The other day we talked about the anniversary of the Miracle Minute game in College Park and mentioned that the teams had met four times in the 2000-2001 season. Maryland won in Cameron but Duke won in Atlanta in the ACC Tournament semi-finals and then again in Minneapolis in the Final Four.
What made Maryland a special team was the backcourt of Juan Dixon, a cat-quick guard who played at a very high level intellectually, and Steve Blake, who was a cold-blooded punk assassin. It was one of the all-time great backcourts in ACC history.
The game went back and forth and at the end, Duke was wearing down and Maryland wasn’t going anywhere.