With the entirety of Maryland’s student section chanting “you suck,” toward the visiting Northwestern bench, coach Chris Collins found himself smiling. Being on the wrong side of Terps fans hurling good-natured barbs, he said, “felt like old school Cole Fieldhouse.”

The energy is palpable around No. 13 Maryland. Collins knows what that’s like.

He saw the Terps twice a year as a player at Duke in the late 1990s. He returned to his alma mater on Mike Krzyzewski’s staff, adding to his resume of big games in College Park. Then he took the head job at Northwestern in 2013, a year before Maryland joined the Big Ten.

“I’ve been in a lot of big games in this building in my life,” Collins said after his Wildcats fell to the Terps, 74-61. “And it’s really cool when the atmosphere is like that here because of the tradition of this program and what’s been built and what [coach Kevin Willard’s] doing now.”

When Northwestern played at Maryland this time last year, Collins remembers “no one was in here.” Saturday, he felt the buzz.

Maryland wraps its season having won its most games at home (17) in a decade en route to clinching a top-three seed in the conference. The Terps are No. 12 in NET rankings and have aspirations of playing in late March and even early April.

“Kevin is a great friend,” Collins said. “I’m really proud of him, what he’s doing with this team. They’re having a heck of a year.”Up next, Big Ten tournament: Whew, that flew by. Maryland’s regular season ended Saturday, meaning next week the games will begin to mean a little more.

The Big Ten Conference tournament opens play Wednesday at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. Maryland won’t play until Friday, having locked up a double-bye to the quarterfinals. With Saturday’s win, No. 12 Wisconsin’s loss and No. 8 Michigan State beating No. 17 Michigan, Maryland secured the No. 2 seed based on head-to-head tiebreakers over the Wolverines and Badgers.

Trouble with the bye: When it was mentioned to Willard that his group has struggled in games coming off more than a couple of days rest, he sighed. After wrapping up the regular season with a celebratory senior day and gritty home win, it was the last thing Maryland’s coach wanted to think about.

“I was gonna go have a beer, now I’m gonna switch to whiskey,” he joked.

The Terps had a four-day break before losing to Marquette, then again before falling to Purdue. They beat Syracuse in Brooklyn, bested Maryland Eastern Shore at home, then had a five-day break before back-to-back West Coast losses (Washington and Oregon). Eight days split a win against Wisconsin and a narrow loss at Ohio State.

And there were six days between a win over Southern California and a buzzer-beater loss to Michigan State.

“We have not been good coming off byes,” Willard said.

Maryland will have a six-day break before playing in the Big Ten Tournament. Willard is giving his guys two days off, but it won’t be a full two.

When asked about their poor record managing a break in action, fifth-year senior Jordan Geronimo said, “we’re aware of it” and they will “plan accordingly.”

Queen’s College Park curtain call?: Back in December, at the start of Maryland’s Big Ten schedule, Willard sat behind a microphone and gave his fan base a piece of advice. His message was simple: Get used to watching five-star center Derik Queen because, “in my opinion, I don’t think he’s gonna be here next year.”

Few college basketball coaches are so forward about freshmen.

But this freshman is averaging 15.9 points and 9.1 rebounds. The Baltimore native is one of five finalists for the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Center of the Year Award, thus some NBA mock drafts project him as a lottery pick this summer. Willard has said that he’s careful to not put too much pressure on the 6-foot-10, 246-pound Queen, but the way his freshman season has unfolded, it’s likely that he’s promoted to the pro circuit in the fall.

That would mean Saturday’s win was his last game in front of a raucous crowd of Terps fans (unless the Wizards finagle some draft day magic).

He was his usual aggressive and crafty self in the win. Queen finished with 10 points and 10 boards en route to his 13th double-double in a game rightfully overshadowed by his front-court partner’s senior day.

Queen has the third most points by a freshman in Maryland history (488), trailing Joe Smith (582, 1993-94) and Melo Trimble (568, 2014-15). He’s also fourth among rookies in rebounds (284).

So heed Willard’s advice, because his college career could feasibly be over in a few weeks.

Have a news tip? Contact Sam Cohn at scohn@baltsun.com, 410-332-6200 and x.com/samdcohn.