March 8, 2026; College Park, Maryland, USA; Maryland Terrapins guard Andre Mills (7) dribbles Illinois Fighting Illini guard Andrej Stojakovic (2) during the second half at Xfinity Center. Mandatory Credit: Tommy Gilligan-Imagn Images Oregon and Maryland have both had uncharacteristic losing seasons, debilitated by devastating injuries to their best players.
When the 16th-seeded Ducks (12-19) meet the 17th-seeded Terrapins (11-20) in the Big Ten Tournament opener Tuesday in Chicago, it will be a matchup of teams that will make this year even more exciting.
This season was Oregon’s worst since 2008-09. Meanwhile, the last time Maryland lost this many games was in 1988-89.
This free fall comes after both advanced to the 2025 NCAA Tournament, with Maryland advancing to the Sweet 16 and Oregon advancing to the Round of 32.
Their season began to unravel in December due to key injuries. Two weeks after the Terrapins lost top scorer and rebounder Pharrel Payne to an undisclosed leg issue, the Ducks’ Jackson Shelstad went down with a serious hand injury. He also broke the same hand in the preseason.
After Shelstad was injured again, Oregon won 64-54 at Maryland on Jan. 2, with Takai Simpkins scoring 16 points and Nate Bittle adding 16 points and five blocks. Since then, the Ducks have lost 10 games in a row.
Oregon has adjusted to life without Kjellstad, winning four of its last seven games, including an 85-79 win over Washington on Saturday when Kwame Evans Jr. scored the game’s final nine points in the last 11 seconds.
Dana Altman didn’t sound like a winning coach afterward as he bemoaned the Ducks’ recurring problems, which was evident as they blew an 18-point lead in the final 10 minutes.
“They didn’t have a good grasp of the situation,” Altman said. “The connection between what we want and how we need to play makes it frustrating that as coaches we don’t understand what we need to do to win games.”
Maryland is a different team than the first one Oregon faced. This change is because Andre Mills has emerged as a scoring threat. Mills had 30 points Sunday as Maryland was close to No. 1 at the time. 11 lost 78-72 at Illinois.
Mills has averaged 19.3 points over the Terrapins’ last 11 games. He averaged 7.3 points in 12 games from December to January. Against Oregon, Mills had four points on 1-of-10 shooting.
“The way Dre is playing is getting better and better,” Maryland coach Buzz Williams said. “He’s trying to understand the game more and understand where help comes from.”
With a 4pm (local) start time on Tuesday, the winner of the Oregon-Maryland game will advance to an 11am matchup against ninth-seeded Iowa on Wednesday in what will be a tight upset.
–Field level media
