The trip from 37th and O Streets to College Park, Maryland, takes around 30 minutes, depending on traffic. The University of Maryland is Georgetown’s virtual neighbor and its best basketball competition in the area, but if you ask either team about a rivalry they would deny its existence.
Before the Hoyas’ 75-48 thrashing of the Terrapins this past weekend, the Battle of the Beltway hadn’t taken place since the Terps beat the Hoyas in the Sweet Sixteen of the 2001 NCAA Tournament. Before that, the last time the two teams met was in Maryland’s 84-83 overtime victory in 1993 on an unforgettably improbable Duane Simpkin lay-up with 3.5 seconds to go.
Still, though those two meetings were gifts to the Metro area, the Georgetown-Maryland rivalry is a far cry away from what it was in the days of yore. Before 1980, the two teams played each other every season. Maryland leads the series 36-26.
Some, like Maryland head coach Gary Williams, refuse to even admit that a rivalry exists. “For the fans, I know they like the local rivalries and things like that, but you know, we just happen to be located close to each other,” Williams said in the Terrapins Insider section of The Washington Post on Sunday.
But citing the schools’ proximity as their sole point of commonality sells the relationship short. Both teams are stacked with players from the Metro area-Maryland with seven and Georgetown with six. Most of them have played against each other throughout their amateur careers.
“Everyone on our team is friends with the guys on their team, and so that comfort level raises the stakes,” Georgetown head coach John Thompson III said in an interview with Sports Illustrated.
The real reason why the two programs have avoided each other in recent decades is stubbornness. The 1993 meeting took place at the Capital Centre, Georgetown’s home court at the time, but both the tickets and the profits were split by the schools and it was officially considered a Maryland home game. Nevertheless, Maryland claims the 1993 outing was a Georgetown home game and that the Hoyas owe them a trip up to College Park. Georgetown, however, maintains that the game was held on a neutral site.
This bull-headed obstinance is robbing each school of a thrilling annual grudge match-one of great interest, surely, to local basketball fans. Come March, Georgetown and Maryland’s NCAA Tournament resumés would both look better with a win over a top notch Big East or ACC opponent than it would with a win against the likes of Jacksonville or Drexel. The Hoyas and the Terps are only hurting themselves.
An annual Georgetown-Maryland match-up would be more than a game: in the bitter cold of an east coast winter, an annual Battle of the Beltway would undoubtedly light a fire under those on both campuses. And, if the Hoyas continue the trend they started on Sunday, it would make the Hilltop a little warmer.
