Devastating injuries to their top players have been debilitating for Oregon and Maryland, as both have had uncharacteristic losing seasons.
When the 16th-seeded Ducks (12-19) meet the 17th-seeded Terrapins (11-20) in the opening round of the Big Ten tournament Tuesday in Chicago, it will be a matchup of teams that came into the year with higher expectations.
This has been Oregon’s worst season since 2008-09. Meanwhile, the last time Maryland lost this many games was in 1988-89.
These free falls came after both reached the NCAA Tournament in 2025, with Maryland advancing to the Sweet 16 and Oregon to the Round of 32.
Their seasons began to unravel with key injuries in December. 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 severe hand injury; he had broken the same hand in the preseason.
After Shelstad was reinjured, Oregon won at Maryland 64-54 on Jan. 2, with Takai Simpkins scoring 16 points and Nate Bittle adding 16 points and five blocks. After that, the Ducks lost 10 straight.
Oregon has adjusted to life without Shelstad, winning four of its last seven, including an 85-79 victory over Washington on Saturday as Kwame Evans Jr. scored the game’s final nine points over the last 11 seconds.
Dana Altman didn’t sound like a winning coach afterward as he bemoaned the Ducks’ recurring issues, which were evident as they blew an 18-point lead in the final 10 minutes.
“They haven’t picked up on things very well,” Altman said. “The connection of what we want and how we need to play, as a coach, you’re disappointed that they don’t understand what we’ve gotta do to win games.”
Maryland is a different team than the one Oregon first faced. The change is due to Andre Mills emerging as a scoring threat. Mills scored 30 points Sunday as Maryland stayed close to then-No. 11 Illinois before losing 78-72.
Mills averaged 19.3 points over the last 11 games for the Terrapins. In 12 games during December and January, he averaged 7.3 points. In the game against Oregon, Mills scored four points on 1-of-10 shooting.
“There’s been somewhat of a crescendo in how Dre’s played,” Maryland coach Buzz Williams said. “He’s working at understanding the game more and understanding where the help’s coming from.”
From a 4 p.m. (local) starting time on Tuesday, it will be a tight turnaround for the winner of the Oregon-Maryland game, who will advance to a Wednesday game at 11 a.m. against ninth-seeded Iowa.
–Field Level Media
