COLLEGE PARK — By almost any measure, the 2023-24 men’s college basketball season did not start nor finish the way Maryland had planned. Its 16-17 overall record and 7-13 mark in the Big Ten Conference marked the second time in three years that the program had lost that many regular and conference games.

So the enthusiasm for a new beginning — the season opener against Manhattan at Xfinity Center is on Nov. 4 — and a return to relevance might be understandable. But it’s also clear that the players aren’t choosing to forget humiliations such as nine losses in their last 12 games and a second-round exit from the Big Ten Tournament.

“You’ve got to think about the disrespect we were getting last year and how that season unfolded [without] trying to go back to those things,” senior power forward Julian Reese, a Randallstown resident and St. Frances graduate, said during the Terps’ preseason media day Tuesday afternoon at Xfinity Center. “But at the same time, you kind of don’t want to linger on those things and weigh ourselves with those things and just look past it and to the future.”

For returning players like Reese, sophomore guard DeShawn Harris-Smith, fifth-year senior small forward Jordan Geronimo and fifth-year senior point guard Jahari Long, that might be easier said than done, coach Kevin Willard acknowledged.

“The returners — Julian, DeShawn — are very focused on the fact that we know we had a very disappointing year last year,” he said. “Very below what our goals and expectations were. And I think this group from Day 1 has been very focused on making sure that everything that we’re doing is to make sure that we have as good of a year as possible.”

If preseason polls are an indicator, the jury is still out. Maryland was predicted to finish 10th in the 18-team Big Ten by the media — far outside the top five of Purdue, Indiana, UCLA, Illinois and Michigan State.

Big Ten Network analyst and former Purdue guard Rapheal Davis said the Terps might be overlooked.

“I thought Coach Willard put together a great roster,” Davis, the Big Ten’s Defensive Player of the Year in 2014-15 and a two-time conference All-Defensive Team selection, told the team’s website. “I thought he did an amazing job. I thought he got some of the more underrated transfers in the country. I look at Maryland, and I don’t see why they can’t finish in the top five in the Big Ten or even get a double bye and be right back in the NCAA Tournament.”

Perhaps more than any other team in the conference, the Terps put their roster through an extreme makeover. Point guard Jahmir Young, who scored 1,205 points in two seasons, and small forward Donta Scott, who is one of only five players to amass 1,500 points and 800 rebounds in his Maryland career, exhausted their eligibility, and five reserves — sophomore guards Jamie Kaiser Jr. (Butler) and Jahnathan Lamothe (North Carolina A&T), junior forwards Noah Batchelor (Buffalo) and Mady Traore (uncommitted) and junior center Caelum Swanton Rodger (Old Dominion) — transferred.

Maryland brought in seven newcomers, five of whom are transfers. Junior point guard Ja’Kobi Gillespie, who averaged 17.2 points, 4.2 assists and 3.8 rebounds last winter at Belmont en route to being named one of the Missouri Valley Athletic Conference’s most-improved players, and fifth-year senior shooting guard Selton Miguel, who averaged a career-high 14.7 points at South Florida, are poised to join the starting lineup with sophomore shooting guard Rodney Rice (Virginia Tech), junior power forward Tafara Gapare (Georgia Tech) and graduate student point guard Jay Young (Memphis) contributing.

Gillespie said he and his fellow transfers have picked up on the desire for redemption among their new teammates.

“They told me it was a lot of close games lost by one or two points,” he said. “We’re just trying to jell together and connect as a team, and I feel like that will help us a lot. … I can tell that they’re definitely motivated, and they’ve shown that by their leadership in the preseason and how hard they’re playing.”

The group of newcomers is rounded out by two freshmen, five-star center Derik Queen and shooting guard Malachi Palmer. Queen, a Baltimore resident, is the second-highest recruit in program history.

They join Reese, the only player in the country to average more than 10 points, 9.5 rebounds, 1.9 blocks and 1.0 steals last season; Harris-Smith, who compiled 7.3 points, 4.3 rebounds and 2.2 assists; and Geronimo, who had 5.4 points and 3.9 rebounds.

But any improvement — and return to the NCAA Tournament since the 2022-23 team made Willard the first coach in school history to guide the program to the postseason in his coaching debut — will likely depend on the Terps’ outside shooting. They ranked second-to-last in 3-point percentage (.289) in the Big Ten and 340th out of 351 teams nationally last year.

There were other promising signs, though. Maryland led the conference in scoring defense (65.9 points per game) and ranked 23rd nationally. But even Willard doesn’t have a firm idea which area the current group will excel in.

“I’m not sure what we are,” he said. “I like this group, but I’m not sure if we’re going to be a great defensive team or we’re just going to be a team that runs up and down and jacks it up because we do have some guys that like to play fast. So we’re definitely a work in progress right now.”

Still, expectations are high, especially as the football team has stumbled this fall. But Harris-Smith said he and his teammates can’t concern themselves with what outsiders are saying.

“I feel like we’re just worried about the inside circle,” he said. “If you’re not in Xfinity Center, I feel like we don’t really care what you have to say. We’re locked in on our team, and we’re trying to get as many wins as possible. So I feel like it’s no pressure. We all want to win, and that’s the goal.”

Have a news tip? Contact Edward Lee at eklee@baltsun.com, 410-332-6200 and x.com/EdwardLeeSun.