Maryland women’s basketball at No. 14 in newest selection committee rankings

Despite a recent slide, Maryland women’s basketball is still a top-16 seed in the NCAA Tournament selection committee’s eyes. The Terps dropped one spot to No. 14 in the committee’s most recent rankings, which were released Monday night.

The committee also released regional placements for all 16 teams after releasing them for just the No. 1 seeds in the previous reveals. If the tournament started now, Maryland would be the No. 4 seed in the Kansas City region along with Mississippi State, Texas and UCLA.

UConn, Louisville and Notre Dame joined the Bulldogs as top seeds. Ohio State is the only other Big Ten team in the rankings and is one spot ahead of the Terps at No. 13.

Heading into the final week of the season, Maryland still has a resume that could earn a top-16 seed. The Terps are No. 20 in RPI, and have picked up six wins against RPI top-50 teams, including three over top-25 opponents.

But there are also some reasons they could be left out and have to travel for the start of the NCAA Tournament. Maryland’s strength of schedule has improved to No. 54 in the country, but only two teams in the top 16 have a worse SOS than the Terps. It also is in the middle of the program’s first losing streak in four years, and the committee can factor in which way a team is going heading into the tournament.

If the Terps want to play their first game of the tournament in College Park, they may not be able to lose another game the rest of the season. A loss to Michigan or Nebraska would hurt their chances, and a loss early in the Big Ten Tournament would make it nearly impossible.

Maryland looks to get back in the right direction Thursday at Michigan.