Dear DBR (RE: Maryland Front Page Article)

[Duke3517]

Maryland has always had tremendous game plans when they went up against Duke. They used to do a real good job cutting off passing lanes while Duke tried to push the ball through transition. It seemed that Maryland did that better than most against Duke. The rivalry seemed to go away during Kyle Singler's (and Nolan Smith) tenure. I believe Maryland only won once during that time frame. I live in Maryland and I used to listen to Keith Cavanaugh say that they never had a good matchup for Singler. It mostly had to do with not having a defender that matched his versatility. But most likely UMD had great matchups for whatever Duke put out there.

[flyingdutchdevil]

Q: Do/Did you consider Maryland to be a rival?

1) Nope. There is only rival.
2) A little bit, but every ACC team is a rival.
3) Yes, but not as much as UNC
4) A full-blown rival. "Spear the Turtle!"

[Scorp4me]

Honestly couldn't have cared less about them when they were in the ACC. Want to see them fail miserably now that they made the short sighted decision to leave the ACC. I appreciate the DBR for keeping me up to date in regards to that. Doesn't make me them obsessed, just saves us all time =)

[lotusland]

I've been a Duke fan for many years but I'm not an alum. I don't encounter many UMD fans, I've never hated them and always pulled for them against non-ACC opponents. I like them much less since they quit the ACC and I'll probably root against them now. Previously winning or losing against Maryland was no different to me than any other non-UNC school in the conference.

[jv001]

The reason I hate certain teams begin and most of the time end with their fans. Therefore #1 most hated team is the Tar Heels. Therefore #2 most hated team is the Terps. After that there are some players on other teams that I dislike, but for the most part I don't hate the team. That said, GoDuke!

[johnb]

Maryland left for the cash after their athletic dept went broke because of a lousy administration and lousy alumni/state support. It's hard to get passionate about the shortcomings of bureaucrats and middle aged rich guys who elected to not support their school (or at least failed to manage it wisely). And their rank-and-file fans are churlish, boorish, and basically big poopheads; good riddance.

As for the players, I see them as being almost identical to our own players, except not as talented. I don't root for them to fail except insofar as they bring shame and frustration to the guys who orchestrated this pathetic reshuffling.

As for the shock, shock of seeing a Maryland thread on a Duke site... you started it, and, further, is there a slower sports week than this one?

[Thurber Whyte]

1. No, Maryland was/is not our rival. There is no metric or group of metrics that Maryland fans can point to that is not also true of most other teams in the Conference at one time or another. Exciting games together? Games with a lot riding on them? Their fans really do not like us? You can make the same argument for just about any team in the ACC using these criteria at some point in time. In fact using these criteria, you can make a better argument for rivalries with certain teams outside the Conference: Kentucky and, for a while, Michigan and UConn. Someone mentioned Georgia Tech in the early 90s. Those games were amazing. They were a big part of how the Thriller Dome got its name. However, no one at the time thought of Tech as our rival.

A major force for validating Maryland’s claim was ESPN for selfish reasons. For a couple of years, ESPN included Duke-Maryland games in its “Rivalry Week” promotion placing it at the start of the week and Duke-UNC at the end. The Conference and apparently Duke as well were happy to go along. And why not? Duke had the honor of opening and closing Rivalry Week. However, when Maryland could not keep up its end of the bargain by remaining a national power and ESPN was done with it, ESPN unceremoniously kicked the Duke-Maryland game out of Rivalry Week.

I too was at Duke at the height of the Maryland, yes, rivalry (T '04). It's important to remember that for a couple of years, Maryland was elite and unc was terrible. In 2002, the twerps won the ACC regular season (not to mention the national title) with a 15-1 conference record, while the heels went 4-12. The next year, Duke tied Maryland for 2nd in the regular season at 11-5, with unc checking in at #7 and 6-10. For at least a couple of years, the Maryland rivalry may not have surpassed unc in terms of historic or institutional importance, but in terms of conference competition, genuine competitiveness, and national relevance, Maryland absolutely eclipsed the heels. I understand the perspective that each team can have only one true rival (and to some extent, I agree with that perspective), and in that sense, Maryland was not then and never has been "our rival." That being said, there were plenty of Duke basketball neophytes on campus in 2002-03 who were definitely more excited about Maryland than about unc, and who didn't quite understand why people got so worked up about the heels when they stunk.

