The first regular season for Maryland men’s basketball under Buzz Williams has been an excruciating one.
The first omen was requiring a miracle 3-pointer by George Turkson Jr. to defeat UMBC in a preseason exhibition. Less than two weeks later, a Georgetown team that’s now dead-last in the Big East standings spoiled the Terps’ home opener — and it wasn’t exactly close.
It took a 41-point performance by Diggy Coit to avoid losing to Mount St. Mary’s at home. The following week, Maryland lost to No.
16 Alabama and No. 12 Gonzaga by a combined 71 points in the Players Era Festival.
Pharrel Payne first got injured in a seven-point win over Marquette. He miraculously came back just a week later — then re-injured himself in mid-December.
Nearly three months after Payne’s season-ending injury, the Terps have 15 conference losses. That’s the most in a single season in program history, with more Big Ten games to go.
But, at long last, the regular season comes to a close Sunday at Xfinity Center with Senior Day against No. 11 Illinois. Tip-off is slated for 3 p.m., with Senior Day festivities taking place in the hour before tipoff. The game will air on Fox.
What happened last time
Maryland’s last matchup with the Fighting Illini, on Jan. 21, was cold water to the face for a team fresh off a 23-point win over Penn State, courtesy of another Coit 40-piece.
The rotation Williams rolled out looks nothing like the one he’s used to close out the year. Coit, Darius Adams and Isaiah Watts made up a three-guard lineup with Elijah Saunders and George Turkson Jr. in the frontcourt.
Turkson was only used for the tip, though, playing four minutes while Solomon Washington subbed in immediately to play 25 minutes. Aleks Alston also played 22 minutes — he hasn’t reached 20 in a game since.
6-foot-7 Illinois guard Andrej Stojakovic isn’t nearly the shooter his dad Peja was — Andrej shoots just 23.9% from 3-point range — but Maryland fans would be forgiven for not knowing that based on his showing against the Terps.
Stojakovic dominated the Terps’ three-guard lineups. He was 4-for-7 from deep en route to a season high 30 points, alongside nine rebounds. Three other Illini reached double figures as Maryland was dominated, 89-70, in Champaign.
But that game wasn’t all bad for the Terps. It led to the emergence of a guard not in that day’s starting lineup: Andre Mills. The redshirt freshman scored 16 points in 16 minutes off the bench, which was at that point a season-high. He’s since broken that mark five times in 11 games, and has become Maryland’s best guard by far.
What’s happened since
Maryland’s next opponent after Illinois was No. 8 Michigan State. The Spartans won by 43 points, the Terps’ worst loss since 1944. Next up was No. 15 Purdue, who handed Maryland a 30-point loss — its worst loss ever at Xfinity Center.
The Terps had one Big Ten win entering the first Illinois game. They’ve got three since. The last month of the season wasn’t nearly as bad for Maryland as January was.
Illinois followed the inverse trend. It had just one Big Ten loss entering Jan. 21 — and has dropped four since. But three of those losses came in overtime, and two came against top-10 opponents.
Keaton Wagler remains one of the best freshmen in the country. He’s a serious contender, if not the favorite, for Big Ten Player of the Year. He’d be the first freshman in conference history to win that award.
Three things to know
1. Senior sendoffs, with an omission. Coit, Saunders, Washington and Collin Metcalf will be honored before Sunday’s game, according to a team spokesperson.
A very noteworthy name not on that list? Payne. It’s been assumed that the senior would get the redshirt waiver required to be back in 2026-27, but now it appears to be a sure thing.
2. How does Metcalf handle the Ivisic brothers? The senior wasn’t yet a regular feature in Maryland’s starting lineup the last time around; Williams was still deploying primarily Saunders and Washington at the five.
Metcalf has come into his own as a paint presence. The Northeastern transfer has at least seven rebounds in five of his last seven games, and three games with at least four offensive boards. But none of those performances came against Tomislav and Zvonimir Ivisic — who stand at 7-foot-1 and 7-foot-2, respectively. They’ll be a new test for him in his final collegiate basketball game.
3. History watch, but not the good kind. An upset over the Illini would be, to put it mildly, a shock. Maryland hasn’t come close to a ranked win this season, and per FanDuel Sportsbook, they are 18.5-point underdogs Sunday.
If that expected loss comes, it will put Maryland at 20 losses on the season. Unless the Terps win both the Big Ten Tournament and national championship, 21 losses is an inevitability from there. And that would tie the record for most losses in a season in program history, set in 1940-41, when the Terps went 1-21.
