The two teams first matched up in 1911 and played each other at least once in nearly every season from 1935 to 1980, pausing only for World War II and once more in the late 1970s. They then stopped scheduling each other regularly — spurred at first by a feud between longtime coaches John Thompson and Lefty Driesell — and have met only sporadically over the past few decades.
They last played in November 2016, a one-point Terrapins win in which Melo Trimble scored a game-high 22 points. Kevin Huerter sealed the victory with a block in the closing seconds.
Maryland holds a 38-27 lead in the all-time series. The teams split their two NCAA tournament matchups, with the Hoyas winning in 1980 and the Terrapins winning in 2001.
Among the most memorable games between the programs came in 1993. Maryland’s Duane Simpkins hit a game-winner in overtime to secure an 84-83 upset over then-No. 15 Georgetown.
Maryland Coach Kevin Willard and Georgetown Coach Ed Cooley are longtime friends. They previously coached against each other in the Big East, when Willard was at Seton Hall and Cooley was at Providence, and in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, when Willard was at Iona and Cooley was at Fairfield.
“I think it’d be good for the District,” Cooley told CBS’s Jon Rothstein last year when asked about the possibility of renewing the rivalry. “… I think if you can have a Georgetown-Maryland series, for our region, for our people, I think those are two guaranteed sellouts every single year.”
Both programs are coming off disappointing campaigns. Maryland went 16-17 and 7-13 in the Big Ten in Willard’s second season in College Park after making the NCAA tournament in his first. The Hoyas went 9-23 and 2-18 in the Big East in Cooley’s first season.
The offseason brought improvements for both squads. Georgetown brought in the nation’s 20th-best recruiting and transfer class, per 247Sports, and Maryland landed five-star center Derik Queen, 247Sports’ No. 12 recruit in the Class of 2024.