Maryland men’s basketball releases full conference schedule

(Photo Courtesy of Maryland Athletics.)

After Maryland’s seven-game non-conference schedule was released earlier this week, the Big Ten announced the full conference schedule this week. The Terps have a 20-game conference schedule including matchups against all seven schools ranked in the preseason Top 25 AP Poll. 

Of those seven ranked teams, the Terps face No. 7 Wisconsin, No. 24 Rutgers, and No. 25 Michigan twice. Maryland matches up against No. 5 Iowa, No. 8 Illinois, No. 13 Michigan State and No. 23 Ohio State once. Six of those 10 games against preseason ranked opponents will be played at the Xfinity Center.

The grueling 20-game schedule begins Dec. 14 at the Xfinity Center against No. 24 Rutgers. After hosting La Salle on Dec. 22, the Terps will travel to West Lafayette for a game against Purdue on Christmas.

The toughest stretch of the season for the Terps comes right after that Christmas matchup against the Boilermakers. Over the next five games, Maryland faces off against three ranked opponents. They face No. 24 Michigan, Indiana and then have back-to-back games against No. 5 Iowa and No. 8 Illinois. After that difficult stretch, the Terps schedule lightens up a little bit with matchups against Michigan, followed by games against Nebraska and Minnesota.

However, the schedule picks right back up again with consecutive home matchups against Wisconsin and Purdue. Then, in the middle of February, the Terps have three games in eight days against Penn State, Ohio State and Minnesota.

To round out the Terps conference schedule, they finish the season with three of their final games on the road. The Terps host Michigan State and Penn State, while they travel to take on Nebraska, Rutgers and Northwestern.

To start the season, there will be no fans allowed at the Xfinity Center. While Maryland doesn’t have to worry about its grueling Big Ten schedule yet, the Terps begin the 2020-21 regular season a week from today against Old Dominion at the Xfinity Center.