Men's Basketball Ranked 24th In Final Coaches Poll, Earns Top 10 Consideration For 2004-05
4/7/2004 8:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
April 7, 2004
COLLEGE PARK, Md. - The Maryland men's basketball team, fresh off the 2004 ACC Championship and an eighth-straight 20-win campaign, concluded the 2003-04 season with its eighth-consecutive Top 25 finish. The Terrapins were ranked 24th in the final vote of the head coaches in the USA Today/ESPN Poll, announced Tuesday.
The Terrapins have now earned a final Top 25 ranking each season since 1997. Maryland also finished 19th in the final AP Poll, released March 15.
In all, the Terrapins played 16 games against opponents ranked in the final AP and Coaches Top 25. Maryland posted seven victories on the season against ranked foes -- the most since the Terps' national championship run in 2002.
The Atlantic Coast Conference, cited in the RPI and Sagarin Ratings as the top league in the country all season long, placed a total of six schools in the final Coaches Top 25. The entire poll is listed below.
In addition to the Terps' postseason ranking, ESPN's first look at 2004-05 was published by Andy Katz -- who picked Maryland as the No. 8 squad headed into the new year. The college basketball analyst placed five ACC teams in the Top 10, and six in his Top 25.
ANDY KATZ'S 2004-05 TOP 25 1. Kansas 2. Duke 3. Georgia Tech 4. Wisconsin 5. Illinois 6. North Carolina 7. Wake Forest 8. MARYLAND 9. Syracuse 10. Connecticut 11. Alabama 12. Mississippi State 13. Stanford 14. NC State 15. Notre Dame 16. Louisville 17. Cincinnati 18. Memphis 19. Oklahoma State 20. Arizona 21. Texas 22. St. Joseph's 23. Kentucky 24. Washington 25. Nevada
FINAL USA TODAY/ESPN COACHES POLL (April 6) No. School Record Points Prev 1. Connecticut 33-6 775 7 2. Duke 31-6 722 6 3. Georgia Tech 28-10 721 15 4. Oklahoma State 31-4 688 3 5. St. Joseph's 30-2 644 5 6. Stanford 30-2 553 1 7. Pittsburgh 31-5 544 8 8. Kentucky 27-5 522 4 9. Kansas 24-9 465 14 10. Texas 25-8 437 11 11. Illinois 26-7 419 13 12. Gonzaga 28-3 415 2 13. Mississippi State 26-4 373 9 14. Xavier 26-11 361 NR 15. Wake Forest 21-10 357 16 16. Wisconsin 25-7 334 10 17. Alabama 20-13 248 NR 18. Cincinnati 25-7 239 12 19. Syracuse 23-8 218 24 20. NC State 21-10 157 17 21. Nevada 25-9 156 NR 22. North Carolina 19-11 135 20 23. Alabama-Birmingham 22-10 124 NR 24. MARYLAND 20-12 119 21 25. Vanderbilt 23-10 102 NROthers Receiving Votes: Southern Illinois 37; Memphis 34; Providence 29; Arizona 28; Boston College 24; Texas Tech 23; Michigan 13; Utah State 12;DePaul 10; Pacific 7; Manhattan 6; Western Michigan 6; Seton Hall 5; Air Force 4; UCF 4; Michigan State 2; South Carolina 2; Louisiana-Lafayette 1.
