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When Maryland left the ACC for the Big Ten, it wasn’t under the best of circumstances.
First, it was done in a shabby way. Then-president Wallace D. Loh ignored public accountability laws because, we suspect, he was sure fans would not be happy and would possibly rebel. When the move was announced, it was therefore a fait accompli.
There seemed to us that there was a sense of nostalgia from Maryland fans which was not reciprocated by the rest of the ACC. In general it was more of a sense of “you want to go? Fine, go. Good riddance.”
The ACC, a bit peevishly, gave the Terps a tougher than normal schedule on the way out with road trips to Florida State, UNC, Virginia and Duke.
Mark Turgeon, then in his third season, came to Duke with a mediocre team and for the first 32 minutes or so, Duke seemed in control .
But then things got interesting as you’ll see in these highlights.
Maryland started to catch up and with 2:50 left, the Terps were up 67-64. Rodney Hood hit a pair of free throws with 2:11 left to cut the lead to 67-66.
Jabari Parker got a dunk with 1:19 left and with 0:06 left, he blocked a shot and Charles Mitchell got another opportunity with 0:02 left. He took the in-bounds and turned into the lane with only the slender Hood to guard him.
Mitchell took a moving jump hook that bounced three times on the rim before falling off and being picked up by Amile Jefferson.
When he fell to the floor, clearly devastated, he bore the frustration of decades of Maryland fans. A bit of revenge would have been sweet, particularly since Coach K had already made it clear that Duke would never schedule Maryland again.
Who says there’s no such thing as a happy ending?