After a close loss to Virginia and a close win over Penn State last week, Maryland men’s basketball moved up one spot to No. 23 in Monday’s AP poll.
The Terps lost to the No. 4 Cavaliers 76-71 on Wednesday before beating the Nittany Lions 66-59 on Sunday. They debuted at No. 24 last week.
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Maryland’s next opponent, Purdue, fell out of the top 25 by one point this week. The Boilermakers lost to No. 11 Florida State, 73-72, and were demolished by No. 5 Michigan, 76-57. Still, Mark Turgeon’s squad is likely to be slight underdogs when it travels to West Lafayette on Thursday.
The Terps — who rank No. 32 in KenPom and No. 27 in the NCAA’s NET ranking — are one of seven Big Ten teams in the AP poll. It’s the conference’s second straight week with seven ranked teams; prior to this season, the last time that many Big Ten teams were ranked was the week of Feb. 2, 1999.
The conference is led by the No. 3 Wolverines, who have been one of the biggest surprises in the nation. In addition to its rout of Purdue, Michigan has blowout wins over No. 14 North Carolina and No. 21 Villanova.
Michigan State (No. 10), Wisconsin (No. 12), Iowa (No. 18), Ohio State (No. 19), Maryland and Nebraska (No. 24) also appear in the rankings.
