Maryland Basketball: Terps Still Have Chance To Bolster NCAA Tournament Résumé

Games between the Maryland Terrapins and Duke Blue Devils are important no matter what the circumstances. For the Terps, Wednesday night’s showdown had an added level of importance because of the team’s dearth of quality wins on its NCAA Tournament résumé with the regular season winding down.

Maryland has had plenty of chances to add to their NCAA Tournament résumé, but have fallen short time after time. History was repeated Wednesday, as the Terps fell to Duke, 80-62. While the Terps may have played their last game against a top-10 team, they still have plenty of chances to notch good victories.

Take a look at the remaining schedule:

• Wake (RPI: 239)
• Longwood (RPI: 321)
• @BC (RPI: 43)
• @Virginia Tech (RPI: 65)
• NC State (RPI: 109)
• Florida St. (RPI: 58)
• @UNC (RPI: 13)
• @Miami (RPI: 71)
• Virginia (RPI: 138)

That’s five games against top-100 opponents—four of which are on the road. The problem is, without a marquee win, Maryland must win at least three of those four and not falter against the weaker opponents.

Kenpom.com has Maryland winning seven of their last nine, with the only losses coming at the hands of North Carolina and Virginia Tech. That would put Maryland at 21-10 overall and 10-6 in the ACC going into the ACC tournament; in any other year, that résumé would get Maryland in the tournament with a five- or six-seed in the tournament. Unfortunately, it’s not any other year.

At this point in the season, Maryland has three quality wins, and the Maine win is looking better and better as the Bears look primed to reach the NCAA Tournament for the first time in program history. So the Terps will have an opportunity to stretch that number to seven or eight plus what they do in the ACC tournament before the selection committee convenes on March 13.

The question is, which does the committee value more: one or two great wins or five or six good wins? Hopefully, for Maryland’s sake, it’s the latter.