In lacrosse and women’s basketball, Maryland and Georgetown have a long-standing, historic rivalry. But when the men’s lacrosse Hoyas take on the eight-ranked Terrapins on Friday, that game will likely mark the last matchup between the two schools for a very long time.
In a naïve attempt to strong-arm the Georgetown athletic department, Maryland Athletic Director Kevin Anderson recently announced that his school would not schedule the Hoyas in any sport until a men’s basketball matchup between the two comes to fruition.
But an elite basketball program like Georgetown’s does not need to respond to Anderson. In the same manner, though, Maryland does not need Georgetown on their basketball schedule. The Terps play in the ACC and face off against Duke, North Carolina, and the like on a yearly basis. If Terrapin Nation isn’t showing up in droves for those marquee conference games, scheduling Georgetown will not improve numbers at the Comcast Center either. Perhaps the move is Maryland Coach Mark Turgeon’s way of prying recruits from the Hoyas. After all, if the Terps upset the Hoyas in one of these matchups, it may turn a DMV baller over to College Park instead of 37th and O streets.
That’s not to say an annual matchup between the local schools would be a bad thing. Local rivalries can be heated matchups, even if they aren’t of Duke versus North Carolina caliber. Take, for instance, Philadelphia’s Big Five. Villanova is clearly the cream of the crop in the region, but even they struggle against Temple, Penn, and the rest of the middling programs that comprise the rivalry.
Still, Georgetown responded in the best way possible in this scenario – terse and unaffected. Athletic Director Lee Reed declined to comment, and Sports Information Director Mex Carey simply said, “We do not make a habit of commenting on the scheduling practices of other schools.”
To Carey and the rest of Georgetown Athletics, the move is baffling, if not completely unnecessary. If anything, John Thompson III and the Hoyas should be flattered that Maryland went to such extreme public lengths in this last-ditch attempt to coerce a basketball matchup. Instead, Thompson criticized Maryland for its approach. “I find it extremely odd that a competent athletic director would choose that method to try to schedule a game,” he said.
Not everyone associated with Georgetown stayed quiet on the matter. Former Hoya coach John Thompson, Jr., ripped Anderson apart on his ESPN 980 radio show, questioning the AD’s integrity and intelligence. The legendary coach inserted some backhanded humor into his comments as well, complimenting Anderson on taking on scheduling duties at both Maryland and Georgetown.
In the past, Big John has shown that you don’t mess with his program. After a long-standing feud with former DeMatha High School coach Morgan Wooten, Thompson Jr. simply refused to recruit from the basketball powerhouse. But today, Georgetown does not explicitly belong to Big John. Instead, it belongs to his son, who ended that DeMatha drought when he recruited Austin Freeman in 2007.
That Thompson legacy and attitude, though, still permeates McDonough Arena. “Don’t piss off Big John” has transformed itself over the years – now, it’s just “don’t cross the Hoyas,” advice which Kevin Anderson obviously did not take. Although Lee Reed may have been reluctant to start a new rivalry, Maryland is obviously attempting to reopen old wounds. The problem, though, is that Georgetown doesn’t need Maryland, but the opposite is not true—Maryland has eight varsity sports going down the drain, and budgetary problems growing immensely over the next few years. Maybe it’s time for Anderson to realize that the Terps need a lot more than a basketball game with the Hoyas to fix their own problems.
As a Terp alum who would love to see the Hoya’s and Terps play, I agree wit you. Kevin Anderson has made a fool of himself and the entire university.
What was he thinking