After Maryland men’s basketball managed just 70 points against Illinois, the Terps’ 96-point scoring burst against Penn State seems all but confirmed to be an anomaly.
Maryland has struggled to find any sort of consistency in its scoring. Diggy Coit scored 15, but his touch was off — he went 1-of-8 from deep. Andre Mills led the Terps with 16 points, a figure he hadn’t hit since playing Alcorn State.
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The Terps desperately need to figure out how to score points. Their next opponents, No. 11 Michigan State, give up fewer points than anyone else in the country. Thus is life for the Terps in their first year under head coach Buzz Williams.
Maryland will take on the Spartans at noon Saturday, with the game set to air on CBS.
No. 10 Michigan State Spartans (17-2, 7-1 Big Ten)
2024-25 record: 30-7, 17-3 Big Ten
Head coach Tom Izzo was the last person to bring a national title to the Big Ten, when he brought the Spartans to the promised land in 2000. A quarter century later, Izzo persists. And in what looks to be the Big Ten’s best chance to win another title in quite some time, he has the Spartans again looking like a top contender.
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That wasn’t expected ahead of this season, though. Michigan State lost three of its top four guards from the 2024-25 season and six impactful minute-getters overall. Their highly-touted transfer, forward Kaleb Glenn, tore his patellar tendon in June and is out for the year.
Under Izzo’s veteran leadership, Michigan State has rallied the troops and gone on a tear. The team’s only losses have come to No. 5 Duke and No. 7 Nebraska by a combined eight points, and they already have three ranked wins. They look set to prolong Maryland’s barren run in East Lansing, where the Terps have only won once in the last decade.
Players to watch
Jaxon Kohler, senior forward, 6-foot-10, No. 0 — Kohler has averaged just under a double-double fairly quietly — about as quietly as one can possibly almost average a double-double. His 13.3 points per game and 9.6 assists per game lead the Spartans in each statistic, and he has also taken a step forward defensively to cement his must-start status.
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Another mobile big, Kohler works well in the post, but like Maryland’s Elijah Saunders, the best place for Kohler is beyond the arc. He makes 46.5% of his 3-point tries, the eighth-best rate in the Big Ten.
Jeremy Fears Jr., redshirt sophomore guard, 6-foot-2, No. 1 — Michigan State teams don’t always find offensive rhythm, but this team is playing in tune, and Fears is the masterful conductor. He has a staggering 160 assists this season orchestrating this offense — second only to Purdue’s Braden Smith nationally.
Fears is multidimensional, though, living up to his name in opponents’ eyes. He creates at an All-American level while also averaging 13.2 points per game on 43.5% shooting from the field and 89% shooting from the stripe. And his 24 steals lead the team and underline his influence defensively.
Koen Carr, junior forward, 6-foot-6, No. 55 — Last season, Carr came off the bench in all but one game for Michigan State as a dynamic sixth man capable of highlight-reel acrobatics and solid scoring. However, he was forced at times to play more of a pivot role — now, a true center in the middle has allowed him to find pockets of space where he can be his best, explosive self.
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Carr averages 11.2 points and 5.2 assists per game, but his biggest contribution might be keeping Maryland players looking over their shoulders in the hopes of not being his next poster victim.
Strength
Defense. The calling card of a Tom Izzo team is its lockdown defense, and this season’s Spartans are no exception. According to KenPom, Michigan State has the highest defensive rating among Division I schools, allowing just 89.9 points per 100 possessions. Leading up to the game against Maryland, six consecutive opponents have failed to cross the 67-point threshold.
Weakness
Reliable scoring depth. The Spartans are heavily reliant on their top four scorers — Fears, Carr, Kohler and center Carson Cooper — to get things done offensively. Those four have also started every game this season.
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The rotating ensemble that fills the fifth starting spot — Kur Teng, Divine Ugochukwu and Trey Fort — comprises three players who have each gone off for 14 or more points. However, none of them average more than 7.5 points a game. If none of them find their touch, Michigan State could find itself in trouble.
Three things to watch
1. Gotta get the free throws back. Against Illinois, Maryland had its worst performance of the season from the charity stripe, going just 8-of-16 on free throws. But that mirrors an ongoing trend — three of the last five games have featured Maryland’s worst, second-worst and fourth-worst free-throw shooting nights. The Terps cannot afford a continued slump there.
2. The mysterious case of George Turkson. The redshirt freshman forward has started each of the last two games for Maryland, but he has played just ten combined minutes. Against Illinois, he played the first 3:26 of the game, committed a foul, got subbed out and did not return. It’s clear Williams appreciates his ability on tipoff and not much else; don’t be surprised to see him make another brief cameo on the court against Michigan State.
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3. Moral victories? The Terps more or less know their fate for the remainder of their season. It’s incredibly unlikely they will be able to pull off an upset against ranked foes like Illinois or Michigan State. However, the team continued to seemingly give everything they had against the Illini, even with the result secured at halftime. A resilient mentality is a necessity for the Terps (and their fans) through the last dozen games of the season.
