In 17 days, the Terrapins men’s basketball team will hear its name called on Selection Sunday, deemed one of 68 teams worthy of competing for the NCAA championship.
That shouldn’t come as a shock. The Terps aren’t the bumbling mess of a football program that plays its games a few buildings away, one that didn’t receive an invitation to a bowl game in 2015.
And these aren’t the Terps of 2013-14 who were denied entry into all three major postseason tournaments, the NCAA Tournament, National Invitation Tournament and College Basketball Invitational.
But Selection Sunday will still hold importance, as we’ll learn what seed the Terps earn. For months, pundits and fans have speculated about the No. 10 Terps’ position in the national landscape.
With back-to-back losses to Wisconsin and Minnesota over the past two weeks, though, the Terps have deservedly seen their stock tumble. While they were once tabbed a No. 1 seed by many outlets, The Washington Post’s Patrick Stevens said the Terps are now likely to be a No. 3, No. 4 or even a No. 5 seed.
Saturday, the Terps start a stretch that could prove the doubters wrong. It marks the first of the Terps’ final three regular-season games, two of which come against ranked squads on the road — No. 20 Purdue and No. 18 Indiana.
To be fair, garnering a high seed isn’t akin to receiving one of Willy Wonka’s Golden Tickets. There are no guarantees to success in March Madness. Recall No. 11-seed VCU reaching the Final Four in 2011. Or No. 10-seed Davidson, led by a young guard you may have heard of — Stephen Curry — qualifying for the Elite Eight in 2008. Or even No. 11-seed George Mason, which reached the Final Four in 2006.
But where the Terps end up seeded will be telling. Pair a strong showing in the final three regular-season games with a Big Ten tournament title, and we could be talking about a No. 1 or No. 2 seed. Get bounced in the first round of the conference tournament, and coach Mark Turgeon’s team will probably end up (God forbid) lower in the bracket than last year, when it was a No. 4 seed.
Are the Terps contenders or pretenders?
“In the first half, we were on a roll,” Turgeon said after his team’s 86-82 win over Michigan. “It was the first time in maybe four or five weeks we looked like the team that we were.”
Five weeks before Turgeon’s comments, the Terps were the No. 3 team in the country, fresh off a 100-65 lambasting of Ohio State on Jan. 16.
At that point, we started hearing murmurs that the best college basketball team in the country resided in College Park. And for good reason — the Terps were at their best against the Buckeyes, operating in concert on offense and defense.
It was a flawless display of basketball. It was Beethoven on hardwood.
Since then, things have been a bit different. No, the sky hasn’t fallen. But it’s come close.
A road loss to then-No. 11 Michigan State on Jan. 23 wasn’t disheartening, but a home loss to Wisconsin on Feb. 13 was. A 68-63 defeat at the hands of a Minnesota team that entered 0-13 in conference play was as close to a nightmare as one could have in college sports.
“I got to figure out a way to get us going again,” Turgeon said Feb. 18 after the game. “We’re not ourselves.”
The Terps began the season ranked No. 3, a nod to their uber-talented roster. But 28 games in, the Terps have indisputably underperformed. They are galaxies more talented than their No. 10 ranking and 23-5 record suggest.
In a college basketball season devoid of a true powerhouse, Turgeon has let a perfect opportunity to stand atop the country slip from his fingers, one surrendered offensive rebound and turnover at a time.
Traditional powerhouses of years past have fallen off a bit. Kentucky hasn’t played like Kentucky. Duke hasn’t played like Duke. The No. 1 ranking in the country has proven untenable, the slot changing hands faster than an Aroldis Chapman fastball. The loss to Minnesota assures the Terps won’t hold the No. 1 ranking in the country for the first time in program history. That’s off the table.
But maybe they learned something from the embarrassing loss. Maybe, as the shocked Golden Gophers fans stormed the court, the Terps learned something about themselves.
Maybe, as the cliche goes, they needed to taste failure to learn how to succeed.
Or maybe they aren’t as good as we thought they were.
