For Maryland men’s basketball, Big Ten Tournament bye comes with a warning | TAKEAWAYS

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With the entirety of Maryland’s student section chanting “you suck,” toward the visiting Northwestern bench, coach Chris Collins found himself smiling. Being on the wrong side of Terps fans hurling good-natured barbs, he said, “felt like old school Cole Fieldhouse.”

The energy is palpable around No. 13 Maryland. Collins knows what that’s like.

He saw the Terps twice a year as a player at Duke in the late 1990s. He returned to his alma mater on Mike Krzyzewski’s staff, adding to his resume of big games in College Park. Then he took the head job at Northwestern in 2013, a year before Maryland joined the Big Ten.

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“I’ve been in a lot of big games in this building in my life,” Collins said after his Wildcats fell to the Terps, 74-61. “And it’s really cool when the atmosphere is like that here because of the tradition of this program and what’s been built and what [coach Kevin Willard’s] doing now.”

When Northwestern played at Maryland this time last year, Collins remembers “no one was in here.” Saturday, he felt the buzz.

Maryland wraps its season having won its most games at home (17) in a decade en route to clinching a top-three seed in the conference. The Terps are No. 12 in NET rankings and have aspirations of playing in late March and even early April.

“Kevin is a great friend,” Collins said. “I’m really proud of him, what he’s doing with this team. They’re having a heck of a year.”

Up next, Big Ten tournament

Whew, that flew by. Maryland’s regular season ended Saturday, meaning next week the games will begin to mean a little more.

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The Big Ten Conference tournament opens play Wednesday at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. Maryland won’t play until Friday, having locked up a double-bye to the quarterfinals. With Saturday’s win, and No. 12 Wisconsin’s loss, the Terps are in line to play in one of the Day 3 nightcaps.

Should regular-season champion and No. 8 Michigan State beat Michigan, that would…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/article/maryland-men-basketball-big-ten-110000695.html

Author : Baltimore Sun

Publish date : 2025-03-09 11:00:00

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