Maryland basketball is No. 42 in CBS Sports’ preseason rankings

The Maryland men’s basketball team enters this season with significantly less hype than it did last time around. That’s what’ll happen when you lose four starters to the NBA after what ended up as a disappointing season that ended “only” with a Sweet Sixteen appearance.

Matt Norlander of CBS Sports ranked every Division I basketball team — all 351 of them — and the Terps came in at No. 42 on his list.

Here’s what Norlander said:

It's all on Melo Trimble now, isn't it? The frontline from last season is basically gone, and Trimble's going to need all the help he can get from Jared Nickens. Let's see what freshman Kevin Huerter can do, too. Terps are a toss-up team right now.

Personally, I think it’s interesting that he just mentions Huerter and not Justin Jackson or Anthony Cowan, two freshmen who have received much more hype than Huerter has.

It’s also interesting that Norlander doesn’t mention Dion Wiley here. Wiley’s absence was almost unanimously viewed as something that hurt this team last year, and he should add something this season.

Overall, this seems like a pretty simplistic look at the team, but that’s probably what you get when expectations aren’t so high.

In other news

Maryland released some new plans for the New Cole Field House.

Maryland isn’t playing a normal Michigan State team, and that’s a good thing.

Maryland volleyball suffered a comeback loss to Michigan last night, and is still winless in Big Ten play.

Check out the debut of new TT contributor Greg Goldstein, who has five takeaways from Maryland baseball’s schedule release.

Here’s Justin Fitzgerald on Sarah Kovalchick, who interned for the athletic department last year before a highlight video landed her a spot on the Maryland soccer team.

Maryland probably needs to beat Michigan State to make a bowl game. We discussed this, plus other things in our podcast.

Maryland also announced that its exhibition game against Catawba on Nov. 5 will take place at 2 p.m.