WASHINGTON —聽Maryland’s victory over Big Ten聽leader Wisconsin may be too late for the conference’s regular season race, but the win could go a long way toward keeping the Terps a short distance away from home during the NCAA tournament’s first weekend.
For the first time since 2010, the Maryland men’s basketball team will be dancing this March.聽 The Terps will enter Selection Sunday knowing full well their name will be called — it鈥檚 just a question of how high their seed will be, which team they will face and where they鈥檒l play.
Tuesday night鈥檚 win over Wisconsin makes Pittsburgh a possibility as the 14th-ranked Terps could make a return the top 10. But first they have to take care of business Saturday against Michigan.
The NCAA tournament recently has tried to protect its higher seeds (No. 1 through No. 4) by making the teams’聽first weekend destinations closer to home, if possible.
For instance:聽 in 2014, Wisconsin was sent to Milwaukee while Baylor spent the first weekend in San Antonio.聽 While that鈥檚 no guarantee of victory (Georgetown lost in Philadelphia in 2013 while Duke lost in nearby Raleigh last March), it definitely eases a school鈥檚 path to the Sweet 16.
Models from ESPN.com and CBSSportsline.com both have the Terps headed to Pittsburgh. ESPN has Maryland as a No. 4 seed in the East Region playing Valparaiso. CBS has the Terrapins as a No. 3 seed in the South facing Iona.
SI.com projects the Terps as a No. 4 in the Midwest Region playing Valparaiso (that site doesn’t include first weekend destinations).
While Maryland鈥檚 ranked 14th聽in both polls this week, the Terps own the 10th聽or 11th聽best Ratings Percentage Index depending on which site you check.聽 RPI measures who you played, where you played them and how you played against them while also taking into consideration who they played.
So depending on where you look, Coach Mark Turgeon鈥檚 team will get a No. 3 or No. 4 seed — qualifying them as a 鈥減rotected seed.鈥�
Of the eight sub-regional sites, Pittsburgh is the closest — 243 miles — to College Park, Maryland. Columbus and Charlotte are a both a little more than聽400 miles away from XFinity Center.
