A .500 record the rest of the way and one victory in the ACC tournament would get Maryland (12-4) to 20 wins and likely secure an NCAA tournament bid. Sounds easy enough in the mediocre ACC, right? Wrong.
Going .500 the rest of the way would be a monumental feat for Maryland considering the schedule. Over the next seven weeks, the Terps will play eight of 14 games on the road and six against ranked teams.
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Only three remaining games will come against teams Maryland leads in the RPI rankings, and two of those will be at places where Maryland traditionally flatlines — Miami and Clemson. Since the Hurricanes joined the ACC, Maryland has never won there. The Terps have lost four of their last five at Clemson.
The hard part starts Tuesday night at Florida State (11-6). The Seminoles are coming off a 90-57 home destruction of No. 3 North Carolina. Then Maryland plays Saturday at Temple (11-5), which is No. 26 in the RPI, followed by a home game against Duke (14-2).
Maryland senior Sean Mosley, the hero of Sunday’s 61-50 victory over Georgia Tech, knows the drill in the ACC: win at home.
“Every game, especially at home, is very important for us,” Mosley said. “All the road games we play are going to be tough. We get these games at home and pull some games out on the road, it would definitely help our chance to get to the NCAA tournament.”
When the Terps made it to the NCAA tournament in 2010, they were 11-5 at this stage of the season. In 2009 when they made it, they were 12-4.
– Kevin Dunleavy
