The Wisconsin Badgers take on the Maryland Terrapins in the final home game of the season. Tipoff is at 7:00 PM CT on Fox Sports 1, and the Badgers are 13.5-point favorites.
The Badgers rebounded from their upset at Oregon by routing the Washington Huskies 90-73 in Seattle. Braeden Carrington scored a season-high 32 points off the bench, hitting a school-record nine three-pointers.
What should Badger fans know about the Maryland Terrapins?
Opponent Preview
Former Marquette head coach and Badgers villain
Buzz Williams is in his first season at College Park, but it’s been a struggle to say the least. The Terrapins are 11-18 this season and sit second-to-last with Oregon in the Big Ten standings with a 4-14 record. A big reason for that record is an offense ranked near the bottom of the conference at 70.7 points per game, and a defense that gives up 77.1 points per game. That -6.4 point difference is the worst in the Big Ten.
It also does not help that Pharrel Payne, the Terrapins’ leading scorer at 17.5 points per game, played only 10 games this season before sustaining an injury on December 13th against Michigan. As a result, Northern Illinois and Kansas transfer guard David “Diggy” Coit has been Maryland’s leading scorer at 14.0 points per game. Coit did make conference headlines with a 43-point performance against Penn State on January 18th, where the senior guard hit a Maryland school record nine three-pointers.
Starting in the backcourt are redshirt freshman Andre Mills and true freshman Darius Adams. Mills is the third-leading scorer on Maryland’s team at 11.7 points per game. In an upset win over Iowa on February 11th, Mills led all scorers with 24 points. Adams averages 10.8 points, 3.4 rebounds, and 1.6 assists per game. His best game of the season was a 20-point performance in a loss to then-no. 8 Alabama in the Players Era festival back on November 26th.
Unlike the backcourt, the frontcourt is led by three seniors. Texas A&M transfer forward Solomon Washington leads the Terrapins with 9.3 rebounds per game, while Northeastern transfer center Collin Metcalf is the team’s leading shotblocker with 0.6 blocks per game. Rounding out the frontcourt is San Diego State and Virginia transfer forward Elijah Sanders, who averages 9.0 points, 4.4 rebounds, and 1.0 assists per game.
Score Prediction
Williams is expected to bring energy to this game and have his players prepared to compete for the full forty minutes. While Maryland may start strong, Wisconsin’s offense is likely to prove too much for the Terrapins on Wednesday night.
Prediction: Wisconsin 90-77
