The Terps look to win their first Big Ten Tournament game for the third year in a row.
No. 11 Maryland men’s basketball, the highest-ranked Terps team in a half-decade, has arrived to the postseason with its highest Big Ten Tournament seeding in a full decade.
The No. 2-seed Terps earned a double-bye in Indianapolis, garnering them six days of rest before their Friday matchup with No. 7-seed Illinois, who defeated No. 15-seed Iowa, 106-94, Thursday to advance.
Maryland’s postseason will tip off at 6:30 EDT from Gainbridge Fieldhouse and air on Big Ten Network.
What happened last time
Maryland’s 91-70 win over then-No. 17 Illinois on Jan. 23 was a turning point in its season. It was the Terps’ first win in front of an opposing crowd after starting 0-4 on the road.
The Terps led by as much as nine points in the first half, but no one outside of Julian Reese and Derik Queen contributed much on offense. Each of them scored more (14 and 13 points, respectively) than the rest of the team combined (11 points). The Fighting Illini hung around and cut the deficit to three points by halftime.
After the break, Maryland’s trio of guards came alive. Ja’Kobi Gillespie, Rodney Rice and Selton Miguel all shot at least 50% from the field and combined for 26 points, while Reese and Queen continued to dominate en route to a 21-point ranked road victory.
But the win came with an asterisk. Center Tomislav Ivisic, the Illini’s second-leading scorer (12.6 points per game), as well as leading rebounder (7.6 rebounds per game) and shot-blocker (1.1 blocks per game), missed the game with mononucleosis. That was a big factor in Queen and Reese’s success. Ivisic played Thursday against Iowa and played 28 minutes — there’s no reason to believe he’ll miss Friday’s contest.
What’s happened since
Illinois ended its season with a brutal stretch of opponents, but still managed to hold its own against them. The Illini faced five ranked opponents in their final six games — including two top-10 teams in No. 1 Duke and No. 7 Michigan State — and went 2-3 in those games, with wins over No. 22 Michigan and No. 20 Purdue. The Blue Devils, Spartans and No. 18 Wisconsin got the best of them, by a disheartening average of 26 points per game.
The Illini fell out out of the Associated Press top-25 poll for much of February and early March after losing four of six games, including the one to Maryland, but returned to No. 24 after closing out the season with back-to-back wins over the Wolverines and Boilermakers.
Ivisic returned to action after missing three games in January and early February, but his rebounding numbers have taken a noticeable hit late in the season. After recording double-digit rebounds in nine of his first 18 games, he’s done so just thrice in the 11 games since his return.
Nonetheless, the Illini remain a force to be reckoned with. They finished the regular season atop the Big Ten in both points (83.7) and rebounds (42.4) per game.
Three things to watch
1. Queen’s first taste of postseason basketball. The freshman phenom is yet to play a tournament game — where freshmen notoriously struggle. Some of Queen’s best games have come in big ones, including 25 points against Illinois the last time around, but it’s yet to be seen how he responds to postseason pressure.
2. Chance for Willard’s best conference tournament run yet. The Terps made it to the Big Ten Tournament’s third round in head coach Kevin Willard’s first year at the helm, but they fell to No. 3-seed Indiana, 70-60. A win over Illinois would mark his biggest postseason accomplishment to date.
3. Backcourt battle. With Ivisic back on the court guarding Queen and Reese, there’s more pressure on Gillespie and company to produce offensively. They already struggled to guard 6-foot-6 freshman guard Kasparas Jakucionis the last time around, when he recorded 21 points, seven assists and seven rebounds without his best big man to feed. Containing Jakucionis could be the key to a Maryland victory.
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