Catch up on some key points from Sunday’s game.
Maryland men’s basketball saw a 16-point second-half lead disappear Sunday in a 83-78 loss to Indiana. The Hoosiers caught fire, quickly tying the score and eventually pulling ahead for good.
Here are three takeaways from the game.
An epic collapse
In a Maryland season that’s had seen its fair share of tough losses, Sunday’s game may take the cake as the most demoralizing of the bunch.
As the 18-minute mark of the second half passed and Maryland’s lead grew to 16, the vibe inside the arena was overwhelmingly positive. It’s been a tough season for the Terps, but ending the home slate with a win and sending the seniors out on the right note would provide some solace.
It didn’t even take 10 minutes of game time to turn that energy into nervousness, then frustration, and finally, disappointment. The Hoosiers quickly undid their deficit, storming back to take the lead. The Terps turned it over with frequency and missed their shots, all the while Indiana couldn’t miss — at one point making 12 straight field goals.
One could sum up Maryland’s season with the image of the final seconds of the game: Jahmir Young walking off the court in dismay, a team-leading 22 points to his name, as the stands emptied.
Offense, but little defense
All season, Maryland’s identity has been clear: hard-nosed, effective defense and wildly unreliable offense. But on Sunday, it was the inverse, with the Terps finding success on the offensive end but failing to slow Indiana on the other end.
The Hoosiers scored 33 points in the first half, prone to turnovers and struggling to stop Maryland in the paint. But in the following half, Indiana exploded for 50 points, the first time Maryland’s allowed 50 points in a half at home since 2022.
Some of the surge could be attributed to the hot shooting of Mackenzie Mgbako, who scored 18 points in the second half, but it was a result of the Terps’ difficulties slow Indiana in transition.
“They really pushed the pace on us, and it was, just it was kind of tough because they weren’t really doing anything in the half court, but they were really attacking us in transition,” Maryland head coach Kevin Willard said.
As the Terps hurried back into their defense, the Hoosiers attacked the rim and found success. Not only was Mgbako a force, but Kel’el Ware, Trey Galloway and Xavier Johnson all took advantage and led the charge as they managed to get everything to fall.
Meanwhile, in the first half and parts of the second, Maryland actually had similar offensive success. It looked like a far cry from its usually ineffective self, featuring dribble-drives from Young, craftiness from Julian Reese and sharpshooting from Donta Scott. But ultimately, when Indiana started to respond, the Terps couldn’t keep it up.
The Terps will finish in the bottom four of the Big Ten
A win Sunday would have put Maryland in solid position to earn a bye in the Big Ten Tournament. Instead, its heartbreaking loss sealed its fate as a bottom-four seed in the event, meaning it’ll have to play on the first day of the tournament.
Since joining the Big Ten, the Terps have only finished 10th or worse once — the 2021-22 season, during which head coach Mark Turgeon left and the program had its first losing season in nearly 30 years. This year’s team still has one regular-season opportunity left to make sure it doesn’t finish with more losses than wins, but it too will place in the basement of the league.
“We’ve struggled at home this year,” said Willard, whose team will finish this season having lost six of its 10 home conference games. “That’s probably been the most frustrating thing. We’ve had three games in this building where if we won those three games, it would’ve been totally different.”
With that comes the requirement to win five games in as many days to win the league. That’s an arduous task in any league, especially one of the Big Ten’s caliber. Maryland hasn’t proven its capability to make any sort of deep conference tournament run, but even that long-shot possibility became a whole lot more unlikely Sunday.