Maryland men’s basketball earns No. 4 seed in NCAA Tournament, will face Grand Canyon in first round
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The Terps will travel to Seattle, Washington, to face the No. 13-seed Antelopes.
Maryland men’s basketball received an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament Sunday, being selected as the No. 4 seed in the west region. The Terps will take on No. 13-seed Grand Canyon in the first round in Seattle on Friday.
Grand Canyon, led by head coach Bryce Drew, enter the tournament with a 27-7 overall and 14-3 conference record. The Antelopes rank No. 93 in KenPom.com’s rankings. Grand Canyon is led by TCU transfer JaKobe Coles, leading the team with 14.8 points per game, while averaging 5.7 rebounds per game. Graduate guard Tyon Grant-Foster has been with the Antelopes for two seasons and is second on the team with 14.5 points per game.
Maryland has never played Grand Canyon.
The Terps exceeded expectations this year. After being picked to finish 10th in the unofficial Big Ten preseason media poll, Maryland earned the No. 2-seed in the Big Ten Tournament with a 25-8 overall and 14-6 conference record. It only lost one game at home in conference play — on a beyond-half-court buzzer-beater. The Terps are one of eight teams from the Big Ten to make the national tournament, the second most of any conference in the country, behind the SEC’s 14 teams.
The Terps were eliminated from the conference tournament by eventual champion Michigan Saturday in the semifinals on a last-second layup. They lost four of their seven total conference loses on game-winning shots in the final eight seconds of the game.
Maryland entered Selection Sunday ranked No. 11 in the Associated Press top-25 poll, No. 10 in the NET, No. 12 in KenPom and No. 13 in ESPN’s Basketball Power Index. The Terps have beaten five ranked opponents this season, including a 23-point win over No. 24 Illinois in the Big Ten Tournament, an eight-point win over then-No. 17 Wisconsin and an 18-point win over then-No. 22 UCLA. They are 8-7 against Quad 1 opponents, 6-1 against Quad 2 opponents and undefeated outside the first two quadrants.
Maryland was led by freshman center Derik Queen this season, who was the No. 8-ranked player in the class of 2024, according to ESPN. Queen won Big Ten Freshman of the Year and was named to the coaches’ All-conference first team, averaging a team-high 16.3 points and 9.0 rebounds, along with 1.9 assists, 1.1 steals and 1.1 blocks per game. He scored a career-high 31 points against Michigan Saturday.
Junior guard Ja’Kobi Gillespie and senior forward Julian Reese also earned All-Big Ten honors. Gillespie was named to the third team in his first year at Maryland after transferring from Belmont in the offseason. He averages 14.7 points, 5.0 assists, 2.8 rebounds and 1.8 steals per game.
Reese has been rewarded for his loyalty to the program. He was named a Big Ten honorable mention for the third straight year with 13.1 points, 9.0 rebounds and 1.6 blocks per game.
Rodney Rice and Selton Miguel — also transfers from Virginia Tech and USF, respectively — round out the ‘Crab Five.’ Rice averages 13.9 points, 2.2 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game. Miguel posts 12.0 points, 1.9 rebounds and 1.9 assists per game, while shooting 41.6% from three.
This is head coach Kevin Willard’s seventh NCAA Tournament as a head coach and second with Maryland. Willard is 2-6 in NCAA Tournament games in his career.
Maryland is 5-5 on the road and 3-1 on neutral courts this year.
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