NCAA Basketball Power Rankings: Illinois rises, Dayton keeps impressing

This is not a drill. I repeat, this is not a drill. After starting the season 0-4 in true road games, Maryland went away from home and secured back-to-back wins over Northwestern and Indiana during this past week. These performances in hostile environments pushed the Terrapins to 16-4 (6-3 B10) on the season and should improve their national perception as a clear-cut Top 25 team. Maryland has been overlooked a bit throughout this season but could steadily move up the rankings in the coming weeks.

This is due to the fact that the Terps are about to play three of their next four (five of seven) games at home. If they are able to take care of business in front of their home crowd, we might see the Terps creep back towards re-entering the Top 10 of my power rankings.

I am not going to say that I have completely jumped back onto the Maryland bandwagon, but this week was certainly a step in the right direction for the team. Despite mostly being seen as a disappointment nationally, Maryland currently sits in third-place in the Big Ten and holds the No. 10 spot on KenPom. It’s hard to complain too much.

Maryland is a very good team that is anchored by a strong defense. Jalen Smith roams the paint very well with his shot-blocking and rebounding as the team limits interior scoring better than most (opponents are shooting 43.0% on 2PA). The Terps control the glass in just about every game they play and do an excellent job building ridiculous FTA disparities.