COLLEGE PARK, MD – JANUARY 28: Rasheed Sulaimon #0 and Melo Trimble #2 of the Maryland Terrapins celebrate after scoring against the Iowa Hawkeyes in the first half of the Terrapins 74-68 win at Xfinity Center on January 28, 2016 in College Park, Maryland. (Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images)
NCAABy Dan Levy on

An ugly win is still a win, especially when the eighth-ranked Maryland Terrapins were hosting the third-ranked Iowa Hawkeyes in a Big Ten game with enormous seeding implications, in both the upcoming conference tournament and, with bigger goals in mind for both teams at this point in the season, the NCAA tournament.

“It wasn’t always pretty, but we played hard and we competed,” coach Mark Turgeon said, via umterps.com, of the 74-68 victory. “Everybody that cares about Maryland basketball was in a panic, but we weren’t. We didn’t overreact. You could tell our guys were really ready to compete.”

Maryland shot 9 for 27 in the second half, including an o-fer from beyond the arc on 10 attempts, but managed to secure the win at the free throw line, scoring the team’s final eight points—albeit on 12 attempts—from the stripe.

The loss was Iowa’s first in the Big Ten this season, dropping the conference leaders into a tie with Indiana at 7-1, one game in the loss column ahead of the Terps. For Maryland, Turgeon’s team showed resiliency, coming back with a win after a tough loss at Michigan State, now 10-0 after a loss over the last two seasons. That number is buoyed by one important stat, one that goes a long way to explaining Maryland’s success: They do not lose at home.

Maryland is 12-0 this season at the Xfinity Center in College Park and, since joining the Big Ten, are an undefeated 14-0 in conference at home. Maryland’s last home loss in any game came against former ACC rival Virginia in last season’s ACC/Big Ten Challenge…on December 3, 2014.

For those without a calendar handy, that’s 422 days ago.

The Terps went 18-1 at home last season and 12-4 the year before under Turgeon, with the last home loss that season coming against Syracuse—the one season both were in the ACC—on February 24, 2014, which gives Maryland just one home loss in the last…703 days.

Now, sure, they aren’t playing games over most of that time, so days add up with an opportunity to lose, but Maryland is 105-53 under Turgeon since he took over from Gary Williams in 2011, buoyed by a 73-12 record at home.

And, yes, the 12 wins this season include requisite warm-up games against Cleveland State, Rider and Mount St. Mary’s. In truth, Maryland’s home schedule even in conference has been woeful, facing Penn State, Rutgers, Ohio State and Northwestern, a team they needed overtime to beat, before facing Iowa.

And yet, they beat all of them, and took down the likes of Michigan, Michigan State and Wisconsin last year as well.

That victory over Wisconsin last season was huge for Maryland as the Terps made a run late run to secure a No. 4 seed in the NCAA tournament. This win, over third-ranked and undefeated-in-conference Iowa, could prove bigger.

Maryland goes on the road for two games, at Ohio State and at Nebraska, before three games at home as part of a season-ending run that includes five of their final eight at Xfinity. Maryland faces a tough Purdue team, ranked 21st in the country at 18-4, 6-3, but gets Bowie State—not a Big Ten game—Wisconsin, Michigan and Illinois to end the home slate. The Terps will surely be favored in all those games, but seeing if this team has the mettle to run the table will go a long way in helping to figure out just what Turgeon has in this bunch as they head into the NCAA Tournament. Maryland still has an outside shot at a No. 1 seed, and will surely, failing a total collapse, eclipse last season’s seeding. Whether this team is a real national championship contender will be determined in the coming weeks. Winning the remainder of their home games will put the Terps in great position come March.

Plus, with an off-season looming after that, that’s a couple of hundred free days to extend the streak without having to even play a game.

About Dan Levy

Dan Levy has written a lot of words in a lot of places, most recently as the National Lead Writer for Bleacher Report. He was host of The Morning B/Reakaway on Sirius XM's Bleacher Report Radio for the past year, and previously worked at Sporting News and Rutgers University, with a concentration on sports, media and public relations.

View all posts by Dan Levy