The Terps make their 31st all-time appearance in the national tournament.
No. 4-seed Maryland men’s basketball has navigated a challenging yet highly successful 2024-25 campaign. At 25-8, the Terps have secured their most wins in a season since 2015-16 — a run that ended in a Sweet 16 appearance.
But how does this year’s Maryland squad compare to some of the program’s best teams of the past?
The “what if” 2019-20 season: The closest parallel
One of the most compelling comparisons is the 2019-20 team, which saw its season cut short due to COVID-19. Maryland finished 24-7 and won the Big Ten regular season title. According to ESPN’s projected bracket, the Terps would have entered the NCAA Tournament as a No. 4-seed with a 2% chance of winning it all.
Metrics from KenPom.com suggest that this year’s team is closer to that 2020 squad than many might expect. Maryland currently ranks No. 12 in net rating on the website, just one spot below the 2020 team. Offensively, the 2025 Terps rank 28th, compared to the 2020 team’s 18th spot. Defensively, this year’s squad is a clear step up at sixth compared to the 2020 team’s 22nd rankings.
However, a key distinction is the strength of schedule. The 2020 team played the 13th-toughest schedule in the country, while the 2025 squad faced the 52nd-most difficult slate.
The rosters also bear striking similarities. The 2020 team was led by Anthony Cowan Jr., who averaged a team-high 16.3 points and led Maryland with 4.7 assists and a steal per game. His impact mirrors that of Ja’Kobi Gillespie, who has posted 14.7 points per game while leading the team with 5.0 assists and 1.8 steals per game. Both were All-Big Ten selections — Cowan as a first-teamer and Gillespie as a third-teamer.
The frontcourt comparison is equally compelling. Jalen Smith, a lottery pick in the 2020 NBA Draft, averaged 15.5 points, 10.5 rebounds and 2.4 blocks per game. Derik Queen, Maryland’s 2025 standout big, has similarly been a dominant interior presence, averaging 16.3 points and 9.0 rebounds per game. Like Smith, Queen is projected to be a first-round pick.
Yet this year’s Maryland team may be even more offensively potent. Unlike the 2020 squad, which relied primarily on Cowan and Smith (with only Aaron Wiggins also averaging double figures), the 2025 team features five double-digit scorers — making it one of the most balanced offensive groups in program history.
The 2015-16 team: A more proven benchmark
The 2015-16 team, which reached the Sweet 16 as a No. 5 seed before falling to No. 1-seed Kansas, remains the closest recent Maryland team to actually make a deep tournament run.
KenPom ranked that squad No. 22 overall and 24th in offensive and 32nd in defensive efficiency, respectively. Additionally, its strength of schedule ranked 39th — tougher than this year’s but not as demanding as the 2020 team’s.
Statistically, this year’s Maryland team holds a significant edge. The 2025 Terps led the Big Ten in net rating (+20.7), compared to the 2016 squad, which ranked fourth in the conference (+13.4).
The 2015-16 team was led by Melo Trimble, an All-Big Ten second-team selection who averaged 14.8 points and 4.9 assists per game. A key supporting piece was Diamond Stone, the only Maryland recruit ever rated higher than Queen by 247Sports Composite. Stone posted 12.5 points and 5.4 rebounds per game as a freshman, earning All-Big Ten third-team honors.
Stone also elevated his play in March, delivering a 23-point, eight-rebound effort in the Big Ten Tournament quarterfinals and a 14-point performance on 6-of-8 shooting in the NCAA Tournament second round against Hawaii. For Maryland to make a deep run in 2025, Queen may need to replicate that type of late-season dominance.
The 2002 national champions: A long shot
Let’s stack up the 2025 team against the program’s gold standard — the 2002 national championship squad.
That legendary team went 32-4 and ranked No. 3 in KenPom, boasting the fourth-best offensive and seventh-best defensive rating.
In an odd coincidence, KenPom’s No. 1-ranked team this year is also Duke. While it may not mean much, the Blue Devils have only finished No. 1 in KenPom two other times in the past 23 years — adding an interesting historical wrinkle.
The 2002 team was led by Maryland legend Juan Dixon, who won Final Four Most Outstanding Player honors, averaging 20.4 points and 4.6 rebounds per game. In the frontcourt, Lonny Baxter and Chris Wilcox provided dominant two-way play. Their production is somewhat comparable to the Queen-Julian Reese duo — two paint-dominant bigs with rebounding prowess and NBA potential.
Baxter, like Reese, added significant muscle — 35 pounds — during his college career. Wilcox, a highly ranked young player, left Maryland after two years and was drafted No. 8 overall — right around where Queen is projected to go.
What can we learn?
While historical comparisons can only tell us so much, one thing is clear — Maryland’s most successful teams have followed a familiar blueprint: a ball-dominant, college-ready guard (Dixon, Trimble, Cowan, Gillespie) paired with a dominant, NBA-caliber big man (Baxter, Wilcox, Stone, Smith, Queen).
This year’s team fits that mold. Now, it’s time to see if the results will follow.