Big Ten Tournament Gives Maryland Basketball One Last Chance at NCAA Tournament
The Maryland Terrapins men’s basketball schedule for the 2017-18 regular season has come to a close and now must win the entire Big Ten Tournament for any shot at the NCAA Tournament.
A new season begins for Maryland Basketball in Madson Square Garden as they face the No. 9-seeded Wisconsin Badgers in the Big Ten Tournament Thursday on the Big Ten Network.
Maryland basketball (19-12, 8-10 Big Ten) had a roller coaster 2018 season that started with two of their big men Justin Jackson and Ivan Bender suffering season-ending injuries.
As a result, Maryland struggled mightily away from the friendly confines of XFINITY Center with a dismal 2-10 road record including seven straight road defeats.
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The No. 8-seeded Maryland Terrapins in this year’s Big Ten Tournament will rely heavily on their leaders Anthony Cowan (15.7 PPG, 5.2 APG, 4.4 RPG) Kevin Huerter (14.6 PPG, 5.1 RPG, 3.4 APG) and Bruno Fernando (10.2 PPG, 6.4 RPG). Cowan led the team in points (488), assists (160) and steals (48) while Fernando led in rebounds (187) and blocks (36).
Huerter in his own right continuously had the hot hand from behind the three-point line, and he had the most made three-pointers on the team (72) and the highest three-point shooting percentage (42 percent).
Due to their stellar play, all three Maryland Terrapins received All-Big Ten honors from the conference coaches and media.
Maryland basketball won their only meeting against the Badgers in early February 68-63 this season. Cowan and Huerter combined for 42 points.
The Maryland Terrapins are looking to go up 2-0 in their season series if you will, against the Badgers while the latter is looking for redemption.
Both teams need to win the Big Ten Tournament to have any chance at the NCAA Tournament. After the Terps’ double-digit loss to the Michigan Wolverines, Head Coach Mark Turgeon felt it was time for the Terps to work on themselves according to 247Sports Maryland Writer Jeff Ermann.
"You’re constantly working on other teams. This week we just worked on Maryland. Mentally we worked on our players, physically we worked on Maryland and hopefully it’ll show. This late in the year if you can’t put in a defensive game plan just walking through it in the ballroom, you’re probably not going to win anyway,” he said. “So we’ll be able to put a game plan tomorrow on Wisconsin, but we really used these two days here to work on Maryland."
Next: Three Terps Earn All-Big Ten Honors
Entering Wednesday morning, ESPN BPI gives the higher-seeded Maryland Terrapins a 67.7 percent chance to beat Wisconsin. The winner advances to play No. 1-seeded Michigan State on Friday afternoon.