At the start of the 2015-16 college basketball season, 351 Division I men’s basketball teams had hopes of winning a national title. Some, of course, had dreams that were far more realistic than others. But still, back in November, there were 32 conferences worth of late-teens and early 20-somethings who all shared a common goal — one that involved a pair of scissors and a ladder.
Today, however, only 16 schools are still relevant. That’s less than 5 percent of the original group. And, of those 16, one of them resides right here in College Park.
With that in mind, can we — maybe, perhaps, just for a moment — set aside all the talk of underachieving, unsatisfied expectations and individual struggles, and just enjoy this for what it’s worth?
Sure, arguments — and good ones at that — can be made that Mark Turgeon’s boys have not turned out the way they were supposed to. Yeah, a third place finish in the Big Ten regular season standings was probably not what people were expecting at the beginning of the year. And a No. 5 seed in the NCAA Tournament is something most Terps fans in the preseason would’ve scoffed at like a $10 cover charge at Bentley’s.
But the reality is this: These Terps, these maddeningly inconsistent and frustrating Terps, just did something the program hasn’t done since 2003. That’s cool. That’s an accomplishment. That’s sweet.
Not impressed? You think Michigan State, a potential title contender who lost to a No. 15 seed in the opening round of the tournament, would complain if it was where Maryland is? You think Kentucky, one of the game’s most storied programs and an Elite 8 mainstay, wishes it was where Maryland is? Getting to this part of the bracket is no easy task.
Like all season, though, a skeptic can hurl a whole bunch of qualifiers at what happened during the Big Dance’s first weekend. Maryland had an easy path, beating two not-so-juggernauts in South Dakota State and Hawaii. They had stretches where the problems that have plagued them for months plagued them again. They need to beat Kansas if this roster wants to avoid being remembered as a disappointment.
It could be that those are all valid points and that all these words are just nonsense. With that being said, the 15 players we’ve watched for 35 games now are guaranteed to finish in the top 5 percent of the country, and they could bump that number up starting this Thursday, thanks to all the talent they have.
So stop complaining for a second and soak it all in.
