Maryland men’s basketball’s 2026-2027 season was supposed to be different than last last year’s team —its worst in program history.

Saturday night against Georgetown was the first true measuring stick for the Terps. They failed miserably.

Maryland allowed Georgetown to dominate nearly every facet of the game on its way to an 84-76 loss. 

Maryland didn’t bring an offense to Capital One Arena. A mixture of poor three-point shooting, minimal separation and fantastic Hoya defense forced the Terps into tough shots they struggled to hit. 

Nobody on Maryland separated themselves as a big-time scorer. Outside of forward Pharrel Payne, the Terps’ next best scorer, guard Kaden House, had 13 points in garbage time. 

The Terps made two three-pointers the entire game. They went 3-for-20 beyond the arc. 

“We made three threes, and they made 15,” head coach Buzz Williams said. “So mathematically, you’re way behind. But there’s some things that are connected at deeper levels that are not always going to be perfect.”

As salt in the wound, Georgetown had 7 steals and 7 blocks.

Without a three-point threat, the Terps forced a paint-mashing style with no spacing. Georgetown even gave Maryland space around the three-point line. By the time Maryland had a chance to capitalize, its shooting was off, and the score was beyond saving. 

“They punched us in the mouth first, and they asked for the level of physicality, and just did not respond,” Payne said.

Even when Maryland players made nice passes that should have created open looks, nothing came of it because everyone stayed congested. 

“I don’t necessarily think that they were all bad shots,” Williams said. “They were we define shots by medals: gold medal, silver medal, bronze medal, no medal. We didn’t have near the gold attempts that you need to have in order to win on the road.”

By the second half, Georgetown didn’t attempt to contest multiple Maryland threes. There was no respect for Maryland’s shotmaking. 

Seven Maryland players attempted a three-pointer Saturday. Only two of them connected all game. 

On the other end, Georgetown had two players with more made threes than the Terps’ total. The team combined for 15 makes, shooting 50% from three. 

“We need our offense to be better so that we can get our defense set,” Williams said.

The three-point defense brought excessive fouls. Maryland scrambled to defend the three while Georgetown attacked the paint in the second half, leading to an early bonus. Georgetown scored at will from every part of the court. 

Maryland finished with 23 team fouls. 

“We should have played with our chest more and played less with our hands,” Payne said. “I think that’s something me and the guys got to talk about.”

Georgetown senior guards Jaland Lowe and Elmarko Jackson dominated the Terps’ zone defense. Lowe finished with an efficient 22 points on 87.9% true shooting. Jackson’s 17-point performance was even more efficient at 97% true shooting. 

7-foot junior center Chol Machot anchored the defense with 5 blocks. 

“Those are game changers when you can guard the rim like that, especially against a great player like Payne,” Georgetown head coach Ed Cooley said.

Guards Andre Mills and Mike McNair Jr. combined for five of Maryland’s seven threes in its first game. Tonight, the sharpshooting duo looked dull, going 1-for-8 from beyond the arc. 

Mills, who led Maryland in points against Bucknell on Monday, shot 4-for-15 from the field.

McNair started the second half with four fouls, helping the Hoyas reach the bonus less than three minutes from the break. 

“Way too many reaching tight fouls,” Williams said. “Some of that was on those second-half starts, but just categorically, I think we got to the bonus first in the first half, but we were eight to 10 minutes behind getting to the bonus in the second half, and that’s a large margin relative to how we need to play.”

The one bright spot for Maryland’s offense came from second-chance opportunities. The Terps had 19 offensive rebounds to Georgetown’s nine, and they converted 23 second-chance points. 

Pharrel Payne remained solid in the paint, scoring 28 points and snagging 8 rebounds. Against a Georgetown team with a lot of size, that’s something to look for as the season progresses. 

“I think defense is a will and want, as is rebounding and give them all the credit in the world,” Cooley said. “I mean, I’m glad it didn’t bite us, right? Because it was like a tsunami, a tsunami of offensive rebounding.”

He was one of two Terps with over 50% field-goal efficiency. The other, House, scored all of his points after the game was well out of reach. 

Maryland is now 1-1. Coming off the worst season in the program’s history, a loss like this, where the team looks as bad as it does, is the worst-case scenario.