I know Maryland has taken a turn for the worse in the past week and is looking less likely to get even an NIT birth, which in my opinion can't imagine it happening two years in a row. But this team has made tremendous strides if you really take a look at the numbers. Just ask Mike S. you can only make a point if you use statistics and for you my boy here are plenty.

Everyone is aware of the attrition from last years team, we lost Dino, Bowie and Tucker to graduation and then we lost Hawk and JWill because of them turning pro. But what those names don't show you is that Maryland lost 62% or 125 minutes out of 200 minutes of playing time per game. So Maryland players that returned only accounted for playing 38% of the time in last years games. With Stoglin, Peshon and Mosley combining for 84% of the 38%. So this means that three returning players accounted for 84% of returning experience. I can't recall a team that was so inexperienced. And coincidently only 38% of total point production retured as well. Now thats quite the correlation, that Maryland lost 62% of its experience and lost 62% of its total offensive production.

Not to mention that Maryland only has 8 scholarship players on the 2012 roster. For the returning experienced players, Pe missed 50% of the games this year. Pankey, Faust and Len had never played a minute of college ball, Len even losing valuable practice time and a third of the season games. Parker went from playing in 13 games for an average of 6.2 minutes a game to playing in all 29 games so far for 19 minutes per contest. So the three freshman (Pankey, Faust and Len) accounted for 41% of playing time this year.

So to summarize what Maryland has gone through some turnover is being polite. Maryland has pretty much had a complete makeover in two years. While still remaining competitive during that period. The future is looking bright. Maryland will return players that accounted for 80% of playing time this year. They will also return 82% of the offensive production. So even though this year has been tough, next year looks a lot brighter and not to mention the incoming recruits who look to be one of the best incoming classes Maryland's had in some time.

I feel like a top 4 ACC finish next year is likely and a top 25 team would not be too far fetched. Its all about the numbers.