An unbiased bias

The following is a response from another blog site, where a friend and fellow journalism student, Zainab Mudallal, wrote on the meaning of the Duke rivalry, and why it exists at all:

This week I must admit that I was fairly absent from any Maryland sporting event. I didn’t go to a soccer game, I wasn’t able to watch the football game and I certainly wasn’t going to Maryland Madness (for one reason or another). Thus, after reading through some of this week’s posts I am interested in writing a follow up blog to Zainab’s discussion over what exactly the relationship is between Maryland and Duke at this point in time.

I’ve been a die hard Terrapins fan since the early 2000s, due in part because I was born and raised in Baltimore, and because Maryland is my father’s alma mater. Watching Terps basketball was as common for me as a kid as watching the Ravens and Orioles play. With that, I will be the first to tell you that Maryland and Duke do not have a rivalry at this time. Over the past few seasons, the “rivalry” has been mostly a side show to the actual dominance Duke’s powerhouse program has shown during a stretch of rebuilding years in College Park. But that isn’t to say that it didn’t once exist, regardless of what any Duke fan will tell you.

There are several ways to look at how the rivalry blossomed between 2000 and 2007. There is an almost textual and subtextual nature to the conversation, and providing facts is most likely the most efficient way to begin. Average fans of college basketball would most likely be surprised to know just how close the two teams were head-to-head in those seven seasons.

Duke and Maryland squared off a total of 17 times, with two games coming in the ACC tournament and one in the NCAA tournament. Maryland won eight of the games, with several being extremely close or going into overtime. While Maryland was a national contender those early years, it’s not like Duke was going through a down time. In fact, after Maryland’s championship run in 2001, you could argue that Duke was the stronger side for the next five seasons.

But Maryland was always a thorn in Duke’s side. Several games of note, including Duke’s win over Maryland in the 2000 NCAA Final Four, and Maryland’s underdog overtime victory in the ACC championship game in 2004, stoked the fire of a brimming rivalry. Some years, the teams would split the head-to-head series. In the 2003-2004 season, Duke beat Maryland twice before their surprise demise to the Terps in the ACC final. In the 2004-2005 season, Maryland wasn’t even good enough to make the Big Dance, yet they still beat a strong Duke side twice. Duke returned the favor by sweeping Maryland in the 2005-2006 season. Guess what? Maryland would sweep the season series the following year.

But I believe the hatred was deeper than the close contests. I decided to compile a list of intangible reasons for the rivalry, and came up with the following: Duke’s preppy private school stereotype verses Maryland’s public school image, Cameron Indoor stadium verses Cole Field House, arguably the two loudest arenas for a visiting team to play in the entire country, and finally the competition between long time coaches Gary Williams and Mike Krzyzewski, who have combined for 1,595 total wins.

My point in all of this is for the uninformed naysayer who believes there never was a rivalry, and for the fool who thinks a true rivalry between the teams currently exists. Duke and UNC have a legitimate rivalry because of their vicinity, but mostly because the games have been extremely competitive for a long period of time. The UMD-Duke rivalry was blossoming into one of the best in college basketball, but was not sustained due to Maryland’s fall from prominence. Rivalries, in reality, live and die, but maybe Maryland will rise again soon and reestablish the hatred between the contrasting schools.