Maryland basketball saw optimism pick back up after picking up a road win over then-tenth-ranked Illinois back on Jan. 14, but consecutive losses have put the program back at square one as head coach Kevin Willard saw his team fall to 1-6 against Quad One opponents and drop to 99th in the updated NET rankings. The consecutive losses have further damped Maryland's postseason outlook, but they drew an intriguing postseason matchup after a recent NIT bracketology projected Maryland to draw a six-seed and face Virginia in Charlottesville. Maryland dropped another game since the projection following Sunday's loss, and while the postseason outlook remains dim, a Maryland-Virginia postseason game would give the Terps a chance to do something it has done just once since Gary Williams was head coach: beat its border rival. Virginia has dominated the series over the last 13 years, winning eight of the last nine matchups with a 75-69 overtime win back on March 9, 2014 the lone win for Maryland. Virginia has defeated Maryland in each of the last two matchups in College Park since then, while the teams haven't squared off since the 2018-19 season. Maryland has appeared in the NIT eight times, most recently in 2013 when former head coach Mark Turgeon guided the Terps to a 25-win season and semifinal loss vs. Iowa in his second season with the program. Fast-forward to 2024, and the NCAA Tournament is now a distant longshot in Kevin Willard's second season with one outlet giving Maryland a 1% chance to secure an NCAA Tournament bid and another projecting a 12-19 (5-15) finish. Whether Maryland ultimately accepts an NIT bid remains a question that athletic director Damon Evans will need to answer in the coming weeks. After Maryland's road loss to Northwestern last week, Evans shared his frustration with this season's results during his weekly appearance on 105.7 as he reiterated, “this is the University of Maryland and the expectations here are high.” “It’s always my goal. The rich history and tradition of basketball at the University of Maryland, my expectations are extremely high. This is a program that when we talked about tournament, this should be something that that’s not the goal because this should be a foregone conclusion for a program like ours. Our goal should be to get deep into the tournament. And we’ve got to figure out how to do that, guys," Evans said last week. "We’ve got to figure out how to get past where we are. I still have ultimate confidence in our team. I believe…Willard is doing a really, really good job for us, but I don’t want people to think that I’m just sitting back here content. Willard’s not content. He and I talk and he’s doing his job and he’s going to turn this thing around, but make no mistake about it—expectations are high here and we’ve got to perform at a much higher level.” After dropping to 0-5 in close games following Sunday's home loss vs. Michigan State, Maryland will look to drastically change its postseason outlook as head coach Kevin Willard and the staff look to string wins together down the stretch. That starts with a trip to Iowa on Wednesday, Jan. 24 before returning home to host Nebraska on Saturday. Related Links
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