Maryland men’s basketball center Derik Queen, a Baltimore native, has been named the Big Ten Conference’s Freshman of the Year and a first-team all-conference selection by the league’s coaches.

Queen is averaging a team-high 15.7 points, 9.2 rebounds and two assists per game on 52.6% shooting for the Terps, who enter this week’s Big Ten tournament in Indianapolis as the No. 2 seed. Maryland (24-7) will play No. 7 seed Illinois, No. 10 seed Ohio State or No. 15 seed USC on Friday night.

Queen is the third player in program history to be named his league’s Freshman of the Year, following Buck Williams (1978-79) and Joe Smith (1993-94). Both earned their honors in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

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Queen, a five-star recruit and projected first-round pick in the 2025 NBA draft, is one of only two Division I players ranking in the top two on his team in points, rebounds, assists, steals and blocks. He nearly averaged a double-double in conference play (15.6 points and 9.7 rebounds) and had six 20-point games against Big Ten opponents.

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Queen was voted second-team All-Big Ten by the media. Maryland junior point guard Jakobi Gillespie, who’s averaging 14.9 points and a team-high 4.7 assists per game, was named third-team All-Big Ten by the coaches and media.

Senior forward Julian Reese, who’s averaging 13.2 points, a team-high 9.3 rebounds and a team-high 1.6 blocks per game, received All-Big Ten honorable mention.

Queen starred at St. Frances Academy as a freshman alongside Reese before transferring to Florida’s Montverde Academy, a perennial national power, in July 2021. He committed to Maryland and coach Kevin Willard in February 2024.