Big Ten Tournament 2016: Maryland basketball faces Nebraska Huskers in quarterfinal round

The Maryland men's basketball team starts its road at the Big Ten Tournament with a quarterfinal game against Nebraska on Friday night. Tipoff will be around 9 p.m. ET. It's the third game of the tournament for the Huskers, who have now beaten Rutgers and Wisconsin in the last two days. (See a full bracket here.)

It's the second meeting of the year between the Terps and Huskers. Maryland narrowly got past Nebraska in Lincoln on Feb. 3, despite struggling all night with turnovers. The Terps are 3-0 against the Huskers all time, with every game coming over the past two seasons. But none of the Terps' victories have been blowouts. Let's meet the Huskers:

The coach

Tim Miles is 62-66 in four seasons at Nebraska. He coached at Colorado State for five years previously.

Players to know

Andrew White, junior, guard, 6'7, No. 3. White is a star. He averages 17 points and 6 rebounds, and he comes by all of it with efficiency. He shoots 41 percent on three-pointers.

Shavon Shields, senior, forward, 6'7, No. 31. Shields missed time after a scary injury this winter, but he's back and doing well. He's been one of Nebraska's top two options on offense for a few years now, first behind Terran Petteway and now alongside  White. But he's good, and he drops in 16 points per game.

Tai Webster, junior, guard, 6'4, No. 0. Webster isn't a great shooter (just 33 percent on threes), but he chips in some steals and plays a solid all-around game. He had 18 points in the opening-round win against Rutgers.

Benny Parker, senior, guard, 5'9, No. 32. Parker moved into the Huskers' top-10 all-time steals list on Wednesday, and he could be frustrating for Maryland's Melo Trimble and Rasheed Sulaimon. He's tiny but fast and chips in 5 points, 2 rebounds and 2 assists per game.

Strengths

Avoiding turnovers. The Huskers give the ball away on 15 percent of their possessions in Big Ten games, which has been the second-best mark in the conference. They'll be hard to take the ball off of, and Maryland will have to defend out the string on nearly every possession.

Getting steals. Nobody forced them more frequently in Big Ten play than Nebraska, which steals the ball on better than 10 percent of opposing trips. It's not hard to see how this could be a problem for Maryland.

Weaknesses

Not getting to the line. The Huskers found the foul line less often than any other team in Big Ten play, going by free throws as a percentage of field goal attempts. The Terps have lost some games at the foul line this season, but that isn't likely to happen against the Huskers.

Defending the three-pointer. Big Ten teams have hit up Nebraska for a 39 percent three-point shooting rate this year, which really bites. There could be some space for Jake Layman and Jared Nickens beyond the arc.

Prediction

Nebraska is better than many of us might think. The Huskers' win against Wisconsin was legitimately impressive, and they also beat Michigan State in East Lansing earlier this year. So, the Terps could certainly lose.

But Maryland hasn't played since Sunday, while this will be Nebraska's third game in three days. With that in mind:

Maryland, 76-68.