Duke Blue Devils @ Maryland Terrapins Basketball Recap

Duke 80, Maryland 62

Duke is the one team in the ACC that every other basketball school loves to hate, but it has to be said that as the month of February continues, every ACC team will secretly rejoice in a Duke victory when that team isn’t playing the defending national champions.

The above statement is counterintuitive, but it’s entirely true. As long as each ACC program isn’t locked in mortal combat with Coach K’s crew, it will want the Dukies to do damage to someone else in this cluttered and crazy conference. 

Mike Krzyzewski’s Blue Devils regained sole possession of first place in the ACC and improved their conference record to 7-1 on Wednesday night in College Park, Maryland, against Gary Williams’ Terrapins. The emphatic win, sealed by a late-game pullaway, completed a home-and-home sweep for Duke in the season series against Maryland. This was an important recovery win for the No. 5 team in the land after it lost to unranked St. John’s at Madison Square Garden on Sunday by a deceptively close (yes, you read that right) 93-78 score.

Just why is it that ACC teams are actually rooting for Duke and not against it? Simple math tells the tale. The ACC is thinner and weaker this season than it’s been in quite some time. The league boasts very few high-value out-of-conference victories, and with North Carolina – despite some awful losses – holding down second place, it’s clear that you’re not going to see six or seven teams making the Big Dance from this normally stacked part of the college basketball power structure. Duke represents the one team in this conference that, if beaten, will give an ACC bubble team a better-than-even chance of making the NCAA Tournament. Therefore, in this tilt between Duke and Maryland, you can bet your bottom dollar that the likes of Virginia Tech, Boston College and Clemson were happy to see the Blue Devils deny the Terps a win that would have transformed Maryland from an NIT team to an NCAA team. This loss keeps Maryland outside the field of 68 for the time being and forces the Terrapins to max out in the month of February. Maryland doesn’t have many more chances to rack up quality wins. Virginia Tech and Clemson want to be the team to beat Duke and zoom up the pecking order in college basketball; those two programs had to be delighted that the ACC’s powerhouse roughed up a contender for an NCAA bid.

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Maryland is now 0-5 against ranked teams this season, and has dropped its conference record to 4-4 in a three-way tie for fifth in the ACC. This is the second time in three games that Williams’ Terrapins have suffered a record loss at home in the Comcast Center; the previous was to Virginia Tech two weeks ago, 74-57.

Duke started to pull away from UM with 10 minutes remaining in the first half, and built a 15- point lead with four minutes remaining before Maryland responded with a 10-2 run to close the score to 40-33 at the break. The Blue Devils hit 50 percent of their field goals in the half, including 6 of 12 3-point attempts. Maryland shot only 38.5 percent, and was 0-for-3 from 3-point range.

The Blue Devils quickly gained a 13-point advantage in the second half, and although Maryland pulled within five points at 55-51 with nine and a half minutes remaining, Duke exhibited classic form to win in dominating fashion by 18 points; Maryland, meanwhile, ran out of gas and expended so much energy in the process of making its comeback that it had nothing left for the home stretch. Krzyzewski’s squad hit 10 of 23 threes for the game and 52.6 percent of their shots from the field, while Williams’ Terps found the basket only 40 percent of the time and mustered only two 3-pointers.

Maryland’s loss and Duke’s victory represent a gain for the rest of the ACC. Sure, hatred of Duke is publicly popular, but in some corners of the Atlantic Coast Conference, the colossus from Tobacco Road is a beloved team on certain game nights in this corner of the country. Somewhere in Blacksburg, Virginia, and Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, a few cheers went up when news of Duke’s conquest of Maryland hit the airwaves.

By: Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer