Maryland basketball: 5 best seasons in Terrapins history, ranked
2. First Final Four Appearance. No. 11 AP Poll. 2000 (25-11). player. 439. Scouting Report. Pick Analysis
Maryland basketball makes first Final Four appearance in 2000-2001.
The 2000-01 Terps team had just come off an ACC Tournament championship game loss to Duke and a second-round exit against UCLA in the NCAA Tournament. The good thing about this Terps squad was that they had a lot of size and length in the frontcourt. The combined height of Lonny Baxter, Terence Morris, Mike Mardesich, Chris Wilcox, Tahj Holden, and Laron Cephas ranged from 6-foot-8 to 7-feet tall. Juan Dixon, Baxter, and Morris were the team’s leading scorers with 18, 15, and 12 points per game, respectively. Steve Blake averaged six points and a team-leading seven assists per game.
After winning the season opener against Louisville 95-73, the Terps lost three straight games to No. 8 Illinois, the Dayton Flyers, and No. 23 Wisconsin Badgers. They won 10 in a row after that skid including their first two ACC matchups against Clemson and the Georgia Tech Yellowjackets. From that point on they earned key wins against the Florida State Seminoles, No. 10 Wake Forest, NC State, No. 16 Oklahoma, No. 2 Duke, and No. 7 Virginia. Duke and Maryland played one another four times that season and ESPN.com writer Rico Longoria broke down the series.
The Terps reached their first Final Four in school history with an 87-73 victory over the No. 2 seed Stanford Cardinals thanks to the play of Baxter (24 points, six rebounds), Dixon and Blake (combined 30 points, 10 assists), Morris (11 points, 10 rebounds) and Holden’s 14 points off the bench. Gary Williams finally got his team to the last weekend of the NCAA Tournament. The Terps did meet Duke in the Final Four and failed to get past them once again.
They went back to the Final Four in 2002 and sealed the deal. Check out why the 2001-02 team is the best Maryland basketball team in its history.