Maryland basketball has a Final Four trait
Evan Miyakawa broke down the national landscape into five tiers, including a favorable one that the Terps landed in.
Through 24 games, it is clear just how talented this season's Maryland men's basketball team is.
But could a deep postseason run be in the Terps' future? Time will tell. But on paper, Maryland checks a lot of boxes that could instill belief it is possible.
Evan Miyakawa, who runs popular college basketball analytics site EvanMiya.com, broke down the current predicted team efficiency landscape into five tiers: Title Favorites, Final Four Potential, Hit-or-Miss, Happy To Be Here and The Rest.
Maryland fell into the Final Four Potential group, including teams "talented enough to make a deep run when playing well." The Terps are right on the cutline of the Hit-or-Miss group, described as "some will make noise in March, others will flame out," but fall mostly in the Final Four Potential group of teams.
The last nine national champions have fallen in Miyakawa's Title Favorites group, and the teams currently listed there are Auburn, Duke, Houston, Florida and Alabama. Gonzaga, Purdue, Wisconsin, Texas Tech, Arizona, Kansas, Iowa State, Tennessee and St. John's are all in the Final Four Potential group.
Maryland ranks No. 14 at EvanMiya.com, 12th in defense and 23rd in offense. The site also has plenty of love for star point guard Ja'Kobi Gillespie, who ranks as the No. 13 player in the country using the Bayesian Performance Rating system. Gillespie rates eighth nationally in Offensive Bayesian Performance Rating.
While Maryland falling into a Final Four contender category could be reason for hope, a lot will figure itself out as the season plays out. Seed line and tournament draw matter, and Maryland has a chance to stack wins to close the regular season and improve their NCAA Tournament standing. That starts Thursday night at Nebraska, a Quadrant One game. Both KenPom and BartTorvik have the Terps as a slight favorite over the Cornhuskers, but Las Vegas has them as a slight underdog. Both sites have Maryland as a favorite in six of its final seven games.
ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi broke down Maryland's profile in a recent interview with "Glenn Clark Radio." His sentiment did not necessarily differ from Miyakawa's analytical breakdown.
"Would we be surprised if a team that's on Maryland's trajectory right at the current time made the Final Four?" Lunardi said. "Certainly not."
