With the regular season quickly winding down, how do the top 25 college basketball teams in the nation stack up heading into Week 16?
Just two weeks remain in the regular season for most major conferences, as top-ranked teams around the nation will look to make a final push for better seeding on Selection Sunday.
Week 15 provided plenty of exciting action with a number of crucial games around the country. Title races in the Big East and Big 12 are all but decided, but others like the ACC and SEC are still up in the air.
The big news of the previous week was Kansas picking up a pair of difficult wins to take command of the Big 12 once again. Elsewhere, rapidly rising Duke and Louisville each had perfect weeks to remain one game behind North Carolina in the ACC.
Gonzaga is in control of the No. 1 spot in the power rankings heading into Week 16, while Kansas and Villanova are not far behind. Here’s how the rest of the top 25 stacks up going into the final stretch of the regular season.
While Maryland was unable to pick up a big road win at the Kohl Center over the weekend, it has separated itself as one of the top three teams in the Big Ten and continues to exceed expectations.
The Terrapins went into Evanston on Wednesday night and handily beat a Northwestern team that was riding high following a big win at Wisconsin. Maryland was unable to match Northwestern’s feat on Sunday, as it dropped a 71-60 decision to the Badgers to fall to 10-4 in conference play.
With all the unexpected contributions this year from four new Terrapins starters, its easy to forget that Melo Trimble is having another terrific season. Trimble had his best week of the year with a combined 59 points on 21-of-34 shooting from the field over the two games.
Unfortunately, Maryland’s ceiling is going to be limited after forward Michal Cekovsky fractured his ankle in the loss to the Badgers. That injury will have an impact on the Terrapins’ interior game on both ends of the floor, as Demonte Dodd and L.G. Gill will now have to play a much larger role.
Catching Purdue and Wisconsin in the Big Ten title race is going to be a challenge, but the Terrapins can keep the pressure on with a pair of home wins over Minnesota and Iowa this week.