The 2018-19 college basketball season came to an end last night, but rankings for the 2019-20 season have already surfaced and Maryland basketball has appeared towards the top of several lists.

After Jalen Smith’s announcement of his return to College Park for his sophomore season, most people are predicting that the Terps will lose one big piece, center Bruno Fernando.

It’s not surprising that Fernando would be the player to go. Fernando declared for the NBA Draft last year without an agent to test the waters at the NBA Draft Combine in Chicago and decided to come back for his sophomore year to work on refining his game for the next level.

Even though Fernando hasn’t come out with a decision one way or another yet, expectations for the Terps next year without him are very high.

Here are what a few different publications are saying about next year, which the Maryland basketball Twitter account was nice enough to make a little graphic for all of us.

Along with these four, Sports Illustrated has the Terps at 11, USA Today has them at 14 and SB Nation has them at 17.

After Maryland’s successful season this year, winning a NCAA Tournament game for the first time since 2016 and coming a few seconds short of the Sweet 16, this should create a sense of optimism much like what happened in 2016, when the Terps came into the season ranked No. 2 in the nation.