While Duke and North Carolina might have had a more intense rivalry with Maryland and its fans during the program’s 61 years in the Atlantic Coast Conference, Virginia had its own place, especially when it came to the arena in which the Terps played.
The Cavaliers not only helped open Cole Field House in 1955, but they helped close it in 2002, a few weeks before Maryland won its only national championship. And as the Terps were leaving the ACC in 2014, Virginia was in College Park to play Maryland’s last regular-season game.
That storied past has little to do with what is at stake Wednesday night.