As soon as the final buzzer sounded on Maryland men’s basketball’s 69-61 Big Ten tournament loss to Nebraska, the Terps were certain to be one of the most popular first-round upset picks in the NCAA tournament.

Maryland hasn’t won a postseason game since 2016 — the year it was the No. 3 team in the preseason poll, had an underwhelming conference tournament and lost in the Sweet 16.

Since then, it’s been two straight seasons of strong starts and sputtering finishes. In 2017, Northwestern and Xavier beat the Terps in consecutive tournaments. Last year, Maryland again dropped its first game of the Big Ten tournament, then missed the big dance altogether.

After last week’s lackluster display against the Cornhuskers, the Terps enter March Madness with one last chance to avoid the type of disastrous postseason that is increasingly defining coach Mark Turgeon’s tenure.

“It’s only been two seasons. We’ve still got this season to go,” Turgeon said. “You hate that you didn’t take care of that in Chicago to get everybody to quit talking about it, but we didn’t, so hopefully we do it Thursday.”

[Read more: In Maryland men’s basketball’s Big Ten tournament loss, Nebraska “wanted it more”]

Maryland laid an egg against Nebraska, with shooting droughts combining with uncharacteristically poor rebounding and defensive miscues to create one of the team’s worst losses in recent memory. Even in an elimination game, multiple Terps admitted their intensity wasn’t high enough against the seven-man Huskers squad.

Guard Eric Ayala distanced that result from Maryland’s youth, although the team is the fourth-youngest in the country, relying on five freshmen contributors and one upperclassmen starter. Nobody on the roster has played in a postseason win.

But Ayala also said the team had looked past No. 13-seed Nebraska.

Maryland can’t afford a similar lackadaisical approach on Thursday against Belmont, an at-large team from the Ohio Valley Conference that ranks second in the nation in scoring and toppled Temple in Tuesday’s play-in game.

“We cannot look past Belmont,” Ayala said. “We kind of did that a little bit with Nebraska knowing they were down a couple guys, and that came back to bite us.”

[Read more: Nebraska harassed Bruno Fernando into one of the worst games of his Maryland basketball career]

Turgeon’s postseason history has long been a sticking point for aggrieved fans. They claim that his 8-8 career record in the NCAA tournament, which doesn’t include any trips past the Sweet 16, isn’t befitting of a program with Maryland’s legacy.

The early exit from the Big Ten tournament stoked the flames once more after a mostly successful regular season.

It may have prompted Ayala’s strong support of Turgeon postgame, offering a similar defense as the one forward Kevin Huerter shared after last season. Turgeon isn’t the one missing shots, they say.

He’s used to the criticism, however.

“It’s crazy how quickly things can change for the better or for the worse because of this time of year,” Turgeon said. “You wish there wasn’t so much put on this tournament, to be quite honest with you, at times.”

The eighth-year coach acknowledged Tuesday his team would need a positive mentality against Belmont, and peaking at the right time is a necessity for NCAA tournament success.

But after a 16-3 start to the season, Maryland stumbled to a 6-7 close, with defeats against top-10 Michigan and Michigan State squads intermixed with an ugly 17-point loss against Penn State. Late-season collapses have often been a characteristic of Turgeon’s teams.

And last week’s loss to Nebraska further punctuated a worrying trend of postseason losses with the potential to extend into a third straight year. But Turgeon and Co. say they aren’t paying it any mind — even though everybody else is.

“That’s the last of our worries. Trust me,” Turgeon said. “It’s a new team. It’s a new year. We’re talented. And we’re excited.”