SAN FRANCISCO — Now that the Maryland men’s basketball season is over, what will we take with us? At the moment, we seem destined to pack light.

The “Crab Five,” which shook up the fan base, is scattering. Julian Reese and Selton Miguel are out of eligibility. Derik Queen is probably heading to the NBA. Coach Kevin Willard is — well, he seems to have a foot out the door at least. Athletic director Damon Evans didn’t even stay for the best parts.

As riveting as the Terps’ 27-win season was to watch until it ended Thursday night in the Sweet 16, momentum doesn’t stretch from year to year in college sports anymore. Players transfer. Coaches bolt. Rosters are reshuffled in weeks, and programs rise and fall just as swiftly.

What occurred to me as I thought about the grand sandcastle that was this special Terps season: “The only traces that will last past this month are the shirts.”

Wait a minute. The shirts.

The one Queen wore boarding the team bus. The one Reese wore while warming up. The one WNBA star Angel Reese wore in the stands. The ones hard-core fans bought online or home-cooked in the span of four days.

What did they all say? I’m from Baltimore.

It feels like Terps fans are in for quite a hangover after a punch-drunk season of taking the Big Ten, and finally the nation, on a charming run. But, if you feel down about the future of Maryland basketball, consider the future of Baltimore basketball — an institution in which there are considerably wider stakes. Maybe higher ones, too.

I’m going to think of Donnell “Mookie” Dobbins, the longtime AAU coach at Team Thrill who has been close to Queen and Julian Reese for years. When he got back from Seattle, where Queen dropped one of the Terps’ most memorable buzzer-beaters ever, the gym was buzzing — because of what Queen said about where he gets his confidence.

“I’m from Baltimore,” he said. “That’s why.”

People from Baltimore want to hear that. Kids from Baltimore need to hear that.

“It’s kind of special because Derik played his whole career in this program, and a lot of the kids here were fortunate to see him play,” Dobbins told me this week. “It’s very tangible to them to see him do it. It changes perspective for a lot of them that they can attain things.”

A great generation of Baltimore hoopers recently left the stage. Carmelo Anthony retired two years ago. Will Barton (Team Thrill’s patron) and Rudy Gay also recently hung up the laces. There are players with area connections in the league — Cam Whitmore, Immanuel Quickley, Bub Carrington and Jarace Walker among them — but none has reached the cultural wattage of those outgoing stars.

Angel Reese is the biggest thing the city has going on the court right now, but we could always use reinforcements.

Enter Queen, the happy-go-lucky star who, in one simple sideline interview answer, innately connected his excellence with his hometown. All the March Madness spotlight amplified the moment, which resonated in ways large and small — which is why, four days after it was hatched, it was the hottest shirt you could be wearing at Chase Center.

The mantra was on the mind of Maryland’s own Mir McLean, who turned in a gritty defensive effort Monday night in the women’s breathtaking 111-108 double-overtime win over Alabama to reach the Sweet 16 themselves.

“It’s a pride thing,” McLean said. “I think Baltimore’s all about having grit, things like that. I think that’s where part of my defensive mindset comes from.”

It was on the mind of Jalen Smith, a Mount St. Joe grad and Terps alum whose Chicago Bulls team celebrated its own buzzer-beater win over the Lakers on Thursday night.

“It meant a lot,” Smith said of Queen’s line. “It’s good to see that Baltimore’s getting back on the map for basketball.”

Sports is not the only path to success in this city, but it’s a crucial one — and critically, sports participation has a demonstrable positive impact on school attendance and scholastic performance. Not everyone’s going to be an NBA star, but it’s better to have kids on courts and fields than off of them.

Queen shouting out his city on TV was a salute to the coaches and people who supported him through the years — people like his mom, Lisa Anderson. His grandmother Gwendolyn Wiggins. His Team Thrill coaches Woody Gunter, Nardie Bogues, Donald Thomas and Jamaal Haywood. Team mom Tyisha Bogues-Gunter. His St. Frances coach Nick Myles. Names that could fill pages and pages.

Even though Queen spent three years at Montverde Academy in Florida, he would not be the player he is — the star he is — without the Baltimore village that raised him.

“[Montverde] was just a pit stop that was gonna make him better, but it was never gonna be home,” Dobbins said. “It was good for him to be with elite players because iron sharpens iron, and he had to be in that fire every day. But he never detached from home. He always loved Baltimore.”

Naturally, Queen didn’t put much thought into the impact his words might have. After his buzzer-beater, he was invited on CNN and “The Pat McAfee Show.” He was on the lips of players like LeBron James, who admired his chutzpah. In an absolute layup of a marketing deal, Dairy Queen picked him up as a promoter.

Queen’s life has changed. He hopes others’ will, too.

“I really didn’t know it was gonna blow up and stuff, but hopefully now Baltimore gets a lot of attention,” he said. “And they just keep doing their thing, too.”

Queen will bring some of that attention himself. Dobbins is already tentatively planning a backpack giveaway for Baltimore children this summer, after Queen is expected to be selected in the NBA draft. He’s the latest city-born star for kids to follow and dream of walking in his shoes.

“The kids appreciate that,” Dobbins said. “Watching one of their own deliver in a big moment. There have been a lot of conversations among themselves, and you can see the hope that he’s brought on to them.”

It’s nice to know amid all the uncertainty, there is something you can print on a shirt that is worth keeping: “I’m from Baltimore.”

And if that’s the longest-lasting legacy of this brilliant-but-fleeting Terps season, I think I can live with that.

Jonas Shaffer contributed reporting to this story.