Where Would You Rank MD BB this Decade?

So ESPN just came out with their all-time college basketball rankings and MD comes in at #38 overall, #17 for the 1990s, and #14 for the 2000s. At first, their overall ranking seemed a little low to me. I mean we should be ahead of DePaul, Temple, and Tennessee, right? But then I thought about it, and realized that I haven't been alive for much of Maryland's 87 year history of basketball and therefore, don't really have a great idea of how accurate that all-time ranking is.

What I can comment on, however, is MD's rankings for this decade and I can tell you that Terps' 2000s ranking (#14) is too low. Let's compare the 90s with the 2000s to highlight the major flaw in these bogus rankings.

The 90s gave us Terps fans 198 wins, six tourney appearances (1994-1999), four Sweet 16s, and one regular season ACC Championship (1995). The 2000s (with another season left to play) has given us 200 wins, seven NCAA tourney appearances, three Sweet 16s, two Elite Eights, two Final Fours, one glorious National Championship, one ACC Tourney Championship (2004) and one regular season ACC Championship (2002). The 2000s was clearly a better decade.

However, the Terps only receive a three spot jump in the rankings from the 90s to the 2000s. Why is this? Because these rankings don't give any extra weight for Sweet 16, Final Four, or National Championship wins. All NCAA Tourney wins count just twice as much as a regular season win. This means that the Terps' 2002 national championship win is weighted the same amount as their first round NCAA tournament victory over Cal, last March. That makes absolutely zero sense to me.

I'm not really all that worked up about this because I realize that these rankings mean nothing, but I'm curious as to where most fans think MD Basketball stacks up against the rest of the country over the last ten years. I would say somewhere in the #8, #9 area is probably right and that's going off marque accomplishments like NCAA appearances, Final Fours, and National Championships.

Today's big question: Where would you rank Maryland basketball over the last decade and why?

Also, Don't Forget to Vote For Testudo Times in the Mobbies!