The scene: Cole Field House; College Park, Maryland.
The crime: Theft, and a lot of it. All caught on camera.

In 2001 Duke was king, and Maryland was just trying to be the heir apparent. It was a nice time in my life.  Admittedly, I grew up a Dookie. As a young boy learning the difference between right and wrong, I immediately became infatuated with Grant Hill’s pristine image, and Christian Laettner’s floppy hair. Hitting a turnaround jumper in the Elite Eight looked like a lot of fun; maybe someday I could do the same. So as the years went on, I became the type to cry, even die a bit inside, when Duke came up on the short end. Basically, I was a little bitch.

On January 27, 2001, I felt like I was about to be tossed into purgatory. The Blue Devils were down 10 to Maryland with under a minute to play, and were seemingly ready to walk off the court and concede defeat in a battle for ACC supremacy. The Terps, you remember, were currently undergoing a mini-renaissance under Gary Williams. They had a veteran nucleus and young explosive talent coming off the bench. Tonight All-American guard Jay Williams was struggling, and Steve Blake was prancing around like he was the best point guard in the ACC. Frankly, he wasn't even the best point guard on his team. Juan Dixon was Maryland basketball at the time, but Blake always seemed to get the camera time. Watching it all unfold, the Terps only needing two hours to supplant North Carolina as the heel in ACC basketball, was quite an unpleasant thing to watch. Suddenly I was losing feeling in my extremities. And why was everyone I knew calling my phone!?

Then eight points in 13 seconds happened.

It was Williams with a lay-up, then a steal, then a three. That alone was something Duke fans could savor. You only see that sort of stuff in 128-bit video graphics. But then Drew Nicholas missed a pair of free throws and Williams subsequently sank another three. Duke was only down two.

Now it was on.

A few more things happened, just not as thrilling, and like that we were preparing for overtime. In the extra session, Duke would of course prevail with a 98-96 miracle victory (StatSheet.com crunches the numbers), Mike Patrick began having hot flashes, and Brad Daugherty was so overwhelmed he went to cover NASCAR full-time for ESPN. That's how impactful Jay Williams was.

It was a huge choke job by the Terapins and Duke would retain it’s number-two national ranking. But further affects from the January loss would manifest itself just eight weeks later. Remember, these teams faced each other four times that season, highlighted by a Final Four match-up under Hubert  H. Humphrey’s Metrodome. In that game, after falling behind 39-17, the Blue Devils miraculously (again, it was an absolute miracle!) closed the gap to just nine by halftime led by a strong performance by a young Carlos Boozer, playing despite being hampered by a foot injury suffered in February against, you guessed it, Maryland. Shane Battier played all 40 minutes, serving as Coach K's Avatar-like figure on the court en route to a 95-84 victory, earning them a spot in the national championship game. They haven't been back since.

2001 was the peak of the hatred between these two teams, with the JJ Redick era falling a close second. Today it's just not the same. Both programs lack the star power and polarizing players that were once so abundant for this series. Since then, my affection for Duke has slowly waned, and I view my former devotion to the school as more of a past affliction suffered during my childhood.