Staying & Impacting

The Winter 2023 issue of ONE MARYLAND Magazine recently arrived in the mailboxes of Terrapin Club members. ONE MARYLAND features stories of strength and perseverance, of determination and spirit. These stories define our athletics program, and this new magazine will allow us to share these stories with you. Over the next few weeks, we will be rolling out these stories on umterps.com as a preview of what you will find in ONE MARYLAND. To receive future issues of the magazine when they debut, please join the Terrapin Club. We hope you enjoy.

In today’s landscape of collegiate athletics where instant eligibility and the transfer portal exist in excess, student-athletes who stay the full four years at one school are getting rarer and rarer. 

At Maryland, basketball standouts Diamond Miller and Donta Scott are the exceptions to that trend—with both choosing to play out their senior years in College Park in situations where many others would choose to jump ship. 

In Scott’s case, his Maryland career hit a speed bump during his junior season when Mark Turgeon and the University of Maryland made a mutual decision to part ways. After starting the season ranked No. 21, the Terps finished the 2021-22 campaign 15-17 overall. A couple weeks after the season ended, Kevin Willard was hired, setting up a new era of Maryland men’s basketball—one where Scott would have to figure out how he fit in. 

Many players of Scott’s caliber would have set their sights elsewhere in that situation, but that’s never been Scott’s style. 

“I’ve kinda been like this my whole life,” the Philadelphia native said. “I’ve never been someone who jumps boats. I’m always the one who’s going to stay with the people who believed in me and with the people who wanted me from day one. I stay down with people who have stayed down for me.”

On the other side, Miller didn’t go through a coaching switch, but she did witness several of her top teammates depart the program, including All-American forward Angel Reese. Heading into her senior season as a projected top-10 WNBA Draft pick, questions picked up about what Miller would do.  

Instead of focusing on where she would be playing next season, Miller kept her concentration on her game and on coming back from injury at full strength. 

“Basketball is basketball,” Miller said of her mindset in the offseason. “If I went to another school, I’d have to perform and if I stayed here I’d still have to perform too. To play at this level you have to play at a certain standard and I was just focused on working hard so I could come back better this season.” 

For both Maryland stars, their trust and confidence in their respective coaches played a big role in their return. 

As one of just four returners on the roster, Miller knew there would be some hiccups in regards to the fresh roster. Still, she trusted Brenda Frese and the rest of the coaches' schemes for her and her teammates to get past the early stumbles. 

“If I were to transfer, I would have been with a whole new group of people anyways,” Miller said. “Staying here, we kind of had that, but it was a place I had been at for a while and was comfortable with.

“Even with all the new people coming in, I liked the plan the coaches had for me and for the team,” she added. 

And while Scott also never seriously entertained the idea of leaving Maryland behind, he did have to have the proper conversations with Willard to make sure staying was the right move.

“I wanted to stay here, especially since it’s somewhere that’s familiar, but obviously I had to have talks and sit-downs to make sure it was going to work out and be the right choice,” Scott said, “I just trusted the process, stayed the course and it has worked out.”

Fortunately for Terp fans, it didn’t take long for Willard to sell Scott on his vision—for this season, but also overall in life. 

“He told me he was a coach for his players and he always wants the best for his players, not just from a basketball standpoint in college, but later in life,” Scott recalled. “He was really big on making sure we do things so we’re set later in life regardless of basketball.”

Both Scott and Miller point to the growth they’ve experienced through four years in College Park as one of their biggest sources of pride.

“I’ve been through a lot of changes, a lot of adjustments, so I’m just excited that I made it this far,” Scott said. “To be a senior, after everything I’ve dealt with during my years here, it’s really cool. I’m happy to be able to push through college and continue to hoop with these guys.”

“Just my maturity; understanding the process and knowing there’s going to be ups and downs,” Miller added about her biggest takeaways. “I learned that you’re gonna fall, but you can also get back up everytime no matter how hard you fall. College isn’t all smooth sailing, there’s so much that people don’t see, especially with student-athletes, so I recommend college for everyone because you grow so much as a person in those four years.”

Finally and perhaps most significantly, Miller and Scott have both grown up in front of the Maryland faithful, blossoming from talented freshmen into true stars and leaders right in front of them. For that reason, the duo will forever share a special bond with the fans. 

“The fan base is excellent,” Miller said. "It’s definitely been cool to play in front of them for the past four years, especially in those bigger games.”

Most recently, Miller felt the fan love in full force when the Terps hosted UConn for the program’s first-ever win over the Huskies. 

“That was probably the best crowd I’ve gotten to play in front of. Just to play and hear the rumbles and the cheers, it was pretty amazing. They’re our sixth man for a reason and they’ve always been a big part of our successes while I’ve been here.” 

For Scott, the way he’s been embraced by Terp Nation is not something he’ll forget anytime soon. 

Last year, when his family home flooded from tropical depression Ida, Maryland fans rallied around him and poured in 40,000 to a GoFundMe to support Scott’s family in less than 24 hours. By the end, 872 donations were made for a total of $60,013, far surpassing the $50,000 goal.

So, what exactly does Maryland mean to Scott as he relishes in his final months as a Terp? 

“It means family. It means a place that I can say is home. It’s somewhere I can say looking back that I had a good time because of the people who stuck behind me and the fans who cheered me on."