Typically, Senior Days are about players who have spent their entire college career in the same place, growing from freshman to senior, some even from role player to star.
For five of the 11 seniors — seven players and four team managers — the Maryland men's basketball team will honor before Saturday's regular-season home finale against Michigan at Xfinity Center, College Park was a second home. Or, in one case, a third home.
For Evan Smotrycz, there's more than a little irony in the opponent the No. 14 Terps will face. The 6-foot-9, 230-pound forward spent his first two seasons playing for the Wolverines.
"Obviously, I was interested when I saw we were playing Michigan," Smotrycz told reporters before practice Friday. "Like I said, it's not some sort of revenge game for me. [I] just think it's ironic that it fell on the last game of the year."
There is some irony, too, for 6-3 guard Richaud Pack, who came to Maryland this season as a graduate student after splitting his first three years between Florida International and North Carolina A&T.
Pack has said that Michigan was one of the schools that offered him a chance to play as a fifth-year senior and finish his career on a bigger stage. It was a little late for Pack, who grew up in Detroit and would have jumped at the chance coming out of high school.
"It's all come together," an emotional Pack said Friday. "I've been thinking more and more about the journey of my college career. I wouldn't want to end it any place but here. It's kind of hard to put into the words, just getting ready for tomorrow."
Forward Jon Graham (Calvert Hall) knows what it's like to face a familiar team. The Terps have two wins this season against Penn State, where he spent his first two seasons. In a Feb. 4 home game, Graham scored a career-high 16 points in a 64-58 victory.
Most of his two seasons with the Terps — for whom he has worn the same jersey number, 25, that his father, Ernie, did more than a quarter of a century ago — "has been a dream come true," he said Friday. And coach Mark Turgeon often has said that he would love to have "a hundred Jon Grahams" for his energy and leadership as a reserve.
"I wouldn't say I'm the biggest vocal leader, but I want to do my best to lead by example," Graham said. "We had a lot of young guys on this team, guys that needed leadership. I hope that I did a good enough job leading by example. If you want to win, you've got to play hard, to play every game like it's your last."
That's how one of the team's unquestioned stars has played since he transferred three years from Xavier. Coming off arguably the best performance of his career, guard Dez Wells is going to try to put emotions aside when he faces the Wolverines.
"I'm excited for my teammates, more so than for myself," Wells said. "I'm excited for this day, but I just want it to be a special moment for this whole team, for the fans and my family. I will look back on this day once the season's over and do a little reminiscing about how special this ride has been so far."
Turgeon, too, said it probably won't be as emotional for him as it was in the past. But it certainly will be more involved. A year after having to honor just one player, little-used forward and current graduate assistant John Auslander, in a pregame ceremony, Turgeon will be on the court for a while.
"The whole thing I tell them, it's not about them, it's still about Maryland," Turgeon said. "The thing you'll remember the most is whether you won or lost the game, not how you played. Our seniors have been humble all year, they've played for the team, so I expect them to do it tomorrow."
Only two of the senior players, walk-ons Spencer Barks and Jacob Susskind, have been with Turgeon for all four years. (Another former walk-on, River Hill's Varun Ram, has been with the Terps for three years after playing at Division III Trinity College in Connecticut.)
Smotrycz, who has gone from a starting role in his first season to a key reserve this season, seemed to best summarize how he and his fellow senior transfers had ended up at Maryland.
"I think it was easy," he said. "All of us really wanted to be here."