Story byEdward Lee, Baltimore SunThu, January 22, 2026 at 2:40 AM UTC·7 min readMaryland men’s basketball snapped back to reality. Three days after gifting Buzz Williams with his first victory in the Big Ten in the coach’s debut season with the team, the Terps were saddled with another conference setback, 89-70, against No. 11 Illinois on Wednesday night before an announced 15,201 at the State Farm Center in Champaign, Illinois. AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAny momentum Maryland earned from Sunday’s 96-73 win against Penn State at Xfinity Center in College Park dissipated in the first half against the Fighting Illini, who closed the stanza on a 25-4 run to turn a 26-22 deficit with 7:58 remaining into a 47-30 advantage at halftime. After that, the Terps reverted to their familiar refrain of struggling to find their shots on offense, playing the role of matador on defense, and failing to protect the ball to gain any semblance of rhythm on both ends of the court. Redshirt freshman shooting guard Andre Mills led Maryland (8-11, 1-7 Big Ten) with 16 points (all in the second half). Graduate student point guard David Coit amassed 15 points, five assists and two rebounds, and senior small forward Solomon Washington chipped in 13 points and 10 rebounds, but the Terps dropped their fifth game in their past six and eighth in the past 10. Junior shooting guard Andrej Stojakovic paced Illinois (16-3, 6-1) by scoring a game-high 30 points, grabbing nine rebounds, and blocking two shots.
