This should be the hardest week of Maryland basketball’s season

Maryland basketball snapped a two-game losing streak with its win over Ohio State, but now that’s prologue. The Terps go on the road to play Northwestern on Wednesday and No. 7 Wisconsin on Sunday, the toughest back-to-back on their schedule.

Northwestern is having possibly its best season in program history, and just beat Wisconsin on Sunday. The Badgers are the Big Ten’s highest-ranked team, and KenPom’s rankings have them one spot behind Purdue at No. 12.

Following this week, Maryland concludes its season with a relatively favorable schedule. Out of the team’s remaining games against Minnesota, Iowa, Rutgers and Michigan State, Rutgers is the only team Maryland plays away from Xfinity Center. If Mark Turgeon’s group is going to get a win over a top-25 team this season, it’ll have to come this week.

Just look at the Big Ten standings:

A sweep would catapult Maryland to the top of the Big Ten, but it’s a tall order. KenPom gives Maryland a 35 percent chance to beat Northwestern and a 20 percent chance to beat Wisconsin.

Getting swept would mean Maryland’s lost four of five games. That’s likely to cause some panic, even if Penn State’s really the only team Maryland should be beating out of those four. The Terps would still need to fall apart down the stretch to fall out of the NCAA Tournament completely.

Winning at Wisconsin would give Maryland the marquee win it’s looking for. A win at Northwestern wouldn’t have quite the same magnitude, but would possibly be the Terps’ best conference victory.

We’ll have plenty of coverage of the team this week, so stay tuned.

In other news

Maryland men’s basketball beat Ohio State. Late three-pointers from Kevin Huerter and Anthony Cowan kept the Terps in it, as did a whole lot of bench contributions.

Here’s our photo gallery from the Terps’ win.

Maryland women’s basketball beat Michigan State by * only * 17 points.

Maryland women’s and men’s lacrosse each won their season openers.

Maryland softball got swept in five games at the Texas Invitational.