so often content to do the dirty work in the background, into the Senior Day spotlight.

“To me,” coach Kevin Willard said, “Saturday is all about Julian Reese.”

If a stagehand puts everything into place for the cast to put on a show, that’s Reese to a letter. For the longest time, the 6-foot-9 forward has represented the program’s potential. At last, with a team that makes sense around him, Reese and the Terps are delivering on the promise.

The fact that Reese is still in College Park is a remarkable testament to his fortitude. None of the players who came in with him remains on the team. It’s a different coaching staff — Mark Turgeon, who recruited him, left the program just eight games into his freshman season. When Reese signed in 2020, Maryland relished the idea of having star siblings in its men’s and women’s program — but Angel transferred to LSU in 2022.

Success was sporadic for the Terps — who made the NCAA tournament in 2023 sandwiched between losing seasons — and for Reese himself. He’s struggled with foul trouble and unsightly shooting mechanics that made free throw line trips into a headache. Without teammates who could space the floor, teams crowded him and gave him little room to breathe on offense.

“I just like to win. I guess that’s what gets me excited.”

Julian Reese

Even then, Reese said, he wanted to stick with Maryland. He called his decision to stay last offseason — when more than 1,600 Division I players were in the transfer portal — “a no-brainer.”

“I knew what I had here at Maryland, the potential we had,” he said. “Knowing the coaching staff so well, them knowing me, and them just working with me. I feel like that relationship just outcasted everybody else.”

It might have seemed like loyalty to a fault. But it turns out Reese had the vision before a lot of others could.

On this year’s team, Reese has helped tie the whole production together. Though Queen has deservingly been the most lauded of the so-called “Crab Five,” he’s been more productive with Reese on the court than off. The duo balance each other — Reese’s steady composure and defensive commitment pairing well with Queen’s rollicking emotions and offensive dynamism.

The chemistry of this Baltimore-raised duo would not matter as much without reliable shooters. Willard’s recruiting class this season has helped lift Maryland’s offensive rating from 155th in the country last year to 33rd this year (per KenPom.com). The trust that Reese put in Willard to build around him has paid off.

“It’s just a product of our hard work that we put in this offseason and the job the coaching staff did recruiting around me, around Derik and the guys who were here last year,” Reese said. “I’m just excited to see what we do later in March.”

What’s not to be overlooked here is Reese’s own development. Even though his conventional stats (13.0 ppg, 9.2 rpg) are similar to last season’s, he’s been producing them while playing fewer minutes in his front-court time share with Queen. His improved efficiency is most notable at the free throw line, where his percentage has risen from 56.8% to 73.1%.

“I feel like I’ve been progressing as a player moreso than with stats,” he said. “I feel like I’m a more smart, more confident player that’s able to do a lot of things that I wasn’t able to do as a freshman.”

Terps fans who haven’t learned to appreciate Reese’s subtle maturation ought to take stock. The window is closing.

It has dawned on Reese that his career is winding down, that he has only a few more precious moments in College Park, where it felt like so much of his career was spent waiting for a team like this one to arrive.

For now, his favorite memory is the 2023 upset of No. 3-ranked Purdue, when he stymied All-America center Zach Edey on the last Purdue possession seconds before the Terps students stormed the court.

But, so close to the end, it’s thanks much to Reese that Maryland has a chance to make a new favorite memory — one that might just be a March highlight to remember.