Patrick Stevens

There are two or three spots in the field available for a group of six schools: Duke, Harvard, Maryland, Penn State, Saint Joseph’s and Yale.

The 7-6 Terrapins are staring at the distinct possibility of missing the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2002.

Even by the Big Ten’s defense-first standards, Penn State’s victory over Maryland in Thursday’s conference semifinals was no one’s idea of a work of art.

Needing a different look on faceoffs, Peter Milliman turned to Dan Sheppard late.

A committee led by UVA coach Lars Tiffany and consulted by mathematician Larry Feldman has developed a tool that could replace RPI as the chief metric in tournament selections.

By beating North Carolina, Duke raised its profile enough to be back in the at-large discussion.

This week’s race to polish off regular-season titles and simply extend seasons by a handful of days should be frenetic.

The rankings might — might — offer a clue on what this committee might or might not value as much.

Johns Hopkins clinched the top seed in the Big Ten tournament.

Tuesday night's game in the Capital District will be emotional for both sides of the competition.