The Maryland basketball team certainly doesn’t have the lofty expectations that they had a season ago.
However, the Terrapins still managed to land in the Associated Press poll at No. 25 on Monday.
Maryland was one of five Big Ten schools to land in the poll. Former ACC rival Duke checked in as the top team with Kentucky and Kansas rounding out the top three.
The Terps received 144 votes, which was 34 more than the first team that didn’t make the poll (Cincinnati).
Maryland is coming off a season in which they reached the Sweet 16 before ultimately losing to Kansas. It was viewed as a disappointing season because the Terps were tabbed by many to win the Big Ten and even be a national title contender.
Following the 2015-16 season, Maryland lost four of their five starters from that squad.
Robert Carter and Diamond Stone elected to leave early and declared for the NBA Draft. Stone was selected by the Los Angeles Clippers in the second round and Carter wasn’t drafted and is scheduled to play overseas.
Jake Layman was picked by the Portland Trailer Blazers in the second round and Rasheed Sulaimon will play for the Charlotte Hornets’ D-League affiliate.
The one constant will remain to be star point guard Melo Trimble.
Trimble entered his name in the draft pool before pulling out of the process at the last minute. The former Bishop O’Connell (Va.) star is coming off a sophomore campaign in which he averaged 14.8 points/4.9 assists/3.6 rebounds.
Some of his numbers were down, but he was ultimately asked to play a lot more due to the injury to Dion Wiley prior to the season.
Maryland did add L.G. Gill via the transfer market and also have an extremely talented recruiting class coming in. Former UNLV signee Justin Jackson was a late addition and should play big-time minutes as a freshman.
Anthony Cowan should spell Trimble and allow Trimble to play off the ball a little bit more this year. Kevin Huerter should provide some offense from beyond the arc and is fresh off a stint with the USA Under-18 team, which Mark Turgeon helped coach.
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