Well, not exactly

[Tom B.]

So very glad Fox Sunday Night Hoops will be put out of our misery after this season. Eight more weeks!

I don't think that the crawling Twitterific commentary was Fox -- I think it was something that CSN added to the feed just for their viewers. So if you were watching on a different FSN affiliate in another part of the country, I don't think you saw the crawl.

That being said, between their insistence on constantly experimenting with lousy camera angles and "He's Henry, Clay Henry..." (it's been like seven years and I still can't get that song out of my head) I won't be heartbroken to see Fox's Sunday night ACC hoops broadcast go. About the only good thing they ever did was trade Kenny Smith in for Mike Gminski.

[throatybeard]

I'm going to approximate what I said long ago about this.

Carolina is like your rascally cousin in a country song, who stole your woman, ran over your dog, wrecked your truck, put your house up as collateral on his gambling debt, and ate your last box of honey nut. You hate his guts like hell, but he's still family. When his momma [Dean Smith] dies,* you'll pay your respects at the funeral.

Maryland is like a random thug in a dark alley who just jumped you and started wailing on you once in a while back in 2000. You have no idea who he is, you wish he'd just go away. It's not personal, just tiresome. They could beat us 30 out of the next 40. I'd be irritated, but still want to beat Carolina more even if they had beaten us 30 out of 40.

* -- Mssr Smith was not ill when I made this analogy originally. All due respect.

[Duvall]

I don't think that the crawling Twitterific commentary was Fox -- I think it was something that CSN added to the feed just for their viewers. So if you were watching on a different FSN affiliate in another part of the country, I don't think you saw the crawl.

True, but that's my biggest beef with the FSN games - the ACC games are subject to the whims of the regional Fox networks, and ripe for preemption for NBA games, NHL games, and God help us, Redskins postgame.

[Papa John]

Agreed. I was looking for the pancake bunny photo but couldn't find it. -- sagegrouse

[epoulsen]

While I understand many of the arguments, I think that this whole "rivalry" scenario isn't really fair for Maryland, partly due to their own ignorance. Duke vs. UNC is one of the greatest, if not THE greatest rivalry in sports. It is impossible for anyone to match the level of intensity or competition displayed by both schools when pitted against one another. Maryland cannot understand that, and they never will understand that. So from their point of view we are rivals, and if you compared the "Maryland Duke rivalry" with any other in Sportsdom you would find that it does meet the criteria. It just doesn't meet OUR criteria.

The only comparable situation I can think of is the following:

Consider the ECU Pirates. If you were to ask any NC State fan who their rival is they would say "Tha Tar Heels" without hesitation (I realize this puts a hole in my argument, but for arguments sake lets say it doesn't). Enter the ECU Pirates. Every now and then their football program pulls a quick one on NC State, not enough to be a real threat each year, but enough to be a blip on their radar, if not but a small blip. And if you ask any ECU fan who their rival is they will say "The Wolfpups" without hesitation. And they would be right and many State fans would agree. In fact, one could argue that because NC State shares a rival with Duke the ECU rivalry is that much more important. Just because NC State already has a rival doesn't mean they can't be rivals with anyone else. Rivalry isn't a monogamous relationship, you can have a rivalry on the side with it's own benefits. Just never lose sight of who your one, true first rival is.

[alteran]

While I understand many of the arguments, I think that this whole "rivalry" scenario isn't really fair for Maryland, partly due to their own ignorance. Duke vs. UNC is one of the greatest, if not THE greatest rivalry in sports. It is impossible for anyone to match the level of intensity or competition displayed by both schools when pitted against one another. Maryland cannot understand that, and they never will understand that. So from their point of view we are rivals, and if you compared the "Maryland Duke rivalry" with any other in Sportsdom you would find that it does meet the criteria. It just doesn't meet OUR criteria.

The only comparable situation I can think of is the following:

Consider the ECU Pirates. If you were to ask any NC State fan who their rival is they would say "Tha Tar Heels" without hesitation (I realize this puts a hole in my argument, but for arguments sake lets say it doesn't). Enter the ECU Pirates. Every now and then their football program pulls a quick one on NC State, not enough to be a real threat each year, but enough to be a blip on their radar, if not but a small blip. And if you ask any ECU fan who their rival is they will say "The Wolfpups" without hesitation. And they would be right and many State fans would agree. In fact, one could argue that because NC State shares a rival with Duke the ECU rivalry is that much more important. Just because NC State already has a rival doesn't mean they can't be rivals with anyone else. Rivalry isn't a monogamous relationship, you can have a rivalry on the side with it's own benefits. Just never lose sight of who your one, true first rival is.

I think you're getting at something here. I wonder if some of the disagreements here are over "a rival" versus "THE rival."

UNC clearly is our one true rival. But Maryland is A rival, and losing to them sure does irritate me more on a personal level than losing to, say, Clemson.

[Indoor66]

I think you're getting at something here. I wonder if some of the disagreements here are over "a rival" versus "THE rival."

UNC clearly is our one true rival. But Maryland is A rival, and losing to them sure does irritate me more on a personal level than losing to, say, Clemson.

In that vein, we have 11 rivals and then The Rival - UNC.

[94duke]

In that vein, we have 11 rivals and then The Rival - UNC.

I would agree with this. We have 11 conference rivals. We care about some of them more than others, and that depends each individual.
We have one Archrival. The Rivalry.

Archrival (Merriam-Webster): a principal rival
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/archrival

[-bdbd]

I think you're getting at something here. I wonder if some of the disagreements here are over "a rival" versus "THE rival."

UNC clearly is our one true rival. But Maryland is A rival, and losing to them sure does irritate me more on a personal level than losing to, say, Clemson.

I live in the DC area and have had this "discussion" with more than one Terp-fan friend. It absolutely is a semantics thing. We think of "rival" as only a singular thing - there can only be one true R-I-V-A-L. While they say - hey we've won X out of the last 20 meetings, which is more than anyone else vs Duke, therefore we are A rival of Duke (as in one of many). I have yet to find a Terp fan who truly believes their "rivalry" with us is bigger than that of UNC. And when we say, "You're not our rival," they hear "You're not a threat" or "We don't care about you." You can't separate the whole Terp fan "insecurity" issue from this discussion, which makes it especially important to them.

Again, it is all semantics from where I sit. Nobody at Duke doesn't love beating MD, and yes we view them usually as a threat, but we just don't choose to term that as "rival." They do.

But it sure is fun getting under their collective skins... And our disdain over their crude/obscene cheers, bottle/coin throwing fans (inside Comcast), and riot-at-every-opportunity rowdiness -- well than just fuels their angst further.




P.S. To their credit, at least a little, MD has risen to a level in most Devils' minds, maybe where NCSU was 30 years ago when I was in school. With 25 years of poor BB, and the football move to the other division, I think the State position in our collective "rivaldom" universe has maybe slipped a couple notches over the last 25 years -- at least per the view from Durham.

[Bostondevil]

I root for Maryland against non-ACC teams, sometimes against other ACC teams.

I would never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever (ad infinitum) root for UNC.

I'm just sayin' . . .

[gep]

I root for Maryland against non-ACC teams, sometimes against other ACC teams.

I would never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever (ad infinitum) root for UNC.

I'm just sayin' . . .

What about UNC vs Kentucky? or UNC vs ucon? For these 2 games, I *really* have a hard time watching the games, knowing someone has to win