Maryland men’s basketball to host USC and UCLA in 2024-25 Big Ten schedule
Maryland men’s basketball will play two Big Ten road games on the West Coast and host a pair of conference newcomers during the 2024-25 season.
The Big Ten released its breakdown of conference opponents for its 18 schools Wednesday. Each of the 18 teams will have 20 conference games, playing three schools home and away and the other 14 once. Game dates will be announced later.
Maryland will play a home-and-home series with Nebraska, Northwestern and Ohio State while facing Iowa, Minnesota, Michigan State, Rutgers, Wisconsin and Big Ten newcomers UCLA and USC at home only. The road slate will include Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Penn State, Purdue and conference newcomers Oregon and Washington.
Six Big Ten teams appear in CBS Sports’ latest Top 25 rankings, led by No. 12 Purdue, No. 15 Ohio State, No. 18 Indiana, No. 21 UCLA, No. 23 Rutgers and No. 25 Michigan State. Maryland, which is No. 21 in ESPN’s early rankings and a projected No. 8 seed in ESPN’s early bracketology, beat UCLA, 69-60, on the road last season but fell to the then-No. 16 Bruins, 87-60, in College Park in December 2022. The Terps have never played Oregon or Washington and last met the Trojans in 1990.
The game against USC could have been a homecoming for coach Andy Enfield, who played shooting guard at Johns Hopkins and went to Maryland for graduate school, but he left the Trojans to take over at SMU and was replaced by former Arkansas coach Eric Musselman. Bronny James, the son of NBA superstar LeBron James, played his freshman season at USC but recently announced that he’s declaring for the NBA draft and entering the transfer portal.
Maryland finished a disappointing 16-17 overall and 7-13 in conference play last season, losing to Wisconsin in the second round of the Big Ten Tournament and failing to make the NCAA Tournament for the second time in three seasons. But after coach Kevin Willard vowed to retool the roster, the Terps brought in transfers Ja’Kobi Gillespie (Belmont), Selton Miguel (South Florida), Rodney Rice (Virginia Tech) and Tafara Gapare (Georgia Tech) to complement rising senior Julian Reese, rising sophomore DeShawn Harris-Smith and fifth-year senior Jordan Geronimo.
Maryland also signed five-star prospect and McDonald’s All American center Derik Queen, a Baltimore native who played at St. Frances before transferring to Montverde Academy in Florida, as well as four-star guard Malachi Palmer.
Maryland men’s basketball 2024-25 conference opponents
Home: Iowa, Michigan State, Minnesota, Rutgers, UCLA, USC, Wisconsin
Away: Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Oregon, Penn State, Purdue, Washington
Home/Away: Nebraska, Northwestern, Ohio State