I just had to quickly weigh in on this one. A Maryland-Duke rivalry? Of course there is a Maryland-Duke rivalry. You think the Cameron Crazies would waste their time chanting "Not our rivals" at the Terps if they didn't care? If there wasn't that Duke-Maryland history, the Crazies would have done something else with their time -- like studying.
Terps-Blue Devils possesses all the necessary ingredients -- heroes and villains, frequent meetings and, most of all, plenty of history.
I spent some time with Steve Blake a few years ago and was struck at how -- years later -- a particular Duke loss was still imprinted on his soul.
Blake labeled the 2001 Final Four loss to Duke -- the Terps blew a 22-point-lead -- as perhaps the most trying of his career. "That was something I didn't forget for a long time," Blake said.
Don Markus will be your tour guide for this weekend's Virginia Tech game and I will rejoin you all for -- what else? -- the Duke game and all that leads up to it.