Kevin Willard entered his third season at Maryland with moderate expectations.
In the Big Ten preseason media poll, the Terps were ranked 10th, just behind Rutgers, Ohio State, and Michigan. It’s safe to say the team from College Park is outperforming the media’s expectations.
Maryland, in my opinion, easily has the best top-to-bottom starting five in the conference, and it starts with its five-star freshman.
Derik Queen has been a program-altering player for Maryland this season as he’s averaging 15.9 points and 9.1 rebounds a game this season. Alongside Julian Reese, the duo provides opponents with a nightmare assignment.
Nabbed in the portal from Belmont, JaKobi Gillespie has been an All-Big Ten caliber player for the Terps this season. Gillespie averages 14.9 points, 4.8 assists, and 1.8 steals per game while shooting 47.5 percent from the floor and 42.5 percent from three.
Filling out the starting five are guards Selton Miguel and Rodney Rice. Miguel, a graduate transfer from South Florida, is averaging nearly 12 points per game while shooting 43.3% from three.
Rice hails from Maryland and is a transfer guard from Virginia Tech. Rice averages 13.7 points per game on 45.7 percent shooting from the field.
The Terps have won eight of its last nine games, and Willard has the team in a prime spot to contend in March Madness.
Let’s divulge into the rankings for the week of February 24th:
After getting swept on its Los Angeles trip and losing at home to Indiana, Michigan State has rattled off three consecutive high-quality wins. The Spartans beat Purdue at home and Michigan on the road this past week. In the rivalry win in Ann Arbor, freshman Jase Richardson posted 21 points and 3 steals.
Maryland slides just below Michigan State at No. 2. The Terps blew out USC at home, powered by Derik Queen’s 13 points and 15 rebounds. On its four-game winning streak, Maryland has notched 80 points in each contest, remaining one of the most potent offenses in the conference.
Michigan drops from the top spot to No. 3 this week. Its sole game of the week was a loss to Michigan State, as the game got away from Michigan quickly in the second half. The Wolverines shot 24 percent from three and 61 percent from the free throw line in the loss, and have a road test against Nebraska on Monday to get back on track.
Wisconsin had a great blowout win against Illinois last Tuesday but dropped its Saturday home game against Oregon in overtime. The Badgers conceded a 16-2 run that allowed Oregon to tie the game at the buzzer. Soon-to-be All-Big Ten first-team player John Tonje missed a few three-pointers in overtime, but Badgers fans have no reason to panic.
The coldest team in the conference, Purdue, has lost its last four games. When Braden Smith has an off night, Purdue vastly struggles. Smith scored just eight points and had six turnovers against Indiana, and the Boilermakers were outscored 28-3 in the first eight minutes of the second half led Indiana to complete the double-digit comeback.
UCLA suffered a brutal quad-three loss to Minnesota last Tuesday but bounced back with a win over Ohio State. The Bruins offer a great defensive-minded basketball team, but it gets stagnant on offense often. Sophomore Oklahoma State transfer Eric Dailey carried the team against Ohio State, finishing with 20 points and six rebounds.
Following a five-game losing streak, Dana Altman’s Oregon Ducks are on a four-game heater. The Ducks swept its midwest trip this week against Iowa and Wisconsin. Center Nate Bittle averaged 22 points a game between the two contests.
Illinois began its week with a loss against Wisconsin before playing an unorthodox February non-conference game against Duke at Madison Square Garden. This was a week to forget for Brad Underwood’s Fighting Illini, and its loss to Duke was statistically the worst loss in program history.
In its first game in nine days, Indiana toppled Purdue 73-58 in a monster second-half effort. Mike Woodson slid Oumar Ballo and Mackenzie Mgbako to the bench in the game, and Mgbako only logged nine minutes in the win. We’ll see if Woodson keeps the same starting lineup against Penn State on Wednesday.
Nebraska’s sole game of the week was a road loss to Penn State, a team that lost eleven of its last twelve games at the time. The Cornhuskers allowed the Nittany Lions to shoot 79 percent from inside the arc in the contest, and only three players scored over six points in the blowout loss.
It was a brutal week for Jake Diebler’s Buckeyes that began with an abysmal 70-49 loss to Northwestern at home. The Buckeyes showed more life against UCLA on Sunday in Los Angeles but fell short. Ohio State should not be on the bubble, but its metrics are very favorable and will certainly behoove the team come Selection Sunday.
Rutgers swept its week with wins against Washington on the road and USC at home. Future top-five NBA draft pick Dylan Harper averaged 29.5 points and shot 50 percent from three between the two wins.
USC slides down to No. 13 after two road losses to Maryland and Rutgers. Freshman guard Wesley Yates averaged 22 points a game between the two contests, and his last game which he did not score double-digit points was December 18th.
Iowa hosted two games this week which resulted in a loss to Oregon and a win to Washington. Senior forward Payton Sandfort scored 25 or more points in both games and has been carrying the load in Iowa’s Big Ten tournament aspirations.
After losing eleven of its last twelve, Penn State swept its week against Nebraska at home and Minnesota on the road. The team showed a sense of urgency in these two games and really played with a chip on its shoulder. Six Nittany Lions were in double figures against Nebraska, and against Minnesota, center Yanic Konan Niederhauser finished with 24 of Penn State’s 69 points.
Northwestern held Ohio State to 49 points in its win in Columbus and sole game this week. The Wildcats travel to Minneapolis on Tuesday in a game with big implications for the last bids in the conference tournament.
After a great win against UCLA in Los Angeles last Tuesday, Minnesota threw it away with a poor loss to Penn State at home. The Golden Gophers shot 22 percent from three in the contest against Penn State, and now slide down towards the bottom of the standings again.
Washington lost its two games this week to Rutgers and Iowa. Now alone at the bottom of the Big Ten standings, its chances of making the conference tournament look bleak.