Due to the recent conference realignment that has taken place in college basketball, men’s college basketball fans are losing out on many great classic rivalries between various schools.
On February 16, Maryland beat the number two ranked Duke Blue Devils 83-81 in the Comcast center for the last time. This is just one game in this historic college basketball rivalry. However, it also may be the last game because in 2014, the Maryland Terrapins are leaving the Atlantic Costal Conference and are officially becoming a member of the Big 10 conference. In order for these two teams to play again they would have to schedule each other in the non-conference part of their schedule but they are both not willing to do this. The Duke- Maryland rivalry dates back to February 1925 when the first game between these two universities. Since then Duke has gone on to post a 110-62 record versus Maryland. While this record may not point to a very intense rivalry from 2000-2010 Maryland was 8-12 against Duke including going 7-6 against one of the nation’s powerhouse programs.
Duke fan and Junior Matt Lee is sad to see this rivalry go.
“Ever since I was a kid I would always get up for this game because they were always so intense,” Lee said. “And it was fun to watch the passion of each team and how they laid everything on the line.”
Another college basketball rivalry that will be coming to a close on Saturday night is the rivalry between the Georgetown Hoyas and the Syracuse Orange. While these two teams are currently in the Big East Conference Syracuse is heading to the ACC next year and Georgetown is in talks with the six other Catholic Universities in the Big East to form their own conference. This well-known rivalry began in 1980 when Syracuse was riding a 57 game winning streak at home and was playing their last season at Manley Field House. The determined Hoyas went into the Manley Field House and stunned Syracuse winning the game 52-20. Some of the greatest players in the world that the public has come to love has played in this heated rivalry; such as Patrick Ewing, Allen Iverson, Carmelo Anthony, and Alonzo Mourning. An example of how special this rivalry is the just over 34,000 tickets have been sold for Mar. 9 game.
