Maryland Basketball: Projecting the Impact of Chance Stephens

Among the more intriguing pieces on the 2024-25 Maryland Basketball roster is redshirt sophomore guard Chance Stephens. The Loyola Marymount transfer is a relatively unknown quantity after coming off the bench in his lone season of college basketball before transferring to UMD and missing the 2023-24 campaign due to an offseason knee injury. However, the three-point marksmanship Stephens offers the Terps, while slightly speculative, stands to be extremely impactful for a program noticeably lacking in that area each of the last two seasons.

In 2022-23 at LMU, Stephens converted 49 of his 131 three-point attempts (37.4%). That was two years ago now, but it's good enough for Maryland's purposes considering the Terps had just a single player on last season's roster shoot better than 34% from three.

As his "Sniper" nickname indicates, Chance Stephens is a true three-point specialist. His 131 career three-point attempts comprise 90.3% of his career shot attempts. He connected on just three of those 14 attempts from inside the arc (21.4%). While his one-dimensional shot diet may preclude him from having a sweeping impact on the Maryland offense, he nonetheless offers the singular dimension that the Terps have desperately needed in the Willard era. Even in a limited role, Stephens' presence could come with major benefits.

To say Maryland struggled to convert from behind the arc last season is an understatement. Bluntly, Kevin Willard's squad couldn't hit the broad side of a barn, finishing 347th out of 362 Division I teams in three-point percentage at a putrid 28.9%, which was also third-worst of all power conference teams. Setting Stephens' 37.4% as the benchmark, the Terps eclipsed that number as a team in only seven out of a possible 33 games.

Considering that Willard added Ja'Kobi Gillespie (38.7% 3PT last season at Belmont) and Selton Miguel (39% 3PT last season at South Florida) via the portal for the upcoming campaign, Maryland's three-point shooting should be much improved across the board. In turn, the presence of other perimeter threats should take pressure off Stephens and help him fulfill his billing as a knockdown shooter.

For the Terrapins to unlock their potential and compete with the top sides in the Big Ten, the offense must be significantly more dynamic than it has been each of the last two years - especially now that the one-man offense provided by Jahmir Young is gone. Chance Stephens is an under-the-radar piece whose shooting prowess can help elevate UMD to new offensive heights.