Maryland and Oregon play the first game of the Big Ten conference tournament at the United Center in Chicago. These are two of the bottom three teams in the conference, with Oregon winning five conference games and Maryland only four games. Oregon covered only 12 games on the year, and Maryland 14. Oregon has won the last two meetings over the last two seasons. Maryland's highlight over the last month was winning at Minnesota, beating Iowa and Washington while covering six of their last nine games. Neither team shoots very well. I'm going to take the points. Maryland to cover.

Maryland redshirt freshman Andre Mills has scored 119 points over the past six games, giving the Terps some late-season hope. They remain terrible defensively, but the depleted Ducks shouldn’t be laying this many points at a neutral site. Look for a tight game if not an outright upset.

It's been a rough last few days of picks after a hot streak last week, so time to turn things around. Oregon's Dana Altman is a fantastic tournament coach - I saw it firsthand in Las Vegas more than a few times for the Pac-12 Tournament. His team has stunk this season but has covered in 4 of their last 5 games, while Maryland has lost their last four games outright. The Ducks won by 10 in this matchup on the road in January and I expect at least a 5+ point victory in Chicago on Tuesday.