Maryland is currently in just its second season as a member of the Big Ten, but the Terrapins already look like they’re destined to become Wisconsin’s newest rival.
Wisconsin and Maryland have only squared off 10 times in their history, including thrice since the Terrapins joined the conference, but their meetings over the past two years suggest that some bad blood could be brewing between the two programs (or at the very least, their fan bases).
The first matchup between UW and the Terrapins as Big Ten brethren came last February, when Frank Kaminsky and the Badgers made the trip out to College Park in their only meeting of the season.
Entering the game, Wisconsin was 13-1 in conference play, ranked fifth in the country and on a 10-game winning streak. With a win, the Badgers would’ve clinched at least a share of the Big Ten regular-season title.
But the 14th-ranked Terrapins rose to the occasion, getting 26 points from Dez Wells and another 16 courtesy of Melo Trimble to pull off the upset. Wisconsin was able to erase an 11-point halftime deficit and nearly complete the comeback win, but Maryland held on for the 59-53 victory, causing the Xfinity Center crowd to storm the court in celebration of the Terrapins’ biggest win of their inaugural Big Ten campaign.
Though the court storming upset some Wisconsin fans and Bo Ryan Kanye’d Mark Turgeon’s postgame press conference, that game alone wasn’t nearly enough to cause any real friction between the two fan bases. The real seeds of a potential rivalry were planted over a month later, when Maryland lured prized recruit Diamond Stone away from Wisconsin.
Stone, a Milwaukee native, was heavily recruited by the Badgers in the hope that he could help fill the void left by Kaminsky and others and keep Wisconsin as one of the country’s top teams. Instead, Stone shocked the state and took his talents eastward, drawing the ire of some fans that get upset with 18-year-olds when they make one of the decisions of their lives and it doesn’t benefit them.
As expected, Stone was met with a smattering of boos from the Wisconsin faithful when he returned to the Kohl Center back in January. The ever-classy UW student section showered him with chants of “You can’t read,” during the game, referencing Stone’s alleged difficulties in getting accepted to the university.
But Stone and his teammates would get the last laugh that Saturday afternoon, as Melo Trimble buried a deep 3-pointer with 1.2 seconds remaining to give the Terrapins a 63-60 victory.
That loss came right around Wisconsin’s lowest point of the season, when it was a Big Ten afterthought and seemed destined for the NIT. Of course, the Badgers would go on to rattle off six straight wins and force themselves back into the NCAA Tournament picture, setting the stage for last Saturday’s showdown in College Park.
Coming into the game, Maryland had won 27 straight home games and had yet to lose a conference game at the Xfinity Center since joining the Big Ten. It was a daunting task for a Wisconsin team that was in desperate need of another marquee win for its résumé, but the Badgers rose to the occasion.
Behind a career-high 21 points from Vitto Brown, Wisconsin knocked off No. 2 Maryland 70-57 in a dominating effort that kept the home crowd silenced for most of the night. But while the Badgers’ shocking upset victory should’ve been the main story, it was overshadowed to at least a certain extent by an incident involving Stone toward the end of the first half.
With Wisconsin holding a sizable lead heading into halftime, Stone released his frustrations by shoving Brown’s head into the floor after the two went to the ground fighting for the ball. Charlie Thomas got in Stone’s face and a spirited kerfuffle briefly broke out between the two teams.
Though it looked like Stone would be ejected upon review, the officials instead hit both he and Thomas with technical fouls, allowing Stone to stay in the game and sparking social media outrage.
Maryland later suspended Stone one game for the incident and he called Brown to apologize, but the incident is one that will stay in the minds of Wisconsin fans for the remainder of Stone’s collegiate career. UW players and coaches have mostly brushed off the incident as water under the bridge, but fans will certainly be far less forgiving.
Both programs set up for long-term success and as a result, it’s a pretty safe assumption that each of their meetings will continue to have plenty on the line for the foreseeable future.
There’s certainly not a geographic or historical element to it the series between these two teams, but we’ve already seen a buzzer beater, a major upset, a court storming and a high-profile recruiting battle during Maryland’s brief run as a Big Ten member.
It’s an unlikely pairing, but Diamond Stone’s decision to go to Maryland and the controversial incident involving him last Saturday just may be the driving force behind the Big Ten’s newest rivalry.
