One of college basketball’s most historic rivalries tips off Saturday night with Georgetown hosting Maryland at Capital One Arena. If that’s not enough to attract a crowd, it’s also $1 beer night. But there is a two-drink limit, meaning the buzz will be mild at best — a fitting description for the excitement that seems to surround this meeting between the DMV’s two biggest men’s basketball programs.
At its peak, the Maryland-Georgetown game featured some of college basketball’s greatest talents (Joe Smith vs. Alonzo Mourning) and most revered coaches (Gary Williams vs. John Thompson Jr.). Many times, both teams were ranked in the Top 25 at the time of their meeting.
But Saturday’s game will feature two programs battling to stay relevant. Maryland finished 12-21 last year, struggling in its first season under coach Buzz Williams. The Hoyas, meanwhile, have posted one winning season since 2019.
As a result, this year’s game seems to have little juice in the D.C. area. In a bizarre twist, Maryland is actually promoting Saturday’s game as a “Red Out” despite being the visitors. And the Hoyas aren’t really pushing back, with coach Ed Cooley talking about the matchup as if it were a road game.
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“This, to me, will feel like a tournament game,” he told reporters. “We’re going to be playing in a hostile environment. Hopefully it’s our hostile environment.”
In the same Wednesday press conference, Cooley talked about the game the way a 4-year-old might speak about eating green vegetables — they’re playing because they have to, not because they want to.
“We’re playing this game really for our community,” he said. “Back when Kevin [Willard] was the coach at Maryland, we signed a four-year agreement to play home and home. Hopefully our community shows the love we showed them by renewing this rivalry here in our area.”
Even Williams, who is one of the sport’s more loquacious interviews, didn’t talk much about the series’s history this week and instead focused on Cooley’s new-look roster, which is still predicted to finish toward the bottom of the Big East.
“I would say our team is completely different, and based on — we’ll start studying more today as soon as we finish this — but based on what I know about Georgetown’s team, probably more constructed the way that Coach Cooley prefers to play,” Williams told reporters Wednesday.
Saturday will be the 68th game in a series that dates to 1911. Maryland leads the all-time head-to-head, 39-28. The rivalry had an almost 10-year hiatus before being renewed with the four-year contract in 2024.
Last year, the Hoyas beat the Terps, 70-60, in College Park. It was the first time Maryland had lost a home opener in 48 years.
The Hoyas opened this season with an 80-58 win over Loyola (Maryland) on Monday, while Maryland beat Bucknell, 96-67, the same night. Tickets for Saturday’s game were listed for as low as $39 on SeatGeek as of Friday morning.
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