Sport Basketball Latest meeting February 15, 2014 Current win streak Duke: 1 | First meeting February 1925 All-time series Duke: 110-63 | |
The Duke–Maryland basketball rivalry is a dormant college basketball rivalry between the Duke Blue Devils men's basketball team of Duke University and Maryland Terrapins men's basketball team of the University of Maryland. The basketball series has been called one of the most intense intercollegiate rivalries of modern times by some. A Harris Interactive poll of Marylanders ranked it the third best in the state behind the Redskins–Cowboys and Ravens–Redskins rivalries in 2003 (before the Beltway Series of the Orioles and Nationals was possible). In 2014, Maryland left the ACC for the Big Ten and regular season games between Maryland and Duke are no longer scheduled regularly.
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History
While Duke University and the University of North Carolina are considered to be each other's primary rivals, during the early 2000s the Duke–Maryland games had national implications, including in 2001 where Duke and Maryland met in the Final Four.
The nature of the rivalry between Duke and Maryland is not viewed in the same manner by the schools' respective fans. While the Duke–UNC rivalry originated from geographic proximity and shared history, Duke fans do not view Maryland as a rival. However, several former Duke players have cited Maryland as the team against whom they played their most exciting games. Maryland fans traditionally see the Duke game as the biggest game of the year and have often rioted in College Park after home games, regardless of the outcome. Michael Wilbon, a sports journalist who works for ESPN and formerly wrote for the Washington Post, refers to the Duke–Maryland rivalry as "[o]ne of the best rivalries in one of the best basketball leagues in the country."
End of the Rivalry
With the University of Maryland leaving the Atlantic Coast Conference to join the Big Ten Conference at the start of the 2014–15 academic year, the schools' basketball rivalry may come to an end. While Maryland competed in the ACC for the 2013–14 basketball season, the conference's expansion to a fifteen-team league means that schools do not play every league opponent twice during a given season. Duke and Maryland played one time during the 2013–14 season on February 15, 2014, at Duke's Cameron Indoor Stadium. The final game between the two was the most expensive of any in Duke's Cameron Indoor stadium history, as zero tickets were available on the secondary market the week of the game. Though Duke fans had always maintained they did not view the rivalry as intensely as Maryland fans did, the fact that the final available tickets to the game on the secondary market went for nearly $1000 for a pair showed the intense interest among Duke fans to see Maryland play one final time. To some, including Duke basketball head coach Mike Krzyzewski, the emotion and spectacle that the Duke–Maryland rivalry brings to the ACC are "not going to be there for our conference and for Duke and Maryland anymore."