With just six games remaining in the season, Maryland men\u2019s basketball has officially missed out on the top six seeds of the Big Ten Tournament \u2014 which may be a shocker to some Terps fans.<\/p>\n
But with six games remaining, there is still something to play for within the conference. Maryland is out of the bottom four \u2014 teams that will play in the tournament\u2019s first round, on Tuesday \u2014 by a tiebreaker. They\u2019re only a win ahead of last place, yet a strong end to the season (and a generous amount of luck) could see the Terps rise as high as the top half of the 18-team table.<\/p>\n
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The Terps\u2019 end-of-season schedule is relatively forgiving \u2014 but that also means that teams will be trying to drag Maryland down with them as they all claw upwards. The Northwestern Wildcats \u2014 one of three two-win teams in the conference \u2014 fit that exact mold.<\/p>\n
Maryland heads to Illinois seeking a much-needed midweek win. The game will tip off at 8 p.m. EST Wednesday from Evanston, Illinois, and be available to watch on Big Ten Network.<\/p>\n
Northwestern Wildcats (10-16, 2-13 Big Ten)<\/p>\n
2024-25 record: 17-16, 7-13 Big Ten<\/p>\n
Just two years ago, Northwestern was a frisky tournament team under head coach Chris Collins, beating Florida Atlantic and asking serious questions of eventual national champions UConn. Terps fans are already aware of how quickly those days can slip away, though.<\/p>\n
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Over Collins\u2019 12-year career, Northwestern has been capable of producing big wins, but it has never made it past the second round. That streak is unlikely to end this year, as the Wildcats have regressed somewhat for the second straight season. Faith in the coach\u2019s ability to fulfill his contract through 2030 and bring the team back has not waned, but it\u2019s certainly a down year in Evanston.<\/p>\n
Players to watch<\/p>\n
Nick Martinelli, senior forward, 6-foot-7, No. 2 \u2014 Martinelli is Northwestern basketball this year, a primary reason that the season has not been even worse. The four-year Wildcat\u2019s 22.1 points per game lead the Big Ten, and his 6.4 rebounds per game are 19th-most in the conference.<\/p>\n
While he possesses the size and athleticism to work effectively in the post, Martinelli shoots 43% from beyond the arc. He scored 28 of Northwestern\u2019s 61 points in the teams\u2019 meeting in College Park last season and scored 22 while playing every minute when the Wildcats beat Maryland in January. Yet he\u2019s arguably primed to be even more impactful Wednesday.<\/p>\n
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Jayden Reid, junior guard, 5-foot-10, No. 4 \u2014 It\u2019s Maryland\u2019s turn to be on the receiving end of the efforts of an undersized, determined hooper. Reed is a prototypical college basketball point guard, scoring at a solid 10 point-per-game clip but focusing on distributing the ball. The Wildcats\u2019 offense runs through him \u2014 he\u2019s averaging just under five assists per game.<\/p>\n
Tre Singleton, freshman forward, 6-foot-8, No. 8 \u2014 Singleton\u2019s 25 minutes per game are second-most on the team, and the freshman has rewarded Collins\u2019 faith in that time on the court. An absurd 18-rebound game against Penn State has somewhat inflated his numbers, but Singleton sits at around eight points and five rebounds per game while shooting 47% from the field.<\/p>\n
Strength<\/p>\n
Ball security. There are a lot of flaws in this Wildcats team, but they are able to retain possession well. Northwestern\u2019s 8.6 turnovers per game are fewest in the conference, and as a result, their assist-to-turnover ratio is behind only Purdue among Big Ten teams.<\/p>\n
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Weakness<\/p>\n
Three-point shooting. The Wildcats are the only team in the Big Ten that is shooting the deep ball worse than Maryland this year. Its 31.1% success rate on those shots is 318th in the country. Martinelli is the only Wildcat with at least 25 made 3-pointers.<\/p>\n
Three things to watch<\/p>\n
1. Can Maryland make its free throws? The Terps have regressed from the free throw line over the course of the season, an issue that has drawn more attention the longer it has gone on. Maryland has gone 75% or better from the stripe just once in its last eight games. For a team that is desperate for points, that will not do.<\/p>\n
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2. How does the ball bounce? According to data from KenPom, Northwestern is the fifth-unluckiest team in all of Division I basketball. For comparison, the Terps sit at 90th of the 365 teams. Math suggests that most teams would have expected to do better, per their statistics \u2014 games against teams like Maryland are places where those numbers could even themselves out.<\/p>\n
3. How short does the rotation get? In recent games, Maryland has sent just eight or nine players into the game. Against Rutgers, outside of Diggy Coit, the bench accrued a combined total of three points in nine minutes of action. If Maryland can avoid foul trouble, its main six players might be enough to get by. But the emergence of a second viable option off the bench late in the season would be monumental.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With just six games remaining in the season, Maryland men\u2019s basketball has officially missed out on the top…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":607982,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3723],"tags":[7,37472,217,2048,4717,231,772,1544,15660,5288,13058,8548,2467,4716,922],"class_list":["post-607981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-basketball","tag-basketball","tag-chris-collins","tag-college-basketball","tag-illinois","tag-maryland-terrapins","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-basketball","tag-ncaab","tag-nick-martinelli","tag-northwestern","tag-northwestern-wildcats","tag-penn-state","tag-purdue","tag-rutgers-scarlet-knights","tag-uconn"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116085860849926677","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=607981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607981\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/607982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=607981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=607981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=607981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}