It remains to be seen if Maryland basketball’s hot start will land it a spot in the AP Poll next week. That could depend on how the Terps fare Sunday at No. 8 Purdue. But they did land in one set of college basketball rankings.
Maryland is No. 2 in CBSSports’ new power rankings, released Thursday. If that sounds insane for a team that hasn’t even been in the national top 25, there’s a reason: these aren’t like other rankings. They’re based strictly on recent results. I’ll let CBSSports’ Kyle Boone explain:
Power Rankings definition: Ranking teams with an emphasis on recent performance based on their level of competition. These are heavily unscientific in nature and can be distilled down to a “vibes” ranking — with things like margin of victory, injuries, performance vs. top competition, momentum and other sometimes subjective factors weighing into the equation. The power rankings can be thought of in a weekly setting as a reaction — or sometimes even an overreaction — to the small sample of the week that was.
Maryland has won five games in a row after its lone loss to Marquette, four of them by at least 24 points. They’ve steadily risen to No. 19 on KenPom. The huge jump comes on the heels of a thrashing of Ohio State on Wednesday, which wasn’t as close at the 83-59 final. The Terps led 50-17 at halftime, the largest halftime lead in any Big Ten game since 1996-1997, prompting coach Kevin Willard to make a surprise declaration about freshman star Derik Queen.
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Via Boone: “Maryland, the No. 2 team in scoring margin ahead of Tennessee, also gets a big bump up to No. 2 in this week’s Power Rankings after being unranked a week ago. A loss in mid-November to Marquette at home cost it some early-season style points, but the Terrapins have rallied the last few weeks culminating with a stunning 83-59 smackdown of Ohio State on Wednesday night. At one point in the second half, they led by 40 points before Kevin Willard’s club called off the dogs and cruised to a 24-point win.”
If Maryland enters the AP Poll, it would end a drought for a program that hasn’t been in the AP Poll since February of 2023. Last year was a struggle from the start, so they never sniffed the poll. The previous season, they climbed as high as No. 13 thanks to an 8-0 start in Willard’s first year, but they fell out in December and that February appearance was the only one time they were ranked thereafter.
Boone wrote: “Vibes are very high in College Park right now for the Terps after thoroughly dismantling an Ohio State team on Wednesday that has the makings of an NCAA Tournament team. They’ve aced several tests this season already and are winning with an elite defense and a top-three freshman in Derik Queen.”
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