Following Maryland’s 1-1 finish last week and ahead of its final two regular season games of the 2024-25 season, Maryland men’s basketball remains inside the top-20 in the updated AP poll.
Maryland climbed three spots to 13th overall in the updated AP poll, the highest the program has been ranked since week seven of the 2022-23 season. Maryland also moved up one spot to 14th in the updated coaches poll after Michigan dropped two spots to 16th overall. Maryland also drew 341 points, 24 points fewer than 13th-ranked Louisville
Despite splitting last week’s games, Maryland remains a consensus top-20 team across the metrics including the NET (12), KenPom (14), EvanMiya (14), ESPN’s BPI (14th) and Torvik (16th).
Heading into Monday, Maryland sits in a three-way tie with Wisconsin and Purdue in the Big Ten standings, though Purdue holds the tiebreaker over both teams while Maryland’s Jan. 29 win against the Badgers gives them the tiebreaker, placing Purdue third and Maryland fourth. With a chance to still secure a double-bye, all eyes are on Wednesday’s top-25 matchup vs. Michigan, who is coming off a 20-point home loss vs. Illinois.
Maryland will need a win in Wednesday’s game to preserve their chances at a double-bye, while a win could vault the Terps to as high as second to give them the tie-breaker over Michigan and Wisconsin. If Maryland wins out, their round-robin record against Purdue, Michigan and Wisconsin would vault them to second in the Big Ten – their highest finish since drawing a share of the Big Ten regular season title in 2019-20.
ESPN made the case for three teams – Maryland, Michigan and Michigan State – to win the Big Ten Tournament with Jeff Borzello taking a stab at the Terps.
“Entering March, there were only five teams ranked in the top 20 at KenPom in offensive and defensive efficiency -- and four of them are who you'd think. But the fifth, and the only one from the Big Ten, is Maryland. The Terps don't have much depth, but their starting five has a terrific point guard in Ja'Kobi Gillespie, two high-level bigs in Derik Queen and Julian Reese and two wings playing their best basketball in Rodney Rice and Selton Miguel. Their seven losses have come by an average of 3.9 points, so they need to learn how to win close games. Why not start now?”
Tipoff between Maryland and Michigan is set for 6:30 PM on Wednesday before Northwestern comes to College Park on Saturday, March 8 for Senior Day.
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