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Duke-Maryland Renew “Rivalry” in Spokane For The Sweet Sixteen

By Chris Brown

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During the flurry of conference realignments over the last few years, the University of Maryland, a longtime member of the Atlantic Coast Conference, left the ACC last season to join the Big Ten. The Duke Women’s Basketball team however, will meet up with familiar foe Maryland in a Sweet 16 match-up to compete for a chance to advance to the NCAAW West Regional Finals.

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Even though most Duke fans may complain that Maryland is “not our rival“, the Terrapins and Blue Devils were very competitive in ACC women’s basketball. Before Notre Dame won the last two years, the winner of the ACC Women’s Basketball Tournament was either Maryland, UNC, or Duke for 14 consecutive years and all three schools for the most part have dominated the conference historically.

These teams have competed a total of 80 times as members of the ACC and Duke has a slim lead in the series overall 41-39. Current Duke coach Joanne P. McCallie has a 10-6 against the Maryland with the Blue Devils. The only other time these two teams have met in the NCAA Tournament was in the 2006 National Championship Game, where Maryland beat the Blue Devils 78-75 in overtime.

The last time these two teams met, Duke blew out Maryland in Cameron 84-63 in the Terrapins’ final season before leaving the ACC. However, that was a completely different Duke team led by Elizabeth Williams, Alexis Jones, Tricia Liston, Haley Peters, and Richa Jackson, all of whom are gone this year except Williams. Additionally, the Terrapins made it to the Final Four in last year’s NCAA Tourmanent led All-American forward Alyssa Thomas, who graduated last year.

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Both teams are very young this year and rely heavily on the contributions from underclassmen players. However, while Duke’s gameplan is to run their offense mainly through the post and focus on defense, Maryland is a very perimeter and guard oriented team that is averaging over 80 points per game this season, so the winner will most likely come down to who can control the pace and style of play more thoughout the game.

The Terrapins are the 1-seed for the West Region in Spokane after finishing the regular season 32-2 and going 18-0 in the Big Ten, curently on a 26 game win streak. They will take on 4-seed Duke where the winner will advance to the Elite Eight to face the winner of Tennessee-Gonzaga for a chance to go to the Final Four.

The Terrapins will be the only 1-seed in the tournament that Duke hasn’t already faced this year, so this was the perfect regional match-up for Duke to avoid UConn, Notre Dame, and South Carolina and possibly advance to the Elite Eight. Duke and Maryland will face off Saturday afternoon at 4:30 with ESPN covering the game.

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