The Selection Show came and went without the Maryland Terrapins hearing their name announced, making it three straight season that the Terps will not be dancing.
Maryland did receive an invite to the NIT and accepted, giving them a chance at valuable game experience in the high-pressure atmosphere of a postseason tournament and additional practice time.
The Terps received a No. 2 seed and will host Niagara in the first round Tuesday at 7 p.m. at the Comcast Center. If the Terps win, they would then host the winner of Denver vs. Ohio later in the week.
If the Terps get past that game, they would then likely run into a team from a major conference in the regional final, possibly top seed Alabama.
While it's hard to argue that Maryland deserved to be in the NCAA tournament, some of the teams that were selected ahead of them are nothing short of a joke.
Maryland had two wins over Duke and were the only team to beat the Blue Devils this year when they had Ryan Kelly on the floor. Teams like Boise State, Middle Tennessee State, La Salle and Saint Mary's don't have wins that even compare to Maryland's two victories over Duke.
If anyone saw the way Maryland played in the ACC tournament, it would have been obvious that they are significantly better than any of the teams mentioned above. It's unfortunate that there is a such a big double-standard when it comes to the mid-majors and their scheduling.
It seems that the selection committee was more concerned with who you scheduled out of conference and how many games you won on the road rather than who you actually beat.
It will be interesting to see if Mark Turgeon changes the way he allocates minutes to his players in the NIT. With Alex Len expected to bolt to the NBA and James Padgett and Logan Aronhalt graduating, it would make sense to give almost all of the playing time to his younger players.
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