Somewhere between scouring E-bay for tickets, finding a cheap last-minute flight home and balancing my class/homework schedule, the details of how I found myself in Cole Field House for the Maryland-Duke game last Sunday have become a blur. All I know is that it was No. 1 vs. No. 3 in historic Cole and there was absolutely no other place on Earth I would have rather been.
End of an era
This is the last season that Cole Field House will serve as the home court for the Terps. Next year they will play at the Comcast Center, a new on-campus facility without a scent of basketball tradition in the air.
Cole is one of those old “gyms” that cannot be replaced or duplicated. There are long lines for the restrooms and concessions and not a bad seat in the house. It is essentially an oversized quonset hut that seats 14,500 loyal fans and has served as a stage for some of the most memorable events in college basketball history.
Perhaps the most important of these was the 1966 Championship game between Texas Western and Kentucky. Played at the height of the civil rights movement, Texas Western’s all-black starting five defeated Kentucky, and symbolically its Deep South traditions. The Jim Crow laws of college sports died that night.
About 20 years later, Cole was the stage for Len Bias, and his All-American basketball trajectory was steep. Two days after being drafted No. 2 overall by the Boston Celtics, Bias was found dead in his dorm room from a cocaine overdose. The role of illicit drugs in big-time sports was be permanently illuminated on the empty floor of Cole.
Maryland revival
The program fell into decline for several years until, in the early ’90s, Gary Williams returned to his alma mater and began rebuilding the basketball program. He has been very successful over the years, bringing the Terps to their first Final Four appearance just last year.
However, there Maryland faced the one obstacle it seems Williams has yet to solve ? Duke. Williams’ teams have gone a pathetic 7-25 against the Blue Devils over the years. But recent history has shown more of a balance in the meetings, which brings me to last Sunday.
Gameday madness
I arrived at Cole about two hours before the game. The student section had already been filled for hours, overflowing in a sea of red. Profanity-laced T-shirts and red-painted faces were everywhere. The fans were relentless in their verbal assault of their hated rivals ? the Dukies.
Students taunted and booed members of the entire Duke program, from players (especially Jason Williams, Mike Dunleavy and Carlos Boozer), to coaches (primarily Mike Krzyzewski) to family (namely Dunleavy’s father, and former NBA head coach, Mike Sr.).
All of this was at a high-pitched roar in the pre-game warm-ups. And that’s when I saw the first sign that this was going to be a game for the memory bank. Just before heading back to the locker room following the pre-game shoot-around, Maryland point guard Steve Blake cut through Duke’s half of the court where the Blue Devils were warming up.
But instead of running into the tunnel to the locker room as he usually does, Blake grabbed a ball, stepped behind the three-point line and drilled a shot from the corner. Though it clearly had no point value, that shot set the tone for Maryland that day.
Blake takes control
At the end of the first half, it was Blake again who stepped up to set the tone heading into the locker room. With the clock winding down, Duke had possession and Jason Williams began to hold the ball for the last shot. As he stalled, the All-American point guard glanced back over half-court to the Duke bench, waiting for Krzyzewski to relay a play into him.
Just as Williams turned his head, raw instinct took over inside of Blake and the point guard pounced at the ball, making the clean steal and going coast-to-coast for the lay-up. This was a pivotal play for the Terps, as it kept the momentum on their side heading into the break.
Notorious for never being able finish a half strong, the Terps had Cole rocking as the players and coaches went into the locker room up by nine points.
The second half was highlighted by Maryland’s swarming defense. Led by Chris Wilcox, who shut down Dunleavy, and a coaching strategy that saw Jason Williams and his teammates go 7-33 from the three-point line, Maryland never trailed. The Terps led by as many as 25, but the story doesn’t end there.
The Blue Devils chipped away at the lead and cut the margin to 11 late in the half. Blowing big leads to Duke is familiar territory for the Terps. In last season’s match-up at Cole, Maryland surrendered 10 points in the final 54 seconds and eventually lost in overtime. A month later in the Final Four, the Terps squandered a 22-point first half lead and watched as the Blue Devils advanced to play for the title. So when Duke closed to 79-68 with 2:39 to go, an eerie wave of doubt and dj vu rushed through the stomachs of every Terp fan in the building.
Would it happen again? Could it possibly happen again? Coach Williams called a timeout. His troops returned to the court and walked off only after securing an 87-73 victory.
They didn’t actually walk off, though. When the final buzzer sounded, I joined some friends from the student section and along with thousands of others we rushed the court. We yelled and screamed and pointed our index fingers in the air.
A dragon had been slain on its last visit to hallowed ground. As I walked off the court I ran into Duke freshman Daniel Ewing. I told him “good game” and patted him on the back. He returned a genuine thank you nod and we both shared an unspoken awareness that there will be another great match-up soon, probably in the ACC finals and then in the NCAA tournament if things work out right.
As I wedged my way off the court I caught a glimpse of Blake sharing an embrace with his dad. Blake was certainly a key to the victory and deserved the appreciation. I, too, was very appreciative of my last visit to Cole ? for big-time college basketball.
Gerton can be reached at mgerton@campustimes.org.
