For the third time this month, college basketball’s No. 1 team failed to back up its ranking.
Duke, which moved into the top spot in the Associated Press Top 25 poll two weeks ago after previous No. 1 Kentucky lost at home to Evansville, suffered a shocking last-second overtime loss to Stephen F. Austin Tuesday night, adding another twist to what has been an unpredictable start to the season. And it could result in the Blue Devils’ former ACC foe Maryland moving within striking distance of the No. 1 spot in next week’s poll.
Maryland climbed to No. 5 in the poll last week after improving to 5-0 with wins over Fairfield and George Mason. The Terrapins are one of three top-five teams that haven’t suffered a setback this week, along with No. 2 Louisville and No. 4 Kansas.
No. 3 Michigan State, which began the season ranked No. 1 only to lose to the Wildcats on opening night, lost Monday to Virginia Tech. That should allow the Terrapins to almost certainly move ahead of the Spartans and Duke if Maryland isable to win the eight-team AdvoCare Invitational Tournament this weekend. The Terrapins open the tournament in Orlando with an 11 a.m. matchup against Temple on Thanksgiving Day.
The Terrapins, who have won their first five games by an average of 22.8 points, headline the AdvoCare Invitational. However, they could receive their first real tests of the season against a field that includes Temple, Marquette, USC, Texas A&M, Harvard, Davidson and Fairfield. The Terrapins have yet to play away from the Xfinity Center or against a major conference opponent this season.
Maryland coach Mark Turgeon is looking forward to learning more about what he believes could his most talented team since taking over for Gary Williams in 2011.
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“I think we’ve been pretty focused. We’ve been playing well. But sometimes you just need to get away to really bond. That’s really what these preseason tournaments are about,” Turgeon said Monday before the team departed for Orlando. “You can really get better with three games in four days … It’s all positives for us right now and I think we’re ready for it. We’ve been home and it’s time for us to get out.”
The Terrapins had won five straight preseason tournaments under Turgeon dating back to 2012 before falling to St. Bonaventure in the opening round of the Emerald Coast Classic two years ago.
They should move up in the polls for the third straight week if they’re able to avoid an upset this time around and improve to 8-0. The Terrapins began the season ranked seventh and have climbed up a spot in the poll in each of the past two weeks. The championship game is set for Sunday at 1 p.m. on ESPN.
“I think we’ll learn what our mental toughness is really like playing these games back-to-back,” Maryland sophomore guard Serrel Smith said. “A lot of us haven’t experienced that since high school or AAU. So just going back to that, we’ll see how mentally tough everybody is.”
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