Maryland men’s basketball is quickly starting to become a get-right opponent in the Big Ten.
No. 12 Purdue had lost three straight games before playing Maryland. It won by 30 points, more than double the
next-largest margin of victory in series history. Ohio State had lost three straight games on the road. It won by 20 points, double its next-largest road win on the year.
Next up for the Terps is Minnesota, a team that’s in the exact opposite situation — fans just stormed the court in Minneapolis after beating No. 10 Michigan State. Before that, it had lost three straight games. They already got right.
In theory, Maryland has an opportunity to get off the mat while avoiding the get-right moniker. But it will take an impressive effort to get there.
The game is set to tip off from Williams Arena at 1:00 p.m. Sunday, and will air on Big Ten Network.
Minnesota Golden Gophers (11-12, 4-8 Big Ten)
2024-25 record: 15-17, 7-13 Big Ten
Head coach Niko Medved’s homecoming to Minnesota was a long time in the making. The 52-year-old earned his master’s degree from the university in 1999 and immediately entered the basketball world, working his way up. In the 2000s, he was an assistant coach at Furman, Minnesota and Colorado State — and non-consecutively, he eventually became head coach at each school.
Colorado State was where Medved asserted himself on a national level. He led the Rams to five 20-win seasons in six years, earning recognition for a tough style of play and cementing the program as a Mountain West powerhouse. Returning to his alma mater was the next logical step.
It has been a rollercoaster first year back in Minneapolis for Medved. The win against Michigan State was a massive statement for the program, but it became the only Big Ten team to have lost to Penn State one game prior. The Gophers sit just below .500, but having already played six ranked conference opponents, the schedule might set up for a late-season run.
Players to know
Cade Tyson, senior guard/forward, 6-foot-7, No. 10 — Having formed Belmont’s lethal one-two punch alongside former Terp Ja’Kobi Gillespie for two seasons, Tyson spent last year getting spot bench minutes at North Carolina and averaging 2.6 points per game. With more minutes and freedom in Minnesota, he’s averaging 19.8 points per game — fifth-best in the Big Ten. He’s a cold-blooded scorer, but he doesn’t do much more than that (5.3 rebounds per game, 2.4 assists per game).
Jaylen Crocker-Johnson, junior forward, 6-foot-8, No. 8 — Medved found Crocker-Johnson at Arkansas-Little Rock and brought him first to Colorado State and then Minnesota. In that time, he’s made a solid player out of the former two-star prospect. Crocker-Johnson’s 13.7 points and 6.9 rebounds per game are both second-highest on the team, and he’s added in 24 blocks as the team’s main rim presence.
Isaac Asuma, sophomore guard, 6-foot-3, No. 1 — One of the rare players to stay at a school following a head coaching change in the modern era of college basketball, Asuma has reaped the rewards of staying faithful to his hometown school. After playing 32 games off the bench last year, he has started all 23 under Medved, logging four assists per game as the team’s primary creator while also contributing double-digit scoring.
Strength
Defending. The Gophers allow just 69 points per game, the sixth-best mark in the Big Ten. That is in part because they like to play a slow game — according to KenPom, Minnesota games feature an average of 63.3 possessions a night, 16th-fewest in Division I.
Weakness
Free throws. The Gophers rank bottom of the Big Ten and 267th in Division I in free throw percentage, making an underwhelming 69.5% of their tries from the charity stripe. And yet they shoot 22 of them a game — Maryland may not fear fouling some Minnesota players on the shot.
Three things to watch
1. Gophers’ short bench. Following the Terps’ game against Ohio State, much ado was made about the lineup situation. Williams has chopped and changed throughout the year, rolling out 152 different lineups for at least one possession, per EvanMiya. Minnesota, meanwhile, has had just 52 unique lineups on the season — fewest in the Big Ten by a significant margin.
Only seven Gophers have more than seven games played, but that’s also a product of injury — Minnesota lost its starting center and point guard to season-ending injuries before conference play.
2. Does Maryland roll with the bigs? After the game against Ohio State, Williams affirmed that the insistence on rolling out a bigger lineup was to reduce Maryland’s disadvantage on the glass. While the Terps did out-board the Buckeyes, and the bigger sets did give Elijah Saunders space to thrive, it wasn’t pretty overall.
3. History favors the Terps. Maryland has made history in the wrong way several times this season, so these records likely mean little in the current atmosphere. But trends still exist, and pride can be taken from them, and the Terps have won 11 of their last 12 games against Minnesota dating back to 2017.
