Yahoo Sports 
Long-dormant Maryland-Georgetown rivalry will restart
The last time Maryland and Georgetown scheduled a regular season game against one-another, a handful of current players on both teams weren't even born yet.
The 21-year wait will finally end next season.
CSNWashington.com reported Tuesday that the Terps and Hoyas will finally meet in College Park as part of the inaugural Gavitt Tip-Off Games pitting teams from the Big East against teams from the Big Ten. Maryland and Georgetown will play a return game at the Verizon Center during the 2016-17 season.
While it's ridiculous that the two regional rivals have played so infrequently, the timing of the renewal of the series is at least ideal.
Maryland will likely begin next season in the top five in the polls as a result of the return of standouts Melo Trimble and Jake Layman and the arrival of transfer Robert Carter and top recruit Diamond Stone. It wouldn't be a surprise if Georgetown joins the Terps in the preseason rankings thanks to the return of star D'Vauntes Smith-Rivera and the potential development of young standouts L.J. Peak and Isaac Copeland.
Petty differences are the main reason the teams haven't scheduled a regular season game since Maryland's epic 84-83 upset victory in 1993 capped by guard Duane Simpkins' game-winning shot late in overtime. Maryland argued the next game in the series should be in College Park, while Georgetown viewed that 1993 game to be a neutral-court matchup even though it was played at the Verizon Center.
The two schools have only faced each other a couple times in tournament play since that 1993 game. The Terps beat Georgetown in the 2001 Sweet 16 and the Hoyas got some revenge by throttling Maryland in a 2008 game.
Maryland athletic director Kevin Anderson raised hopes the series would restart in 2011 when he told the Washington Times he was in "serious conversation" with Georgetown about renewing the series, but the optimism didn't last long.
First Georgetown athletic director Lou Reed warned the Washington Post negotiations were "far too preliminary" for fans to get excited. Then former Hoyas coach John Thompson Jr. lashed out at Anderson for publicizing the negotiations, telling ESPN 980 that "the AD at Maryland is not the person that schedules for Georgetown" and that "you don't negotiate through the damn newspaper."
Perhaps that's the reason Tuesday's news broke via sourced reports rather than via an announcement. Both sides are keeping things hush-hush until all the details have been agreed upon.
A poll on the Georgetown-themed Casual Hoya site asked readers how they felt about Georgetown and Maryland meeting next season. The results perfectly summed up how cool it is for both fan bases and how ridiculous it is that it took this long to make something so obvious happen.
As of Tuesday evening, 318 readers answered, "Exciting!" Only 18 said, "Meh."
- - - - - - -
Jeff Eisenberg is the editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at daggerblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
