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.
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.
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 points as a devastating one-two inside punch. Bittle even sank a rare 3-pointer.
Guard Takai Simpkins added 16 points, seven rebounds and four assists as the Ducks held on through the second half. After taking the advantage five minutes into the game, Oregon never trailed, even as Maryland whittled the lead down to a basket multiple times.
What happened since
That loss kicked off the worst stretch of Maryland’s season. It lost eight of nine games to begin 2026, with the sole bright spot being the victory Coit engineered over Penn State.
Maryland closed that stretch setting history for all the wrong reasons, with a 91-48 thrashing by Michigan State the program’s biggest loss in 81 years and a 93-63 loss against Purdue the worst home loss of the century.
But since then, the Terps have found a spark. Wins in three of five games through the middle of February inspired hope that the team could rally out of the cellar, but four straight defeats to end the season has sunk them.
Meanwhile, Oregon did one worse — it lost 10 consecutive games from Jan. 5 to Feb. 14, when it got its own turn to beat up Penn State. Oregon followed up that 83-72 victory by scoring just 44 points against Minnesota, though, highlighting an inconsistency comparable to Maryland.
The Ducks’ own 3-in-5 streak came in the home stretch, where they scrapped out wins against USC, Wisconsin and Washington. The victory against the Huskies in the final regular-season game on March 7 was a dramatic one — Evans scored nine points in the final 11 seconds of the game to win it for Oregon.
Three things to watch
1. Is Darius Adams back? For the first time since 2025, Adams did not start for Maryland. His absence was likely just to get all the seniors in the starting five, but it was a move that could have been brewing for some time before that. Adams has looked off in recent months — his aggressive drives to the rim hadn’t paid off, and his form on the jump shot looked off.
But then, Adams finished with 14 points on 6-of-12 shooting against Illinois, his highest tally in a game since Feb. 1. The shots he took were confidence-builders, too — the freshman had no problems taking on his defenders and making fadeaway jumpers. Maryland’s recent success has been in spite of Adams’ decline; if he can return to being productive, it would give the Terps an extra dimension.
2. How do the Terps defend the paint? Bittle and Evans forced Maryland into fielding some unusual lineups, putting Metcalf and George Turkson Jr. together and even adding Washington at times. Maryland struggled to defend the rim against Illinois — 42 of the 78 points the Terps allowed were in the paint — and Oregon fields similar personnel.
3. Iowa up next… maybe? The winner of this game will take on No. 9-seed Iowa in the second round. That game will tip off at noon EST on March 11, giving the winner an estimated 16-17 hours of rest.
