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Maryland Basketball: 2020-21 season preview for the Terrapins

By Anthony Brown

Mar 8, 2020; College Park, Maryland, USA; Maryland Terrapins head coach Mark Turgeon celebrates with his team after winning the Big Ten mens basketball regular season championship after defeating against the Michigan Wolverines at XFINITY Center. Mandatory Credit: Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 8, 2020; College Park, Maryland, USA; Maryland Terrapins head coach Mark Turgeon celebrates with his team after winning the Big Ten mens basketball regular season championship after defeating against the Michigan Wolverines at XFINITY Center. Mandatory Credit: Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports /
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COLLEGE PARK, MD – MARCH 08: Head coach Mark Turgeon of the Maryland Terrapins (Photo by Mitchell Layton/Getty Images)
COLLEGE PARK, MD – MARCH 08: Head coach Mark Turgeon of the Maryland Terrapins (Photo by Mitchell Layton/Getty Images) /

Could the Terps be a bubble team or land firmly in the playoff picture?

The Terps roster on paper doesn’t look like it will be able to earn a top-five finish in the Big Ten next year. With veteran leadership at major positions, I hope I’m wrong about this.

Last season, the Terps could have safely made the NCAA Tournament with a solid performance in the conference tournament. Their win in the Orlando Invitational was a huge boost in addition to their habit of coming back from 10-point deficits.

To my fellow Busting Brackets colleague Jason Belt’s point about non-conference tournaments, losing those are huge blows to teams’ resumes. The ACC/Big Ten Challenge could still go on as planned and the Terps redeemed themselves by beating Notre Dame last season after losing to fourth-ranked Virginia Cavaliers the year before.

The Terps need to beat Illinois, Michigan, Michigan State, Wisconsin, Rutgers, and Minnesota. All of those teams put on strong performances last season. Illinois looks like it could be a dangerous team with Dosunmu and Cockburn coming back for more. Let’s not forget that Trent Frazier and Giorgi Bezhanishvili are also big factors to the Fighting Illini’s success as well.

The Terps will have their work cut out for them but they may end up surprising people. Do I believe they go from first to one of the worst teams in the Big Ten? No. They have to win the big games even if they split season series’ with the majority of the teams above. They have to beat those teams and not lose games they should win to a Penn State, Northwestern, or Nebraska for example.

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