No matter how you look at it, No. 1 Duke against No. 3 Marylandis a rematch from last season's Final Four and about as good asregular season college basketball gets.
"I don't look at one school in our conference as our rival,"Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "Maryland's program has emergedto national status to where it can compete for a nationalchampionship.
"As a result of gaining that status, a number of the gameswe've played have been remarkable games because you have verytalented players who have high goals playing against one another."
Remarkable, indeed.
The Terrapins (13-2, 3-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) helddouble-digit leads in all four meetings against the Blue Devils(14-1, 3-1) last season, only to come away with a 1-3 record.
Maryland ruined Duke's Senior Day by winning for the secondstraight year at Cameron Indoor Stadium. But Duke beat the Terpswhen it mattered most.
Nate James' follow shot edged the Terrapins in the ACCtournament semifinals, and the Terrapins blew a 22-point lead toDuke in the NCAA semifinals in Minneapolis that ended their seasonon a bitter note.
In another meeting, Jason Williams scored eight points in 14seconds as Duke rallied from 10 points down with one minute leftand eventually won 98-96 in overtime.
The game will forever be known by Duke fans as "The MiracleMinute."
As intense as Thursday night's rematch in Cameron is expected tobe, both coaches realize a win or a loss in midJanuary doesn't meanas much as one in midMarch.
"There are too many other good teams you play to focus on oneteam," Maryland coach Gary Williams said. "We lost to Duke threetimes last year and got to the Final Four, so Duke doesn't controlour year. It might control who wins the ACC, but it doesn't controlwhere we can go at the end of the year."
The Blue Devils don't lose much in historic Cameron, especiallyunder Krzyzewski, who is 269-46 - an 85.4 percent winningpercentage - in that arena as Duke's coach.
Both teams believe they're back on track after losses within thelast few weeks. Duke was upset at Florida State on Jan. 6, whileMaryland lost by 16 points at No. 5 Oklahoma on Dec. 21.
"Everything happens for a reason and maybe that was our wakeupcall," Duke's Carlos Boozer said of the one-point loss to theSeminoles. "It might have been the thing this team needed. We gotrefocused, we've been battling like crazy in practice again. We'renot taking anything for granted."
This game features the ACC's top two scoring teams and the ACC'stop two individual scorers in Jason Williams and Juan Dixon.
Win or lose, the Blue Devils will have a tough turnaround,playing No. 14 Wake Forest on Saturday.
"We're going to learn a lot about our team," Krzyzewski said."This is a week where we'll play two teams that could be FinalFour teams in Maryland and Wake."
Duke is 16-4 in its last 20 games against Top 10 teams.
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