Big Ten Basketball: Illinois rises, Iowa falls in latest power rankings

Who knows how difficult the environment was for head coach Mark Turgeon but between him and the fan base, it clearly became untenable. He left the team a month ago and had an underwhelming start, despite being ranked at the start of the season.

Part of the reason why the Terrapins had optimistic views was due to incoming transfers, Fatts Russell and Qudus Wahab. But all in all, both of them have been “okay”, more than great, to this point. And considering that leading scorer Eric Ayala (13.7 ppg) and forward Donta Scott have both regressed compared to last season, that gives you a recipe for an average overall team.

The lack of depth outside of Hakim Hart playing well also compounds problems. Maryland has a solid starting lineup that’ll keep them competitive in games but they’re also vulnerable to many teams as well, noted by the home loss to Northwestern earlier in the month in interim head coach Danny Manning’s first game.

The Terrapins have played a relatively hard schedule but unless Ayala and Scott start playing better, they can definitely lose 10+ games in Big Ten Basketball play. The talent is there but losing your head coach early on is not a sign that positive things will happen going forward.