Maryland optimistic about postseason picture
The Terps are only 8-6, have lost four of their past six contests, and got bounced from the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament semifinals by a North Carolina team that had lost 12 consecutive tournament contests until last Friday’s 16-10 rout of Maryland.
But the Terps have wins against Duke and North Carolina, two schools ranked in the top 10 in RPI. That, according to coach Dave Cottle, should be enough to convince the selection committee to award Maryland one of the coveted nine at-large bids.
"I don’t think there will be any anxiety because you can only focus on the things that you can control, and you can’t control that," he said. "Historically, if you have two top 10 wins and a winning record, you typically get in. It doesn’t look like an extremely strong at-large field. ... There aren’t going to be many teams with a better strength of schedule than us."
Unlike Virginia and North Carolina, the Terps lined up a non-conference game against Yale this Saturday. It’s another opportunity to work out the kinks that have befuddled the players and coaches.
"We’re just not doing the little things that winning teams do, and that’s where we’re struggling," Cottle said. "It’s been a different thing and a different situation each time. It’s obviously not just a personnel issue. We’ve been decent clearing the ball, our extra-man has been pretty consistent, but we don’t play consistently on the offensive end of the field. Defensively, we’ve been more consistent, but in this last game, we weren’t as good as we’ve been. That’s been the struggle. It’s been a different thing every week."
But Cottle insisted that there’s no point in waiting around nervously for Selection Sunday. Maybe scheduling the game against Yale wasn’t such a bad idea after all.
"We’ve been so inconsistent, we just have to take care of the business at hand, which is practicing well and getting ready for Yale," he said. "The rest will take care of itself."
