Maryland men’s basketball has now suffered historic losses in back-to-back games.
Sunday’s 93-63 loss to No. 12 Purdue was the Terps’ biggest defeat ever at Xfinity Center. It comes seven days after a 43-point loss to No. 7 Michigan State, their most lopsided loss since 1944.
The Terps have now recorded more 30-point losses this season (four) than they did across all 11 previous seasons in the Big Ten combined (three).
Here are three takeaways from Sunday afternoon.
Another defensive disasterclass
There’s no way to sugarcoat it: elite
teams can score at will against the Terps. They’ve failed to stop any of the conference’s blue bloods from doing so.
Purdue’s three-headed monster of Braden Smith, Fletcher Loyer and Trey Kaufman-Renn worked to perfection — in large part due to little defensive resistance.
Matt Painter did everything in his power to keep Smith matched up with Diggy Coit. The undersized Coit was battered with screens, and even when he wasn’t, Coit is one of the few guards in the conference Smith can dominate physically.
Smith shot 6-of-9 for 19 points — and when he wasn’t shooting, he was driving and kicking the ball out to wide-open teammates. His six assists could have been double that if his teammates made their shots.
“Whether it’s on the side or in the channel, [Purdue’s sets are] going to end in a ball screen,” head coach Buzz Williams said. “I didn’t think our coverage was necessarily poor on the ball screen. Our coverage on the weak side … wasn’t as good as it needed to be.”
Loyer didn’t struggle in the shotmaking department. He never hesitated to let it fly — finishing 7-of-10 from deep — and led both teams with 29 points despite sitting for much of the second half. That’s the most Loyer has ever had against a mid- or high-major opponent.
This is all before getting to the Terps’ true biggest shortcoming: rebounding. Despite Kaufman-Renn only scoring seven points, he was a massive contributor.
The senior had eight first-half rebounds. Maryland’s entire team had seven first-half rebounds.
7-foot-4 sophomore Daniel Jacobsen isn’t usually a feature of Purdue’s rotation — Sunday was his first game eclipsing 20 minutes. The Terps had no answers for him. Jacobsen’s five rebounds were effortless, and they came alongside eight points.
Maryland was outrebounded, 20-7, in the first half. Purdue had eight first-half offensive rebounds, while the Terps had zero.
Andre Mills and Darius Adams saved face for the offense
Without the pair of standout performances by Mills and Adams, a 30-point loss may have turned into another 40-point one.
It’s a promising sign for the redshirt freshman and true freshman, respectively, who could step into much more impactful roles should they stick around for 2026-27.
“They’re much more consistent, not just in their skill work, but also in their basketball IQ,” Williams said. “Better understanding relative to what they’re doing, but also to what the opponent’s doing.”
Mills’ athleticism jumps off the screen, and it shone against the Boilermakers. The redshirt freshman was lightning-quick in transition and got to the line four times; he was 6-of-8 on those trips. Eighteen points was a new career- and season-high for Mills.
Adams relies on finesse more than the physical Mills, but the speed is just the same. And season-long struggles with making jumpers weren’t an issue Sunday — Adams was 6-of-14 overall and 2-of-5 from deep. The freshman’s 17 points were his most in Big Ten play, and he added six rebounds.
A complete 180 in substitution philosophy
Against No. 7 Michigan State, Williams checked in all 11 players by the 11-minute mark of the first half. Ten of them entered the game in the first five minutes. Those dizzying substitutions weren’t the reason Maryland lost by 43 points, but they certainly didn’t help.
Williams has a tendency this season to overhaul certain aspects of his gameplan at will. Seven days after the devastating Michigan State loss, it took over six minutes of game time for Williams to bring out a single member of his bench.
That wasn’t due to the starting lineup showing out. Purdue led, 14-7, when Aleks Alston and Isaiah Watts subbed in with 13:37 left.
Myles Rice started for the first time since Dec. 20. He was on the court for 17 minutes — the first time he’s eclipsed 20 minutes since his last start — and was a focal point of many offensive plays in the first half.
But the box score doesn’t reflect that because Rice was very hesitant to let it rip. The junior took just one shot, and didn’t score or assist. He had one rebound, two steals and two turnovers.
Rice — a cancer survivor — received a loud ovation from a crowd dressed in pink for the team’s cancer awareness game.
Things changed with the game out of hand. Elijah Saunders was a nonfactor all afternoon, but he can’t really come off the court given Maryland’s lack of frontcourt depth.
Saunders fouled out early in the second half, ending the game with zero points. That meant Solomon Washington had no choice but to stay out and take the beating. Aleks Alston and Collin Metcalf both saw considerable minutes, but only Alston recorded a point or rebound — he had two of each.
