A Refreshed look at Maryland's BB resume, and more...

[keithbooth22]

A refreshed look at Maryland basketball's resume, analytics and Big Ten standings post-Iowa win​

The Terps, a consensus top 15 team per the predictive metrics, are on a roll.​

The Maryland men's basketball team's recent stretch has solidified the Terps as an NCAA Tournament lock, with potential to climb into a high seed.

Though a weak nonconference schedule (No. 328 per the NET and No. 362 per KenPom) and a slow start to the New Year had people questioning where Maryland stands in the national picture, it has been rolling over the past month-plus.

The Terps (20-6, 10-5 Big Ten) have won three straight games, seven of their last eight games and nine of their last 11 contests. Maryland has stacked plenty of quality wins that will help their seed line.

Maryland is 6-5 in Quadrant 1. The victories include a 76-68 home win over Wisconsin, a 91-70 road win over Illinois, a 79-61 home win over UCLA, an 83-59 home win over Ohio State, an 83-75 road win over Nebraska and a 79-78 road win over Indiana. Maryland has two more Quadrant 1 regular-season opportunities remaining – against Michigan State at home on Feb. 26 and at Michigan on March 5 – as well as the Big Ten Tournament.

The Terps are also 3-1 in Quadrant 2, including a 69-66 home win over Nebraska, a 76-75 neutral site win over Villanova, Sunday's 101-75 home win over Iowa and a 75-69 loss at Washington. They have three more Quadrant 2 regular-season games remaining – at Penn State on March 1 and at home against USC on Thursday and Northwestern on March 8. The Quadrant 2 wins certainly are not signature wins, but they help provide substance to the resume.

Maryland is 3-0 in Quadrant 3 and 8-0 in Quadrant 4 with no such games remaining.

In predictive team-sheet metrics, Maryland is a consensus top 15 team. The Terps are 14th in the NET, KenPom and BartTorvik and 15th in the ESPN Basketball Power Index. The hot streak has improved Maryland's resume-based team-sheet metrics; the Terps are 21st in strength of record, 22nd in wins above bubble and 28th in KPI.

Maryland is fighting for a top four finish and double-bye in the Big Ten Tournament, and it is technically still alive to grab a share of the conference regular-season title. Here's a look at the top of the conference after the weekend of action.

Michigan 12-2

Michigan State 11-3

Purdue 11-4

Wisconsin 10-4

Maryland 10-5

UCLA 10-5

Illinois 9-7

Maryland still has games remaining against the top two teams in the conference standings. If it were to come down to a two-way tie with any of the top teams, Maryland would own the tiebreaker over UCLA and Wisconsin after head-to-head wins. Purdue would have the tiebreaker over the Terps after beating them in December. Maryland would also have the tiebreaker over Illinois after its win in Champaign in January.

The odds of a tie with multiple teams could happen as well. Here's how those tiebreakers would, via the official Big Ten website.

1. Results of head-to-head competition during the regular season.

• a. When comparing records against the tied teams, teams will be seeded based on winning percentage head-to-head among the group, even if the number of games played against the team or group are unequal (i.e., 2-0 is better than 3-1, but 2-0 is not better than 1-0 or 0-0). If all teams among the group are separated based on winning percentage, all ties are broken. Ties shall be considered separated when a team(s) emerges from the top, middle or bottom of the group and is awarded a seed(s).
• b. Once a seed is awarded, all remaining tied teams shall restart the tiebreak process at the first criteria (e.g. if there is a four-team tie, one team is 4-0, another is 3-1 and the last two are 2-2 among the group, the two teams that are 2-2 move to step a (head-to-head) and the teams that are 4-0 and 3-1 assume the next two available highest seeds).

2. If the remaining teams are still tied, then each tied team's record shall be compared to the team occupying the highest position in the final regular-season standings, continuing down through the standings until one team gains an advantage.

• a. When arriving at another pair of tied teams while comparing records, use each team's record against the collective tied teams as a group (prior to their own tiebreaking procedures), rather than the performance against the individual tied teams.
• b. When comparing records against a single team or group of teams, the higher winning percentage shall prevail, even if the number of games played against the team or group are unequal (i.e., 2-0 is better than 3-1, but 2-0 is not better than 1-0 or 0-0).

3. Won-loss percentage of Division I opponents.
4. Highest NET ranking of the teams. NET rankings that are released on the last Friday of the regular season will be utilized.

B​