This was always the part of the Maryland claim to a rivalry with us that I found the most obnoxious: the implied assumption by Maryland fans that Maryland had instantly stepped into UNC’s place, not just as our rival, but also in the conference generally. It also made me sad for what could have been. UNC’s history with Maryland is pretty similar: a perennial power beating them like a drum year in year out punctuated by a few exciting, completive games here and there. Also, you have an even better target for Maryland fans to project their insecurities onto by accusing their fans of snobbery and elitism. Why could Maryland not have peaked around 1995 when Duke was having its down period? If there is one fan base that is expert at giving another the brush of in terms of claims to a rivalry it is UNC’s. Instead, Maryland fans act like UNC does not even exist, more rather than less so now that UNC returned to its usual form. I would have dearly loved to sit back and watched the spectacle of the unspeakable in full pursuit of the inedible.

I will miss Maryland. I really liked their teams. Walt Williams was one of my favorite ACC players. For the reasons mentioned, I highly respected Gary Williams’s integrity, more so given the harder challenge he undertook when he returned to Maryland to right the ship. I liked the way he could consistently find the diamonds in the rough and make them great players. Some criticize the ACC as being dominated by two teams, Duke and Carolina. However, most years there was a third contender in the mix and, under Gary Williams, it was more often Maryland. Maryland leaves the Conference third in all time winning percentage. You can acknowledge all this without accepting the claim of a rivalry.
It was always Maryland fans I could do without. They have a lot to be genuinely proud about, but no matter how good Maryland was or is, it will never match the inflated self importance of its fans. At this point, I bear no animus real toward Maryland fans either. Switching conferences was not the choice most of them would have made and, even if some are inclined to spout the party line that they are leaving for a better conference, they do so defensively and their heart is not in it.

My ire now is directed at Maryland’s administration. The Big Ten caused several years of trouble and anxiety in college sports and Maryland chose to get in bed with them. I am a moralist. Some might say a petty moralist, but a moralist nonetheless. I am rooting against the success of this relationship simply because it is something that should never have happened. Perhaps, given its predicament, Maryland remaining in the ACC was not a viable option and joining the Big Ten was the only choice it could have made. However, the administration could at least be honest about that and stop using PR to cover its mistakes and trashing the ACC and upselling the Big Ten in the process.


2. No, there is no contradiction in continuing to follow Maryland’s further adventures in its chosen conference. This is why the Greeks invented tragedy. So that people can sit around and watch others destroyed by the gods for their hubris. [Pulls up a chair. Grabs the popcorn.]

[WakeDevil]

Having been at Duke during the height of the rivalry with Maryland, I am going to respectfully disagree with you.

Maryland may have been a rival to you youngsters, but not to the rest of us. And for someone to say we were ever rivals with GT, VA or NC State, maybe on your planet, but not this one.

[sagegrouse]

1. No, Maryland was/is not our rival. There is no metric or group of metrics that Maryland fans can point to that is not also true of most other teams in the Conference at one time or another. Exciting games together? Games with a lot riding on them? Their fans really do not like us? You can make the same argument for just about any team in the ACC using these criteria at some point in time. In fact using these criteria, you can make a better argument for rivalries with certain teams outside the Conference: Kentucky and, for a while, Michigan and UConn. Someone mentioned Georgia Tech in the early 90s. Those games were amazing. They were a big part of how the Thriller Dome got its name. However, no one at the time thought of Tech as our rival.

One measure that folks can use is that for a number of years up through 2013 Duke had two teams against which it played two games every year -- UNC and Maryland. To be fair to your point. those match-ups were probably influenced by TV contracts as much as anything else.

[Henderson]

One measure that folks can use is that for a number of years up through 2013 Duke had two teams against which it played two games every year -- UNC and Maryland. To be fair to your point. those match-ups were probably influenced by TV contracts as much as anything else.

At the risk of sounding like a nostalgia-dwelling old fogey, I do miss the time when all the ACC teams played home-and-away with every other team. It made the end-of-year conference standings more meaningful to me. No quibbling about who had the easier schedule.