Maryland men’s basketball falls to No. 12 in latest AP Top 25 poll

Despite claiming a share of the Big Ten regular season title a day prior, Maryland men’s basketball fell in the rankings released Monday.

With an 83-70 win over Michigan Sunday, the Terps locked up first place in the conference standings — along with Wisconsin and Michigan State — but dropped to No. 12 in the latest AP Top 25.

Maryland began the week with a tough 78-67 defeat at the hands of Rutgers in Piscataway, New Jersey. That game marked the third loss in four outings for Mark Turgeon’s team, but it was able to bounce back against the Wolverines to end the regular season on a high note.

While the Terps ended the year atop the Big Ten standings, they won’t be the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament. Due to tiebreakers, they’ll will be the No. 3 seed in Indianapolis this week — the bracket begins Wednesday, but the Terps won’t play until the late game Friday.

Five other Big Ten teams — No. 9 Michigan State, No. 18 Wisconsin, No. 19 Ohio State, No. 21 Illinois and No. 25 Iowa — appear in this week’s poll. Michigan, Penn State, Rutgers and Purdue are receiving votes.

The regular season is now over, which means Maryland will play in a tournament setting the rest of the way. That change begins Friday, when the No. 3-seed Terps will begin Big Ten tournament play at roughly 9 p.m. ET. They’ll face the winner of No. 6-seed Penn State and No. 11-seed Indiana/No. 14-seed Nebraska.

Check out the rest of the poll here.