As I mentioned in my Maui preview, the Terp men’s basketball team comes into today’s event as the slight favorite in an uncharacteristically weak field. Consider that last year eventual national champion North Carolina won the tournament.
Last week the Terps were the lone ranked team in the field, but in the new poll released today, the now-No. 21 Terps have company.
Vanderbilt, 1-0 and a possible second round Terp opponent, has moved up to No. 24. Gonzaga, 2-1 with a close loss to No. 2 Michigan State, is the last team out of the poll.
Add in perrennial tournament teams Arizona and Wisconsin, which meet tonight at midnight Eastern time, and the Terps will have their work cut out for them to win this tournament and remain ranked going forward.
”When you go out to tournament’s like that, you always want to win,” guard Adrian Bowie said last week. “There’s a lot of great competition there. That’s why we go out there, just to play against the best teams-and win.”
Eric Detweiler is The Diamondback’s Terrapin Men’s Basketball Team beat writer. He can be reached at edetweilerdbk@gmail.com. You can follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/edetweiler.