Maryland women’s basketball climbed one spot to tenth overall in Monday’s updated AP poll, becoming the second-highest ranked team in the Big Ten behind UCLA. Head coach Brenda Frese watched her squad take down Towson and St. Francis by 107 combined points, one week after defeating Duke at home and Syracuse on the road. Maryland will take on George Mason on Saturday then Toledo on Sunday in the Navy Classic with its Big Ten opener at Purdue on Dec. 7 looming.
The men, meanwhile, drew four points and unofficially rank 46th nationally. Purdue (13), Indiana (14) and Wisconsin (15) were the lone Big Ten teams included in the updated rankings, while the Terps were one of eight Big Ten teams to draw at least one point. Marquette, the lone team to beat Maryland so far this season, climbed five spots to tenth overall after taking down Purdue and Georgia last week.
Maryland men’s basketball picked up its first win outside of the Xfinity Center after mounting a second-half comeback vs. Villanova in a 76-75 win, Kevin Willard’s first win against the Wildcats as Maryland’s head coach and seventh all-time.
“Sometimes it's a little keep it simple and just play a little bit more physical,” head coach Kevin Willard said postgame. “And I thought we wore him down a little bit. I thought the top of the press did a really good job of kind of getting them. Again, we were able to score when we can score consecutive possessions, our defense is really good. And again, the first half, we didn't really – we struggled to score. We turned it over nine times. That's not where our defense is built. That's where we struggled.”
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