SAN FRANCISCO — Maryland and the Bay Area have a few things in common.
They’re both on the coast. They both love basketball.
And they both love seafood — especially crab. San Francisco famously boasts local Dungeness crab caught in the Pacific Ocean. Maryland adores blue crabs fished out of the Atlantic.
This week, the two crab-crazed coastal regions are united by Maryland men’s basketball’s “Crab Five,” which faces off against Florida in the Sweet 16 at Chase Center on Thursday.
Maryland’s starting lineup of Ja’Kobi Gillespie, Rodney Rice, Selton Miguel, Julian Reese and Derik Queen scored every one of the Terrapins’ 83 points in a February win over Nebraska and each averages double figures in scoring.
It is one of the best starting units in the country – if not the very best – and No. 4 Maryland’s best hope to get through the top-seeded Gators and advance to the Elite Eight.
“The guy that runs our collective actually called me and said, ‘Have you seen this Crab Five thing?’” Maryland coach Kevin Willard said. “I hadn’t seen it. I’m not much on social media anymore. He trademarked it right away and made the T-shirts. Those guys just got paid the royalties from the T-shirts. I think it was really cool. I don’t know how it started or who started it, but I’m glad that these guys are making some money off it.”
The nickname has elevated Maryland’s starting group into a national brand. SportsCenter anchor and Maryland alumnus Scott Van Pelt jumped on board, endorsing the nickname and T-shirts while partnering with Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank to promote them.
But Maryland does play more than five players. Though each member of the Crab Five scores at least 12 points per game, and no bench player averages more than Tafara Gapare’s 3.5, the Terps will likely need something from their depth to match Florida’s per-game average of 85.4 points.
“We’re gonna have to play all four of our bigs, for sure,” Willard said. “They remind me a lot of the way they run at Michigan State, and how Michigan State brings four big guys in and just tries to wear you down.
“Florida does the same thing. They shoot the basketball much better than the Michigan State team does. It’s the biggest difference. But we’re going to have to play all four bigs. There’s just no way. They’re as good a basketball team as I’ve seen on film all year.”
Maryland almost didn’t make it to San Francisco. The Terps needed a banked-in buzzer-beater from Queen, a freshman center and likely NBA lottery pick, just to vanquish No. 12 Colorado State in the second round.
Now in the home of the team that introduced Strength in Numbers to the nation, Maryland is hoping its version of the Fab Five will get the help it needs to get past the Gators.
“It’s cool to be mentioned with the Fab Five,” Gillespie said. “It kind of made us cool. But we have a whole team. So it’s cool that everybody’s saying it, but I feel like we also have the full team.”
“We got 15 guys,” Miguel added. “So it should be like the Crab 15. But we embrace it. We’re happy about it, and it’s been fun.”
So with all this talk about crab, do Maryland’s players and coaches actually like to eat it? The reviews are mixed.
“(Reese) loves crabs,” Willard said. “(Associate head) coach (David) Cox loves crabs. I like crab cakes. I feel like the whole process of going through, the cracking the crab, peeling the crab, doing all that just to get – like, it’s not that much crab. It’s a lot of work.
“It’s really cool to have a couple beers with friends and do that down by the harbor. It’s really good. But I’d prefer someone just make me a nice crab cake. I love crab cakes.”
If Maryland makes it through the West Regional this weekend and reaches the Final Four, Willard may never have to pay for another crab cake as long as he lives.