COLLEGE PARK — There wasn’t much suspense for the Maryland basketball team when NCAA tournament bids were announced Sunday.
Last year was a different story. The Terrapins were one of the last at-large teams to make the field and were delighted to get a No. 10 seed.
This time around, they knew they’d be in — they just didn’t know where. As it turned out, No. 19 Maryland (23-8) earned the fourth seed in the Midwest Region. The Terrapins will face 13th-seeded Houston (19-15) in a first-round game Friday in Spokane, Wash.
“We were definitely more relaxed this year,” senior guard Eric Hayes said. “Last year, we were all jumping up and down because we didn’t know where we’d be or if we’d get in.”
If the Terrapins defeat the Cougars, they will face either fifth-seeded Michigan State (24-8) or 12th-seeded New Mexico State (22-11) in the second round. Michigan State is ranked No. 11 in the country.
Even though the Terrapins lost in the quarterfinals of the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament, they tied Duke, which earned one of the No. 1 seeds in the tournament, atop the ACC regular-season standings with a 13-3 record. Maryland also knocked off the fourth-ranked Blue Devils near the end of the regular season.
“(The seeding) is something our players should be proud of,” Maryland coach Gary Williams said. “They had a pretty good body of work this season.”
This will be Maryland’s third trip to the NCAA tournament in the last four years, and the final one for the trio of seniors — Greivis Vasquez, Hayes and Landon Milbourne — that has led the team this season.
As their college careers wind down, they are less interested in who or where they will play in the tournament and more focused on how they’ll play — because the next loss will be the last of their college careers.
“Last year, we were excited because we barely got in,” said Vasquez, who was second in the conference in scoring (19.5), first in assists (6.2) and was voted the ACC’s Player of the Year. “(Now) we want to do something special. It’s not about getting in the tournament, it’s about going far.”
Houston, meanwhile, earned Conference USA’s automatic bid to the NCAA tournament by winning the league tournament, upsetting No. 25 Texas-El Paso in the final.
The Cougars boast the nation’s leading scorer in senior guard Aubrey Coleman, who averages 25.6 points per game. This is the school’s first trip to the NCAAs in 18 years.
With his team’s victory in the conference tournament, Houston coach Tom Penders became just the eighth coach in Division I history to take four different schools (Rhode Island, Texas, George Washington and Houston) to the NCAA tournament.
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Maryland’s James Padgett (35) goes to the rim amid a host of Georgia Tech defenders during the first half of an ACC tournament game. The Terps earned a four seed and will face Houston on Friday. Associated Pres
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