The discussion around Maryland men’s basketball began to grow grim in recent weeks. The Terps lost three of their first five games to start the calendar year and entered last Sunday’s clash with Nebraska below .500 in the Big Ten.

Some bracketologists started to view Maryland as a “bubble” team in the NCAA tournament picture — teetering on the edge of the field and close to falling out entirely.

But after a three-game winning streak against the Cornhuskers, then-No. 17 Illinois and Indiana, the complexion of Maryland’s season has completely changed. The Terps earned their first two road wins of the season — one that marked just the second ranked road victory of coach Kevin Willard’s tenure — and put themselves firmly back in the national conversation.

“It’s momentum at the end of the day,” sophomore guard Rodney Rice said. “We just got to keep it going.”

The biggest knocks on the Terps’ resume before the week were their road woes and lack of a signature win. They lost their first four road bouts of the season, including a defeat to a Washington team that’s lost all of its eight other conference contests.

[Maryland men’s basketball tops Indiana, 79-78, behind late 3-pointer from Rodney Rice]

The Illinois win checked both of these boxes, while Sunday’s one-point victory over Indiana gave Maryland another quality road victory against a formidable opponent. The Terps won these games in different ways, though — they dominated the paint versus the Illini, while the guards starred against the Hoosiers.

Maryland hasn’t seen much road success in recent seasons. The last time it won consecutive games on the road before this stretch was during the 2019-20 season.

The team also secured its first three-game Big Ten winning streak since the 2022-23 season, which was Willard’s first season in College Park.

“I think we’ve been on a really good learning process this whole year,” Willard said. “Whenever you have a new team and you play road games in this league, you’re going to lose games. And we lost them by three, at the buzzer, four … my message the last two weeks is, let’s just keep getting better and learn how to win on the road.”

[Derik Queen broke through self-admitted freshman slump in Maryland’s biggest win]

Despite the up-and-down nature of Maryland’s past month, it sits at 6-4 halfway through conference play with a reasonable chance at a double bye in the Big Ten tournament. The Terps are tied for fifth in the Big Ten and are favored to win eight of their 10 remaining games, according to KenPom, which would give them a 14-6 conference record.

There was never a question about the Terps’ talent level. Five-star freshman center Derik Queen heads a group that assistant coach Greg Manning Jr. called their most talented one since 2020 — when they claimed a share of the Big Ten regular season title.

It took longer than expected for the pieces to come together, but with Maryland’s starting lineup clicking on all cylinders, it’s no surprise that wins are coming.

“It could be anybody’s night in the whole starting five,” junior guard Ja’Kobi Gillespie said. “We all can go get 20, 30 [points]. So I mean, we’re really unselfish and just like to see each other hoop.”