Maryland basketball: 5 best seasons in Terrapins history, ranked

Ranking the five best Maryland basketball seasons ever.

Maryland basketball had a real shot at winning their second national championship during the 2019-20 season to put themselves in the conversation as one of the best Maryland basketball seasons ever.

Winning a share of the Big Ten Title was a moment for Mark Turgeon where he said that the monkey was off the program’s back. For him and Anthony Cowan Jr., the pair finally won together but it is a shame that Maryland basketball fans will never know what could have been.

The Terps finished the 2019-20 season 24-7 (14-6 Big Ten) ranked 12th in the AP Poll behind co-conference champion No.9 Michigan State. They were ranked as high as third in the AP Poll and as low as 17th. They won their first 10 games of the season including an Orlando Invitational victory over the Marquette Golden Eagles. They were successful in holding Golden Eagles’ star guard Markus Howard under 10 points. He scored 91 points in the previous two games during the tournament.

The Terps were very competitive when their backs were against the wall. They had several games during the season where they came back from deficits of 10 points or more. In addition to that, they went on a nine-game winning streak late in the season that was fun to watch. Cowan Jr. and Jalen Smith are both are NBA bound. Aaron Wiggins, Eric Ayala, and Darryl Morsell will be the veterans Turgeon looks to for a smooth transition into next season.

For my honorable mention teams, I have the 1971-72 Terrapins squad with Tom McMillen and Len Elmore who led the team to a 27-5 (8-4 ACC) record and won the 1972 NIT Tournament with a 100-69 blowout of the Niagara Purple Eagles. The 1983-84 team with the late Len Bias, Adrian Branch, and Ben Coleman gets an honorable mention nod for winning the ACC Tournament that season.

Next, the 1994-95 team with Joe Smith, Keith Booth, and Sarunas Jasikevicius that went 26-8 (12-4 ACC) had a Sweet Sixteen appearance against the Connecticut Huskies. Lastly, I have the 2014-15 team with Melo Trimble, Dez Wells, and Jake Layman. This was their first year in the Big Ten and they finished second with a 28-7 (14-4 Big Ten) record.

I was a freshman at the University of Maryland that season and I started writing for FanSided that fall semester. The West Virginia Mountaineers beat Maryland 69-59 in the third round of the NCAA Tournament. It brought me great joy when they lost to the Kentucky Wildcats in the Sweet Sixteen.

Maryland basketball wins ACC in 1974-1975.

The 1974-75 Maryland basketball team was loaded with talent. John Lucas II and Brad Davis were the teams only NBA prospects. They both were first-round picks at No. 1 and No. 15 overall in the 1976 and 1977 NBA Drafts, respectively. That Maryland team had six guys average double figures in points with Lucas averaging 19 points, four rebounds, and four assists. Tom Roy, Owen Brown, and Steve Sheppard were the leading rebounders. All that production on the team led to a high scoring offense that averaged 90 points per game.

In Lefty Driesell’s sixth season as the Terps head coach, they were ranked fourth in the preseason AP Poll and they never left the top 10 the entire season. The lowest they were ranked was eighth in late January of ‘75. The Terps breezed through their nonconference schedule with their only loss coming at home in Cole Fieldhouse against the No. 3 UCLA Bruins who won the 1975 NCAA Tournament with a 92-85 win over the Kentucky Wildcats.

The Terps had key wins against the Duke Blue Devils twice, NC State Wolfpack twice, Virginia Cavaliers twice, No. 19 Wake Forest Demon Deacons, No. 11 North Carolina Tarheels and No. 11 Clemson Tigers as the season was winding down. They closed the regular season on a nine-game winning streak. NC State got their revenge in the ACC Tournament with an 87-85 victory.

In the NCAA Tournament, Lucas II put up a stellar performance overall with 19, 24, and 27 point games against the Creighton Blue Jays, Notre Dame Fighting Irish, and Louisville Cardinals, respectively. The 1974-1975 team was one of Driesell’s best during his tenure and I’m sure it would have been great to see a rematch in the national title game between Maryland and UCLA.

The Terps went up against a really good Louisville squad that scored at a high level in that matchup. Five Cardinals scored in double figures. Phil Bond had 23 points and seven assists, Allen Murphy had 20 points and four rebounds. Bill Bunton finished the game with a 13 point, 12 rebound double-double. The Cardinals beat the Terps 96-82 to move onto the Final Four.