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Selection Sunday: Predicting Maryland's Seed

Mark Turgeon's team will learn their NCAA fate Sunday evening.
Mark Turgeon's team will learn their NCAA fate Sunday evening. (USA TODAY Sports)

With the NCAA selection show just hours away, TSR takes a look at the Maryland's NCAA resume and where various bracketologists predict the Terps will be seeded in this year's big dance.

Gone as part of the selection process this year is the RPI. In it's place is the NCAA Evaluation Tool, also known as the NET rankings.

For the second straight year, wins are broken down into quadrants, the difference this year being that a team's NET ranking is now used to determine what quadrant it is in instead of RPI. Quadrant 1 wins carry the most value, followed by Quadrant 2 wins, Quadrant 3 wins and finally Quadrant 4 wins. A look at how each quadrant is broken down, below.

How Each Quadrant is Defined

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Quadrant 1: Home vs. teams ranked in the top 30; neutral vs. 1-50; away games vs. 1-75.

Quadrant 2: Home vs. 31-75 teams; neutral vs. 51-100; away vs. 76-135.

Quadrant 3: Home vs. 76-160 teams; neutral vs. 101-200; away vs. 136-240.

Quadrant 4: Home vs. 161-plus teams; neutral vs. 201-plus; away vs. 241-plus.

Maryland's Resume

NET: 27

KenPom: 24

NET Strength of Schedule: 19

KenPom Strength of Schedule: 20

Quadrant 1 Record: 6-8

Quandrant 2 Record: 6-1

Quadrant 3 Record: 5-1

Quadrant 4 Record: 5-0

Best Wins: Purdue (No. 12 NET), Wisconsin (No. 17 NET)

NCAA Projections

ESPN Bracketology (Updated March 17)

Maryland: South Region (Louisville), 6 seed

Top 4 seeds in region: Virginia, Tennessee, Texas Tech, Purdue

ESPN has Maryland as the 6 seed in the South (Louisville). They would play the winner of the First Four game between 11 seeds Arizona St. and St. John's in the opening round in Tulsa. If Maryland were to advance, they would face the winner of Texas Tech (3 seed) and Georgia St. (14 seed).


CBS Sports Bracketology (Updated March 17, 10:17am)

Maryland: South Region (Louisville), 7 seed

Top 4 seeds in region: Virginia, Tennessee, Houston, Kansas

Like ESPN, CBS currently predicts Maryland in the South with the top two seeds of Virginia and Tennessee. CBS, however, has the Terps playing Temple (10 seed) in the opening round out in Columbus, Ohio. If the Terps were to advance, they would face the winner of Tennessee and Abilene Christian (15 seed).


Fox Sports Bracketeering (Pre-Selection Show Update)

Maryland: East Region (Washington, DC), 7 seed

Top 4 seeds in region: Duke, Kentucky, Florida St., Kansas

Fox predicts the Terps will have a shot at playing in front of a hometown crowd during the second weekend of the tournament, but they would first have to get by Baylor (10 seed) in their opening game and then likely have to score a huge upset of Kentucky in order to have the chance to play in the nation's capital. This region is loaded with Blue Bloods, with a possibility that Duke and Kansas could meet in the Sweet 16.

Final Thoughts

The consensus seems to be that the Terps will be either a 6 or a 7 seed with the South region as the most likely destination. A matchup with a play-in 11 seed or a 10-seed Temple or Baylor team would seem to be about as good of a draw as Maryland could ask for. The Terps will almost certainly need to score a big upset in the Round of 32 in order to advance to the Sweet 16.

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