Maryland vs. Wisconsin: 2019-20 key storylines for Big Ten clash

Will either team be able to use the deep ball to their advantage?

Both teams have struggled from deep to start this year. For the Badgers, the 3-pointer was not expected to be quite as big a part of their game and so the struggles are less problematic. Wisconsin is currently shooting 33% from three which isn’t too significant of a drop off from the 35.9% they shot last season. For the Terrapins, however, the 3-point struggles came out of nowhere and are troubling. The Terps are currently shooting 30.6% from deep this year, a major drop off from the 34.9% they shot last year.

The Terps struggles have come with their best three point shooters struggling to hit open looks. Both Aaron Wiggins and Eric Ayala hit over 40% of their shots from three last season and both are shooting below 30% now. While they will likely regress to the mean, Coach Turgeon has to hope that will happen sooner rather than later. In their win against Ohio State, Maryland shot 44.4% from deep, showing signs of their true shooting ability. But then in their loss to Iowa, they dropped back down and shot that embarrassing 18.2%.

Wisconsin this year has not relied on the deep ball quite so much though that has hindered their ability to put up high point totals. The Badgers’ current leading shooter is Micah Potter, shooting an impressive 45.5% from deep, though only on 11 attempts. That too has some recency bias as Potter hit 4-6 from behind the line against Penn State. Aside from Potter, only one other Badger, Brevin Pritzel, is shooting over 34% from three. In a game with two teams struggling to shoot from deep this year, one team heating up could be a big difference maker.