Maryland basketball: 5 best seasons in Terrapins history, ranked
439. Scouting Report. Pick Analysis. NCAA Tournament Champions. 2001 (32-4). player. No. 4 AP Poll. 1
Maryland basketball cuts down the nets in 2001-2002.
The 2001-02 team is the best team in Maryland’s history. After reaching the Final Four a season ago, they came back strong. Coming into the season, they were the second-best team in the nation behind who else? Duke. Like the 1974-75 team, the 01-02 squad never left the top 10 the entire season.
Their core nucleus of players returned: Dixon, Baxter, Wilcox, Blake, Holden, Byron Mouton, and Drew Nicholas. Dixon, Baxter, Wilcox, and Mouton averaged 20, 15, 12, and 11 points per game, respectively. The two junior guards Blake and Nicholas gave the Terps a combined 15 points and 10 assists every game.
When you look at their schedule, they seemed to lose at the right time just so all the winning they were doing during the regular season didn’t go their heads as a unit. They lost the season opener to Arizona 71-67 in Madison Square Garden and won eight in a row including wins against the No. 16 Temple Owls and No. 2 Illinois. Their second loss came against the No. 22 Oklahoma Sooners 72-56 and they went on a five-game winning streak afterward. They lost to No. 1 Duke January 17, 2002, on the road and didn’t lose a game for the rest of the regular season.
Not winning the ACC Tournament that year didn’t matter. They had home-court advantage in the East Region of the NCAA Tournament. Their first two games against Siena and Wisconsin were played in their backyard, the Verizon Center. That was a huge momentum boost for them as opposed to being positioned out west.
To play Indiana in the national title game, they had to get through Kentucky (finished second in SEC), a Connecticut squad with Caron Butler, Ben Gordon and Emeka Okafor (won the Big East Tournament) and a Kansas Jayhawks team coached by Roy Williams with the highest-scoring offense at 90 points per game. Maryland beat all of them by an average of nine points, so each team gave their best.
The final battle, the only team that stood in the way of the Terps winning a national title was the Indiana Hoosiers who beat Duke and Oklahoma on their road to the championship game. This was an opportunity for Gary Williams to lead his team to victory and the Terps beat the Hoosiers 64-52 behind Dixon’s 18 points, five steals, five rebounds, and three assists. Baxter was a monster on the boards and recorded a 15 point, 14 rebound double-double.
Maryland basketball had its one shining moment and they truly deserved it with the way they played the entire season.
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