The Maryland women’s basketball team’s strength of schedule ranks 13th in the Big Ten and 124th in the country. Only six teams from Power-5 conferences have played a weaker schedule.

Facing mostly opponents outside the Associated Press Top 25 ­— the Terps have played three ranked teams this year — has helped Maryland to a 23-1 record, its best start in program history. But some powerhouse teams don’t give their best effort when playing against weak teams, resulting in upset losses.

With Maryland’s 92-56 blowout win over Indiana, though, the Terps moved to 11-0 in conference play and stayed atop the Big Ten standings. Their only loss came at the hands of No. 1 Connecticut, which is undefeated, in late December.

The Terps have taken notice of upsets around the country, and guard Shatori Walker-Kimbrough said that outlook has helped them avoid letdown losses.

“I notice a lot of my teammates and also my coach, we look at other teams,” Walker-Kimbrough said.

Walker-Kimbrough isn’t just referring to watching film of future opponents. Although Maryland stays true to the tenets of focusing inward and not paying attention to anyone else, the team’s approach extends beyond just that.

“You see Kansas that has a big-time win at their spot, and then they go and they tank one to a team they shouldn’t tank one to,” Walker-Kimbrough said, referring to the Jayhawks’ men’s team’s 73-68 win over No. 2 Baylor on Wednesday, which they followed by losing to unranked Iowa State at home Saturday, 92-89.

Walker-Kimbrough went on to mention the Arizona men’s basketball team, which was riding a 15-game win streak and was ranked No. 5 before getting shellacked by then-No. 13 Oregon on Saturday, 85-58.

“We just learn from other people,” Walker-Kimbrough said.

The Terps’ weak strength of schedule is a large reason they rank 17th in RPI and were slotted as a 3-seed in the NCAA’s first bracket preview Jan. 23 last week, despite being considered the third-best team in the country by the AP and USA TODAY polls.

Read more: Maryland women’s basketball projected as 3-seed in NCAA tournament despite No. 3 AP ranking

But coach Brenda Frese says she doesn’t regret her scheduling this year. The seeding doesn’t matter to her, she said, and she didn’t want to push her team’s seven newcomers with a killer non-conference slate.

Plus, even though the Terps are winning, Frese sees their imperfections.

“We’re really trying to fine-tune to be ready for March,” Frese said.

The Terps’ opponents haven’t always offered them significant challenges or lessons to be learned. Maryland owns the best scoring offense (90.3 points) and third-best scoring margin (27.8) in the country.

ESPN cameras captured Frese explaining to her players before the Indiana game that for them be ready for the tournaments, they need to be playing as hard as they can right now. ESPN also showed her alluding to the Super Bowl, which kicked off hours after her team’s midday matchup with the Hoosiers.

“Today is our Super Bowl,” Frese said. “Every game, every opportunity we get is our Super Bowl.”

Motivating the Terps to play hard right now while reminding them they have bigger goals can be a fine line.

But with the team having won its past 11 games, and its last four by at least 15 points, the motivational strategies seem to be working, even if it doesn’t pay dividends in the RPI rankings or with the NCAA selection committee.

“We look at every single game like it’s our last,” Walker-Kimbrough said. “We play like we were kind of in the Super Bowl.”