Maryland men’s basketball vs. Indiana preview

Maryland men’s basketball’s tumultuous campaign reached its most frustrating low against Oregon, when the Terps scored a season-low 54 points. Their offense looked anemic in, on paper, one of the easier games on their schedule to notch a first conference win. 

Doing that gets more difficult now. Maryland is set to embark on a West Coast field trip next week, but before then, it faces another newly-assembled team — albeit one that’s seen more success so far — in Indiana.

The Terps and the Hoosiers are set to tip off Wednesday at Xfinity Center at 6:30 p.m. The game will be broadcast on the Big Ten Network.

Indiana Hoosiers (11-3, 2-1 Big Ten)

2024-25 record: 19-13, 10-10 Big Ten

Indiana cruised through the beginning of its schedule last year, getting off to a 13-3 start. But losses in seven of its next eight games derailed the playoff push and caused then-head coach Mike Woodson to announce he would resign at the season’s end.

In came head coach Darian DeVries to steady the ship. DeVries was a known quantity in the mid-major pool, having commandeered Drake to three tournament appearances between 2020 and 2024. He made the step up to West Virginia last year and promptly turned a nine-win team into a 19-win team just outside the bubble. DeVries’ respect and appreciation for Indiana’s basketball culture saw him move once again — to a likely more permanent home.

Indiana ripped off a seven-game win streak to begin the year. While the Hoosiers hit a skid in early December — losing three games in four, against Minnesota, No. 6 Louisville and Kentucky — they’ve gotten back on track with Big Ten play resuming.

Players to watch

Lamar Wilkerson, redshirt senior guard, 6-foot-6, No. 3 — After a stellar freshman year in junior college, Sam Houston State took a chance on Wilkerson. The tall guard continued to improve year after year, which culminated in him averaging 20.5 points a game in his senior season and moving up to the Big Ten for his graduate year.

Wilkerson has been the leader for the Hoosiers this season, shooting a lights-out 41.7% from deep and 45.6% from the field for an average of 19.2 points per game. And even with those stats, he’s improving — that average is up to 25 points per game over the last five games.

Tucker DeVries, redshirt senior forward, 6-foot-7, No. 12 — DeVries was an AP All-American honorable mention in 2023-2024 as a player at Drake, where he averaged 22 points, seven rebounds and four assists per game. He followed his father first to West Virginia, where an injury ended his season prematurely, and now to Indiana. 

DeVries has found a role on the perimeter offensively, doing less on the ball and crashing the boards defensively. While his shooting numbers are down, he still averages 15.5 points and five rebounds per game, an undoubtable impact.

Conor Enright, redshirt senior guard, 6-foot-1, No. 5 —  Enright is the creative presence that holds together an offense that runs three guards — plus DeVries, who plays like a guar). The fifth-year player began his collegiate career at Drake in 2021, growing into a solid point guard and eventually joining DePaul following DeVries’ departure.

Enright averaged 6.2 assists per game for the Blue Demons in the Big East and earned the opportunity to reunite with his head coach. He only attempts about three shots a game, but his ball handling is critical — Enright has 69 assists to just 14 turnovers on the year.

Strength

Free throw shooting. With the small-ball lineup, it’s not a surprise that Indiana does well from the charity stripe. Its free throw percentage (77.4%) is top-25 in Division I, and each of DeVries, Wilkerson, and rotation player Nick Dorn make more than 84% of their attempts.

Weakness

Offensive rebounding. When Indiana’s shots aren’t falling, it struggles to create second chances to right the ship. The Hoosiers’ 9.4 offensive boards per game are the second-fewest in the Big Ten. In their losses, they averaged only seven a game.

Three things to watch

1. Which offense stays consistent? While Maryland fans are more than used to seeing their offense wildly oscillate between feast and famine, their opponents in Indiana have had wider swings. They’ve got almost as many games with under 70 points (three) as they do with triple-digit tallies (four).

If the Terps find the level they have the potential to reach, they could catch Indiana looking ahead — after Maryland, its next four games come against No. 10 Nebraska, No. 12 Michigan State, No. 19 Iowa and No. 2 Michigan.

2. Myles Rice revenge game? Like Maryland, the entirety of Indiana’s roster departed following the head coach change, and the team had to rebuild from scratch. That isn’t going to stop Myles Rice — one of the Hoosiers’ most important players from last season — from wanting to strut his stuff in front of Indiana fans once again. 

Rice has had an up-and-down year for Maryland, recording four games with double-digit points and four games with two or fewer points. This game could be the spark to ignite a player from whom the Terps would have expected more production. 

3. Can Solomon Washington keep eating against an undersized front? Washington’s 17-point game against Oregon felt like an outlier for a player that averaged 4.7 points per game in 2024-25, but it may simply be indicative of an increased role — he scored nine against Virginia and 13 against Old Dominion.

And while Washington’s breakout against Oregon came against two monstrous bigs, Indiana doesn’t have a post presence as dominant as either Kwame Evans Jr. or Nate Bittle. It relies on multiple tall-but-not massive forwards, primarily DeVries and 6-foot-9, 240-pound Sam Alexis, the biggest player in their rotation.