March Madness is Here: Maryland, Duke Play Wednesday for Big Bag of ACC Marbles

Regardless of what Duke fans claim, whenever the Terps and Blue Devils lock horns, a rivalry is renewed. 

Terp fans call Dookies every name in the book, with special relish reserved for accusations of social or, ah, romantic shortcomings.  Duke fans are only too happy to respond, wondering aloud what Maryland thinks it did to get into their league.  

In a nutshell:

Maryland:  "Hey, &$@#$?!  Think you're better than me?"

Duke:  "Yes."

It's more than just dislike or disdain. It's the haves vs. have-nots (or have-lesses, anyway), public vs. private, North vs. South, middle child vs. only child.  And take it from me: it's intense. Spittle-fleckingly so.

Although Duke holds a major all-time advantage (106-60), Maryland is more competitive with the Devils than any other ACC team not named Carolina.

Maryland is 8-13 (4-7 in Cameron) against Duke since 1999-2000, while UNC is 9-12 (5-5 in Cameron). Losing records aren't anything to crow about, but given that no other ACC team is anywhere near even this ramshackle ballpark, it's pretty clear we're grading on a curve. 

The Terps were also the only non-Duke/UNC squad to win an ACC tournament in the aughts, when they upset the Blue Devils to capture the banner in 2004.

But let's return to this year. A few weeks ago, Duke downed Maryland by 21 at Cameron. And now, the rematch is at hand. There's a lot at stake in this one. Let's have a look, shall we?

First is the ACC regular season title.  Maryland is one game behind Duke for the conference lead. (Four other teams are four games back.)  If the Terps win out and Duke loses out, Maryland is your ACC champ. 

One problem, though:  Maryland's finale comes at flagging Virginia, but Duke ends its season at home against hapless North Carolina.  So yeah...barring some miracle of tiebreaker math, it's not likely for the Terps. But anything can happen. Tar Heel pride, and all that. But lacking said miracle, there's still plenty of cache in catching the Devils for a share of the ACC lead.  So that's something.  If Maryland can do it.

The second big chip on this table, and perhaps the one more in play at this point, is ACC Player of the Year. 

POY, MVP, and related voting endeavors are an inexact science. Is it the player with the best stats?  The one who means the most to his squad?  The best player on the best team? 

Recent trends seem to favor the best player on a contending team. At the moment, it's a three-horse race. Virginia Tech's Malcolm Delaney is still the ACC's top scorer, but his team lost to Maryland and Duke and has fallen back to the pack. Maryland's Greivis Vasquez is second in the ACC in scoring and first in assists. He is also 10th in field goal percentage (no mean feat for a guard).

So basically it comes down to Vasquez and Duke's Jon Scheyer. 

Scheyer is third in scoring and fourth in assists. He ranks ahead of Vasquez in a couple of minor categories but there's no major separation; he's first in free throw percentage while Vasquez is third, he ranks one-tenth of a steal ahead of Vasquez, etc. 

Statistically, this is Vasquez's award to lose.  BUT.  If Vasquez can't lead his team to a regular-season split with Scheyer's Blue Devils, I think Scheyer wins it. 

Basically, then, this was all a really long-winded way of saying that whichever player's team wins Wednesday's game will probably win ACC POY.

So you've got the title in play and you've got the POY in play. And if that weren't enough, both these teams are playing for optimum seeding in the Big Dance, with Duke possibly needing a win to keep its name in the mix for a #1 slot.  (The Terps are currently projected as a sixth seed.) 

Plus, it's Senior Night for Vasquez, Eric Hayes, and Landon Milbourne. Senior night for three guys who (perhaps surprisingly) became some of the best-loved Terps of the past decade. You don't think they're gonna be fired up to beat Duke for the first time in three years?  You don't think Comcast Center's gonna be rockin for this? 

Taken together, this might all point to one of the more meaningful Maryland-Duke games in some time. And that's saying something.

For more on the game and the Terps, check out www.shell-games.com.