Steve Davis: Sizing Up The Terps' Season

In trying to come up with a way to characterize Maryland's year, which had them picked as a Top 5 team and national championship contender in the pre-season, reaching as high in 2 in the rankings, losing 4 of 6 down the stretch and getting to and then getting blown out in the Sweet 16, here's what I came up with: "didn't live up to the hype."

Now, maybe the hype was unfair. Sure, they went to the tournament last year, only lost one real player of significance, Dez Wells, and added Diamond Stone, Robert Carter, Jr. and Rasheed Suliamon. It was reasonable to expect them to be better. On the flip side, they never played together, and it's hard to become a great team in one year. At the end of the day, they weren't a "great" team. They were a very good team. Considering it had been 13 years since Maryland went to the Sweet 16, that makes this season a success.

However, they didn't achieve what the expectations suggested they could, and since we don't know when they will have this much talent again, it is fair to also call the season a disappointment.