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In the second (and last) official rankings put out by the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament Committee before the fun really begins for March Madness, Maryland women’s basketball was given the No. 10 overall seed, which would make it a No. 3 seed in the tournament.
Maryland is in the Chicago region, headlined by No. 2 overall seed Louisville. Joining the Terrapins and Cardinals there are No. 2-seed Stanford (7th overall) and No. 4-seed Iowa State (14th overall). Baylor, Louisville, Notre Dame and UConn are the top four seeds currently.
If the tournament started today, this is what the Chicago Region would look like#ncaaW pic.twitter.com/38wdfDwPzO
— NCAA WBB (@ncaawbb) March 5, 2019
#ncaaW Top 16 Seeds!
— NCAA WBB (@ncaawbb) March 5, 2019
1. @BaylorWBB
2. @UofLWBB
3. @ndwbb
4. @UConnWBB
5. @OregonWBB
6. @HailStateWBK
7. @StanfordWBB
8. @IowaWBB
9. @PackWomensBball
10. @umdwbb
11. @BeaverWBB
12. @GamecockWBB
13. @CanesWBB
14. @CycloneWBB
15. @CuseWBB
16. @AggieWBB
(as of today) pic.twitter.com/hRp28EDWIC
The Terrapins just finished off their regular season with a 26-3 overall record, and a 15-3 mark in conference play. That was enough to earn them the outright Big Ten regular season title a couple days ago, and they will be the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament, which begins on Wednesday (Maryland begins its postseason play on Friday).
In last year’s final committee rankings before the NCAA Tournament, the Terps were given the No. 14 overall seed. However, after losses down the stretch, they received a No. 5 seed in the Kansas City Region and ultimately lost in the second round to No. 4 NC State, which hosted the opening week of the tournament.
Maryland hasn’t moved in the Associated Press’ Top 25 rankings in three weeks, staying at No. 8 Monday. Its RPI is slowly rising, as the Terps rank as the 14th-best team in the nation according to the NCAA’s metrics.
And while the Terps racked up several Big Ten season-long awards on Monday afternoon, they got another commendation in the conference’s weekly accolades. Freshman guard Taylor Mikesell, who was just named Big Ten Freshman of the Year by the league’s coaches, also received Big Ten Freshman of the Week for her performance in the past two games against Purdue and Illinois. She averaged 15.0 points per game with 4.0 rebounds, shooting a total of 6-of-14 (42.8 percent) from beyond the arc across the two outings and adding a perfect 8-of-8 in the regular season finale against the Illini to clinch sole possession of the conference title.
Maryland plays in the Big Ten tournament quarterfinal Friday at noon ET against either Northwestern or Michigan State.