Big Ten Tournament first round preview: Maryland men’s basketball vs. Oregon

With one of the longest regular seasons in the history of Maryland men’s basketball wrapped up, the Terps have an incredibly short time to shake it all off.

The clock ran out on the Terps’ 78-72 loss to No. 11 Illinois at 5:24 p.m. on Sunday. Its next game comes at 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday.

Advertisement

The loss to the Illini guaranteed Maryland the No. 17 seed in the Big Ten — now, it has to play No. 16-seed Oregon.

The men will look to avoid the same fate the women’s team faced when meeting the Ducks in their first Big Ten tournament game. The stakes are decidedly lower in this matchup, though.

The Terps and the Ducks will play their first-round contest in Chicago, with the game available to stream on Peacock.

What happened last time

Oregon (12-19, 5-15 Big Ten) was Maryland’s first challenge of 2026 and the beginning of the main conference slate. The Terps failed to clear the opening hurdle in a disheartening 64-54 home loss. Maryland was just three games removed from losing Pharrel Payne for the second time — as a result, it had yet to figure out how to play.

Advertisement

The Terps were still trying to outshoot their opponents at this point — 35 of Maryland’s 65 shot attempts were from 3-point range, and Maryland only made seven of those deep heaves.

Andre Mills also hadn’t emerged as the man of the moment for Maryland. He went just 1-of-10 from the floor in 26 minutes of play, finishing with four points. The rest of the guards weren’t much better — Darius Adams, Isaiah Watts and Diggy Coit combined to go 9-of-32.

Watts was the only guard to crack double digits, but Solomon Washington led all scorers with 17 points over a marathon 38 minutes. He added 12 rebounds to notch his second straight double-double, offering a glimpse at the consistency he went on to provide in Maryland’s lineup.

Oregon, meanwhile, crusaded through the Terps’ frontcourt. Center Nate Bittle and forward Kwame Evans Jr., who respectively stand at 7 feet and 6-foot-10, combined for 28…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/big-ten-tournament-first-round-104500197.html

Author :

Publish date : 2026-03-09 10:45:00

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.