Maryland basketball finished the 2024-2025 regular season 24-7 with a 14-6 record in Big Ten conference play. The Terps’ 24 wins are the most home regular season wins since the 2019-2020 squad that had national championship aspirations before the COVID-19 Pandemic shut down the world.
This year, they earned the second seed in the Big Ten conference tournament this upcoming weekend with a double-bye to their name as well. It won’t be for a few days, but there’s a few possible outcomes for the Terps’ quarterfinal matchup this upcoming Friday.
The first domino that has to fall is the first-round matchup between the #15 seed Iowa Hawkeyes and ten-seed seed Ohio State Buckeyes with the Hawkeyes pulling out the win on Sunday night, sending the Buckeyes to the brink of bubble watch. Iowa comes in as the lowest seed in the field, and was the benefactor of an incredible tiebreaker situation in which five teams finished with a 7-13 in conference record. Their victory over the Nebraska Cornhuskers this past Sunday, who also finished with a 7-13 record, gave the Hawkeyes their tiebreaker advantage. They also received help from the Terps by knocking off the Wildcats on Senior Day in College Park. Maryland and Iowa only played once this season, and it was a second half blowout that led to Kevin Willard’s team walking away with a 101-75 victory after a tightly contested first half.
With Iowa extending their postseason appearance, they'll face the red hot seven-seed Illinois, who earned a first-round bye with three straight victories, including two ranked wins to round out their regular season against Michigan and Purdue.
The Fighting Illini have had a rollercoaster season, to say the least. Before the end-of-season winning streak, they dropped three in a row, all to ranked teams, including a 110-67 loss against Duke at Madison Square Garden.
The lone matchup between Maryland and Illinois wasn’t that much better for Brad Underwood’s squad, as Maryland came to Champaign in late January and walked out with a 21-point road victory, 91-70. The big man duo of Julian Reese and Derik Queen was too much to handle for Illinois that night. Reese finished 27 points and 17 rebounds, both career highs, while Queen had a smooth 25 points on 10/13 shooting.
Looking ahead, if Maryland were to win the quarterfinal game against either Illinois, Ohio State, or Iowa, the question then becomes who’s next for the Terps. Their hypothetical semi-final game depends on the out come of #3 seed Michigan’s side of the bracket. The Wolverines, who lost to Maryland just last week in Ann Arbor, will await the winner of #14 seed USC and #11 seed Rutgers, who would then have to defeat #6 seed Purdue to advance to a quarterfinal showdown against the Wolverines. Of the four teams in this quarter of the bracket, only Purdue was able to best the Terps in an early season win inside Mackey Arena.
The remaining double-eyes belong to #4 UCLA and the top overall seed, Michigan State. Maryland got the best of UCLA in a big time win way back in January in College Park. As for Michigan State, well, if you are a Maryland fan, I don’t have to remind you of how that showdown ended. The only possibility for Maryland to play either of these teams in the conference tournament is in the championship game on Sunday March 16th.
The Terps have a bid to the dance all but locked up, finishing the regular season ranked #11 in the AP Top 25. The question now is what seed they will get, as many believe that a four or five seed is the most likely for Willard and the Crab Five. However, with a conference championship to their name if they can go all the way this upcoming weekend, Selection Sunday might feature the Maryland “M” logo in a potential three seed, and maybe even higher.
The first game of the conference tournament will be Northwestern versus Minnesota Wednesday at 3:30 EST in Indianapolis. The best time of year has finally arrived.
March. Is. Here.
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