After a rocky regular season impacted by injuries and illness, Illinois got off to a hot start in the postseason, rolling to a 106-94 win over Iowa on Thursday night in Indianapolis. Brad Underwood’s Fighting Illini had a balanced offensive before against the Hawkeyes with all five starters scoring in double figures and three players, Will Riley, Tre White, and Kylan Boswell with 20-point outings. However, points may not come so easy in the Big Ten quarterfinals where No. 2 seed Maryland awaits on Friday evening. 

The Terrapins got to watch and wait for the first two rounds of the conference tourney, courtesy of a 14-6 conference record, second best to regular season champ Michigan State. Kevin Willard has orchestrated an impressive second-year turnaround in College Park behind Big Ten Freshman of the Year, Derik Queen.

. Now, Queen will get his first big postseason test. 

Here’s how you can watch this Big Ten Tournament contest on Friday night with a spot in the conference semifinals on the line. 

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While Maryland’s strength lies on the defensive end of the floor with Queen and Julian Reese acting as deterrents on the interior and Illinois is a gifted offensive team led by efficient scorers Kasparas Jakucionis and Tomislav Ivisic, these teams have one thing in common: pace. Both Kevin Willard and Brad Underwood coach up-tempo styles with both teams comfortably in the upper quartile of the country by any pace or tempo metrics. 

This game is likely to turn into a track meet, which could favor the Terps for two reasons. First, Maryland spent Thursday resting and watching while the Fighting Illini were in a shootout with Iowa. And second, because despite pushing the pace so often, Illinois is a more efficient offensive team when it plays in the half-court. Only 11.2% of Illinois’s field goal attempts come in transition, and Underwood’s group shoots just 54.5% on those attempts (39th percentile by CBBanalytics.com). That is quite unfavorable compared both to Illinois’s 59th-percentile field goal percentage on half-court possessions and to Maryland’s 62.3% shooting in transition. 

It may be in Illinois’s best interest to slow this game down, but that’s just not in the team’s nature, so expect a high-scoring affair and the Terps to outlast the Illini in the Big Ten quarterfinals on Friday night.