Maryland men’s basketball’s matchup Sunday against struggling No. 12 Purdue had all the makings for a possible upset.
Purdue came in having lost three games in a row and looked extremely vulnerable to a Maryland team desperate for a win in a nightmare season.
The Terps had stretches of strong play but the Boilermakers instantly squashed any chance of surrendering their lead. Purdue opened up an 18-point advantage in the first half and never looked back, handing Maryland its largest loss in Xfinity Center history, 93-63.
“We’re not really focused on the outcome. We’re focused on us getting better every single day,” freshman Darius Adams said. “That’s going to make the outcome different. Obviously, there’s frustration just because we’re losing, but I don’t think it’s going to be a big thing.”
Along with Purdue’s struggles, nobody on the team had a rougher stretch than Fletcher Loyer. The senior guard had scored just 26 points in the Boilermakers’ previous four games.
But it was Loyer who led Purdue’s scoring attack on Sunday. His 29 points surpassed his total from the rough spell, and he did so with just over 16 minutes remaining in the contest. Despite only shooting 35.3% from the field in Big Ten play, Loyer torched Maryland for arguably his best game of the season. He shot 9-of-14 from the field and 7-of-10 from behind the arc.
The driving force for Purdue’s offense for years, though, has been Braden Smith. The senior had a strong game, scoring 19 points and dished out six assists.
Smith leads the team in scoring with 15.1 points on an efficient 49% from the field and 41% from deep and leads the nation, averaging 9.0 assists per game. Fellow senior Trey Kaufman-Renn commands the paint on offense for Purdue, averaging 13.1 points while leading the team with 8.3 rebounds per game.
“[Braden Smith] is outstanding. Highest usage rate player in the country. When it’s not [Smith or Kaufman-Renn], it’s probably going to be [Fletcher], head coach Buzz Williams said. “When it’s [Fletcher] finishing, it’s going to be a three most of the time, 67%.”
Maryland’s offense has not found similar levels of consistency from any player on its roster. It has hindered the Terps’ ability to get open looks all season long and has led to many lengthy scoring droughts, allowing opponents to pull away.
In a season full of blowout losses, none were worse for Maryland (8-13, 1-9 Big Ten) than its 43-point loss on the road to No. 7 Michigan State in its previous game. The Spartans did whatever they wanted, and the Terps’ deficit only grew larger throughout the game, with no positive signs to point to.
Sunday’s matchup against No. 12 Purdue (17-4, 7-3 Big Ten) — a similar caliber team to the Spartans all season — was a tall task for a Maryland squad not favored to win a game the rest of the season. It ranked No. 9 in KenPom and No. 10 in the NET, but had its worst stretch of the season coming into Sunday.
After starting the season 17-1, the Boilermakers had dropped three consecutive games against UCLA, No. 9 Illinois and rival Indiana on the road. All three losses came by six points or fewer. For a Boilermakers team trying to get over the hump after years of coming up short, a struggling Maryland team seemed like the perfect opportunity for a “get-right game”.
Purdue dominated from the opening tip, as if it had something to prove, and led by as many as 32 points.
Like many games this season, Maryland had a significant size disadvantage. The trio of 6-foot-9 Kaufman-Renn, 6-foot-11 Oscar Cluff and 7-foot-4 Daniel Jacobsen completely outmatched the Terps on both sides of the floor.
But the Boilermakers particularly dominated on the glass, outrebounding the Terps 37-26 and easily gained positioning on Maryland’s smaller defenders for 22 points in the paint.
The biggest disparity came in the number of extra opportunities. Purdue scored 19 second-chance points on 11 offensive rebounds, along with 22 points off turnovers.
“[Purdue’s] volume of shots and our lack of volume of shots, partly from turnovers, partly from not accruing any offensive rebounds, that’s where we have to improve,” Williams said.
Maryland’s young backcourt of Andre Mills and Darius Adams was a huge bright spot despite the lopsided score. Mills led the Terps with a career-high 18 points on 5-of-10 from the field, six rebounds and three assists. Adams wasn’t far behind with 17 points on 6-of-13 and 2-of-4 from deep.
The duo nearly jacked up half of Maryland’s shots in the game.
“Our pace was better today,” Mills said. “The ball, for the most part, was moving. We got a better flow of our offense. And being specific me and [Adams] I think we’re better off the move and getting off curls and actions.”
The Terps home crowd was rowdy in support of the cancer awareness game. Fans and players embraced the pink-themed uniforms despite the team’s struggles this season.
Still, Maryland failed to look competitive against a Big Ten opponent and has little to look forward to in the final ten regular-season games.
