Maryland basketball rises to No. 21 in AP Poll

After closing its regular season with a win over Minnesota on senior night, Maryland basketball moved up three spots to No. 21 in the AP poll released Monday.

The Terps received 319 points, up from 207 when they were ranked 24th last week. They finished the regular season with a 22-9 record overall and went 13-7 against a daunting Big Ten schedule. Maryland placed fifth in the league and played the top four teams a combined seven times, going 2-5. In addition to the media ranking, the Terps are 18th in KenPom and 27th in the NET rankings.

Michigan State, the top seed in the conference tournament, is also the Big Ten’s highest-ranked team at No. 6. Michigan checks in at No. 10 after falling to the Spartans for the second time this season over the weekend. Purdue lost at Minnesota but dropped just two spots to No. 13, while a perfect week from Wisconsin has the Badgers 19th.

Of course, rankings seem to mean less than tournament seeds at this time of the year. Maryland is the No. 5 seed in this week’s Big Ten tournament, and is still projected as a No. 5 seed in the NCAA Tournament by both our Justin Fitzgerald and ESPN’s Joe Lunardi. Depending on how they perform in Chicago, the Terps could potentially move up or down a seed line by Selection Sunday.

Maryland plays the winner of No. 12-seed Rutgers and No. 13-seed Nebraska in the second round of the Big Ten tournament on Thursday afternoon.