MIKE BURKE
Allegany Communications Sports
During the same week the schools will face off in football for the second year in a row, Maryland and Virginia jointly announced on Wednesday that the schools have renewed the longest-played series in Maryland’s basketball history with the former ACC rIvals beginning a four-game series in the 2025-26 season that runs through the 2028-29 season.
The teams will meet next year in Charlottesville before playing in College Park in the 2026-27 season, then will repeat the home-and-home cycle the following two years.
“Maryland and Virginia have a long basketball history and we’re excited to bring this series back to life,” said Terps head coach Kevin Willard. “Looking ahead, I think it means a lot to our fanbase to have our historic rivalries rekindled between Georgetown and now Virginia which has been outstanding under Coach Bennett.”
(The Terps and Georgetown will also start a four-year series beginning with the 2025-26 season.)
“We are excited to announce a four-year series with Maryland,” said Virginia head coach Tony Bennett. “I greatly respect Coach Willard and what he’s doing there. We’ve played some exciting games against Maryland in the past, and we’re looking forward to a highly competitive series.”
Maryland and Virginia have played 184 games in the series with the Terps holding a 108-76 record against the Cavaliers. The series began in 1913 and played every year but the 1939-40 season between 1924 and 2014.
Since Maryland left the ACC, the teams have played twice in the now-defunct ACC/Big Ten Challenge, with the Cavaliers winning both in 2014-15 and 2018-19.
Maryland’s final regular-season game as a member of the ACC was against Virginia in March of 2014, with the Terps beating the No. 5 Cavaliers in overtime to end their 13-game winning streak and also halt their losing streak to Virginia at six.
The teams met eight times in the ACC Tournament and split those games.
It should also be noted that the late, great Len Bias played his final game at Cole Field House on March 1, 1986 and led the Terps to an 87-72 victory.
Maryland pretty much dominated the series until the mid-1970s after former Lefty Driesell assistant Terry Holland had taken over and established the Cavaliers program, bringing in players such as Jeff Lamp, Lee Raker, Jeff Jones and, oh, yes, Ralph Sampson.
Maryland had pretty good success against the University of Ralph, pulling a 47-46 overtime upset against the No. 1-ranked Cavs in 1982 on a 15-foot jumper at the buzzer by freshman Adrian Branch, one of the six Maryland victories over top-ranked teams at Cole.
The previous season, the Terps stymied Ralph and the No. 3 Cavs, 85-62, in the first round of the ACC Tournament, which was being played down the road at the Capital Centre.
When I covered Maryland basketball for the Prince George’s Sentinel, the Virginia games were must-see, and while the Cavaliers won most of them during Sampson’s final two seasons, they were all dogfights and Cole Field House was just electric.
The Terps had a tough, but under-skilled 6-foot-9 forward by the name of the Mark Fothergill who always drew the assignment of covering the 7-foot-4 three-time National Player of the Year and more than any other player, it seemed, Fothergill could get under Ralph’s skin the most (and if you ever talked to Fothergill, you’d understand why … funny, funny guy).
In fact, one night, Fothergill was playing Sampson so close and saying Lord knows what that the Cavaliers big man finally had enough and was so livid, he went after Fothergill with a chair he had picked up off the sideline. That Fothergill was an ornery one …
Of course, so was Lefty Driesell, who was once seen on national TV giving Ralph the choke sign while Ralph was shooting a pair of free throws late in a tie game. It so rattled Ralph that he made only one of them, with the miss coming badly.
The hand to the throat so bothered Holland that he complained bitterly after the game, to which Lefty said, “That wasn’t no choke sign. I was straightening my tie.”
So many great memories, and so many great games back in the day. Hopefully, Maryland and Virginia fans will be able to enjoy the next four and, hopefully, many more after that.
Great move by Maryland and Virginia here. And great to see the animosity from some (some) ACC schools, particularly Virginia, has faded since Maryland’s relocation to the Big Ten 11 years ago. Of course, with all of the conference realignment and jumps going on today, what does it really matter now, right?
Maryland-Virginia has always been and always will be a natural. So glad to see the schools competing against each other once again.
And who knows? Maybe Virginia one day relatively soon will join the Terps in the Big Ten.
Anymore, you never know.
Mike Burke writes about sports and other stuff for Allegany Communications. He began covering sports for the Prince George’s Sentinel in 1981 and joined the Cumberland Times-News sports staff in 1984, serving as sports editor for over 30 years. Contact him at [email protected]. Follow him on X at @MikeBurkeMDT