ANALYSIS/OPINION:
The way Tuesday night’s long-awaited matchup between Maryland and Georgetown should have started was to have Lefty Dreisell and John Thompson meet at half court and touch gloves.
There is no Maryland or Georgetown basketball without Driesell or Thompson. There is none of the legend or lore of the cold war between the two schools without the two larger-than-life coaches, who, during a memorable 1979 contest at the D.C. Armory, had words that, according to Thompson, “weren’t anything you could put in a newspaper.”
Time heals all wounds, though. If Lefty and Thompson met last night on the court at the Xfinity Center, they likely would have hugged, as the two men are good friends now.
They also would have been proud of what peace has wrought — a hotly contested 75-71 win by Maryland over Georgetown that, if it is the first chapter in the rivalry renewed, became a memorable chapter.
“I guess that is what a rivalry game is,” Maryland coach Mark Turgeon said. “What a great college basketball game.”
This neighborhood Jets/Sharks turf battle is not about the coaches anymore. Turgeon and John Thompson III, the son, are not generals fighting a basketball war. They are diplomats, and so finally, for the first time since 1993, the two schools met last night on local turf, as part of the Gavitt Tipoff Games between the Big East and the Big Ten.
The coaches may not heat up this rivalry that has, for the most part, existed from a distance between the two fanbases, but the players did their part to fire things up before a Maryland crowd of nearly 18,000 at the Xbox.
This is about the players now — Jake Layman, Melo Trimble, Bradley Hayes, D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera — as it should be. They, and hopefully those who follow, if this local rivalry becomes a regular marquee event, are the ones who will make it worthy of the foundations that Driesell and Thompson built at their respective schools.
“What a group of great players,” Turgeon said. “What a great atmosphere.”
If anyone was worried about this game not having juice after the Hoyas’ upset loss Saturday to Radford, they were dispelled quickly as Georgetown opened the game with a 9-0 run.
Maryland bounced back, under the leadership on the court of Rasheed Sulaimon, who finished with 10 points and seven assists, one of new arrivals on the team and someone who is going to be a key player in the Terrapins’ success this season. Trimble led Maryland with 24 points, followed by Layman with 15 and Robert Carter with 12. Hayes — a player to watch for the Hoyas — led Georgetown with 16 points.
The score was tied at 33-33, but in the second half Georgetown began to pull away from the Terrapins with aggressive play inside and on the boards. They outrebounded the bigger Terrapins, 36-28, but then, with about four minutes left in the game, Maryland legend Greivis Vasquez arrived and the crowd went crazy. He had been playing earlier in the night at Verizon Center in the Milwaukee Bucks’ loss to the Washington Wizards and seemed to spark not just the crowd, but the Terrapins as well.
Georgetown led by six, but then Trimble hit a 3-pointer to cut the lead to 61-58. Maryland’s defense managed to hold down Georgetown, and Layman hit a 3-pointer, Carter threw in a nice hook in the middle and then Sulaimon nailed a 3-pointer to give the Terrapins a 71-68 lead before they held on for the win.
“In the end, we did what we had to do,” Turgeon said. “Our guys were dialed up.”
The rivalry lives again for now — thanks to the players.
• Thom Loverro is co-host of “The Sports Fix,” noon to 2 p.m. daily on ESPN 980 and espn980.com.
• Thom Loverro can be reached at tloverro@washingtontimes.com.
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