The Good, the Bad: the Terps

Two weeks from today--unless Maryland makes another improbable run to the ACC tournament title--the NCAA tournament selection committee will have to decide whether the Terrapins are worthy of their 12th straight invitation.

Committee members will have to answer the questions that have proven so vexing this season:

Are the Terps the team that swept Duke this season, holding the Blue Devils to 36.6 percent shooting in two games?

Or are they the team that got swept by Clemson and North Carolina State, who shot a combined 50 percent in four games?

Even Maryland Coach Gary Williams, who has called this team the most inconsistent he has ever coached, doesn't seem to know for sure.

Case in point: No. 2 North Carolina beat Maryland by 34 points on Jan. 8, yet Tar Heels Coach Roy Williams called today's game at Comcast Center his team's most challenging road game of the season.

Gary Williams's team likely needs a win today or Saturday at Virginia Tech to feel good about its postseason chances, but he said the team's confidence level is "pretty good, because we've beaten the second-ranked team [Duke] on the road. You point to that and it means you're capable."

For better or worse, Maryland (16-9, 7-7) has shown a knack for rising, or sinking, to the level of its competition, which would be a big advantage today against the Tar Heels (23-3, 11-2), who will be without leading scorer Rashad McCants because of an intestinal disorder.

"We can beat anyone on a given day," Maryland senior Mike Grinnon said. "That's the scary part."

Bob Bowlsby, the NCAA tournament selection committee chairman, suggested Wednesday that teams like Maryland could be rewarded for their potential. Bowlsby, not speaking specifically to Maryland's case, added that committee members all have satellite dishes and, at times, rely less on statistical analysis and more on gut instinct.

"A team might not have as good a number as another team, but we'll ask if you'd want to draw this team in the tournament," Bowlsby said. "That's where the subjectivity comes in. When it gets tight, sometimes someone will look at three teams and say this is the one that I don't want to play."

Teams with middling records, however, rarely go deep into the tournament. Since 1985, when the NCAA tournament expanded to 64 teams, only seven schools with 17 or fewer victories entering the tournament reached the round of 16. Since 1997, it's happened only once, when eighth-seeded Alabama reached the final eight last season before losing to eventual national champion Connecticut.