CAMERON INDOOR STADIUM/DURHAM—Josh Waldman, Duke junior — I think that Maryland likes to play themselves as if they’re a big deal, and that, historically, they haven’t had that much success against us. Every once in a while, they’ve had a triumph, but it’s pretty much been dominated by Duke. I think that they like to play it up as something that they can get hyped up for and we all get excited because we hate them and we think they don’t deserve it. But it’s not really a rivalry. Monetary wise, it makes sense to them, but it doesn’t make sense in terms of staying true to your conference and staying with the people you’ve played with for a long time. But they’re going to have to start over. The Big Ten is a different style of basketball.
John O’Leary, 24-year-old Georgetown graduate — Well, I don’t have too many feelings. My cousin is Maryland sophomore Jake Layman, so I got involved recently. But, I was at Maryland last year when they beat Duke, so fuck Duke. That’s why we’re here.
Matthew Hamilton, Duke sophomore — It was never a rivalry to begin with, but it’s nice to send them off in this fashion. They’ll have fun in the Big 10. We’ll be glad to see them go. We played them close, they always play us close, but it’s always good to see a good game.
Christian Britto, Duke senior — I think they take it a lot more seriously than we do, but it was awesome either way. The game was so close. I was stressed at the end for sure. But it was definitely nice to go out on top.
Andrew Gluck, Maryland senior — I think it’s a great way to end it—coming to their house. It was the best game that Maryland has played all year. I was for the move out of the ACC. The reason behind it wasn’t just for athletics. There was the academic part too. When they explained that, it made a lot of sense.
Jordan Cook, Duke sophomore — It was pretty exciting. It was a bad game on our part. I don’t think it’s really a rivalry, but the game showed otherwise. I think I would have been bummed if they would have left Cameron with a win. I still don’t think I would have thought of it as a rivalry. We played horribly.
In the second half of Saturday evening’s last ever ACC showdown between No. 8 Duke and Maryland (14-12, 6-7) Duke shot a miserable 23 percent from the field and made only two three-pointers. It was a game that Coach K described as both “chaotic” and “vintage Cameron.”
“Sometimes the basketball gods fool around with you,” said Coach Krzyzewski after the game. “When you’re not shooting [well], they say, ‘you gotta figure out another way to win this thing.’” And, according to Coach K, it was the players—not the coaches—that made the decision that the game was going to be won on defense, in the final seconds.
With 21 seconds left in the game and down by one point, the Terrapins got the ball down low to Charles Mitchell, whose layup was blocked by Jabari Parker. “He bobbled it,” said Maryland head coach Mark Turgeon. Then, with two seconds left on the game clock, the ball was back in Mitchell’s hands from an inbounds play. A turnaround jumper over Rodney Hood—who was somewhat subdued on defense because of his four fouls—hung on the rim for an eternity before finally rolling off into Amile Jefferson’s claws. “I don’t know how Charles’ shot didn’t go in,” said Coach Turgeon. “Call it the Duke gods. I don’t know what happened. That thing was rolling in, then all of a sudden it’s rolling out.” One Jefferson free throw later, and that was it. No more Maryland. No more “NOT OUR RIVAL” chants, and even vaguer memories of The Greivis Vasquez Shimmy. Duke wins the game 69-67, and improves its all-time record against Maryland to 55-23.
But perhaps the most significant nail in the coffin, came a minute earlier when Parker drove down the middle of the lane for a one-handed dunk on Maryland forward Damonte Dodd.
“I kinda wanted to shoot it at first because on the first time, he didn’t really contest the jumpshot,” said Parker. “But then I saw the lane open up. My teammates moved out and I needed to take it because we were also in the bonus. But, I knew that I had to finish strong.” Parker led all scorers with 23 points on 6-of-16 shooting.
For Duke fans, this grand finale in the tradition between these two charter ACC schools wasn’t as bittersweet as some of the media hype might have suggested. As you might be able to surmise from the quotes provided above, the concern was mostly aimed at the Blue Devils’ unsatisfactory offensive performance rather than an appreciation for the many battles that Duke and Maryland have had over the years. It’s especially worrisome since this was the first game in Duke’s 4-games-in-8-days swing, caused by last Wednesday’s postponed game against its true rival, UNC.
Still, it’s unlikely that anyone from either side was strongly for Maryland moving to the Big Ten Conference, even if the ACC did acquire some major replacement teams (Syracuse, Pittsburgh, Louisville).
“I’ve been the most outspoken about what Maryland has done,” said Coach K. “I’ve said all along, that they’re part of the ACC. I don’t know what price…what it’s worth, but it [the tradition] won’t be replicated.”
Click here for the complete Duke/Maryland box score.
*Due to a mix-up in my notes, the original draft of this post had a different version of the game’s final seconds. It’s been corrected.
