Jerry Lai-USA TODAY Sports
When people have asked me over the past six months who the best teams are going to be this season, my answer has always been, "Pretty much everyone you expect, plus Maryland."
The top 10 of the preseason AP Top 25 certainly reinforces that stance. It is absolutely littered with teams who seems to always be there. Kentucky, Kansas, Duke, Virginia and Gonzaga have each spent at least one week ranked in the top three in the nation in at least two of the past three seasons. Iowa State, Wichita State, North Carolina and Oklahoma have each earned a No. 10 seed or better in three straight tournaments, so it"s hardly unusual to find them in good national standing.
At No. 3 with 14 first-place votes, though, the Terrapins are the oddball, seemingly transforming overnight from a NIT staple to a NCAA championship contender. Last year was their first NCAA tournament or AP Top 25 appearance since 2010, and they flew pretty well below the radar for most of the seasonoutside of point guard Melo Trimble getting some tertiary recognition in the national Freshman of the Year conversation.
But recent history means very little compared to the impressive current roster construction.
In addition to arguably the best sophomore in the country in Trimble, head coach Mark Turgeon has an incredibly strong rotation led by Duke transfer Rasheed Sulaimon, Georgia Tech transfer Robert Carter, senior forward Jake Layman and stud freshman center Diamond Stone.
That"s a lot of new pieces working together, but with a lead guard as good as Trimble, there"s almost no reason to worry about how well all that talent will mesh.
Maryland is the favorite in a very strong Big Ten. If any team emerges from that gauntlet of a conference schedule with less than eight overall losses on Selection Sunday, it will inevitably have one of the strongest resumes for the No. 1 overall seed. Look for the Terrapins to be that team while spending the entire season ranked in the top 10.
Source: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2585299-winners-and-losers-of-college-basketballs-2015-16-preseason-ap-top-25-poll
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