Redick talks Duke-Maryland hate, says he was 'sort of a prick'

Second-seeded Duke basketball plays seventh-seeded Maryland at 7 p.m. tonight in the ACC Tournament quarterfinals, the third game between the two teams this year.

The Blue Devils won the first 84-64 in Durham, and the Terrapins won the second, eking out an 83-81 victory in College Park.

Although Gary Williams is no longer roaming the Maryland sidelines and hated faces such as Grevis Vasquez are now gone, it's easy to forget the hatred that existed during last decade between the two programs.

Whether it was the Miracle Minute, or "Sweat Gary, sweat!" chants, the Duke-Maryland game was one every fan looked forward to on the calendar.

At the center of it for four years was J.J. Redick, who opened up to Grantland about the nasty cheers. The Cameron Crazies like to chant "Not our rivals" at the Terrapins when they come to town, but Redick looks back on the time and says, "“That’s when there was still a rivalry there."

Here's a snippet from the piece:

There were times when the hate actually was hateful. Shelden Williams carried a 2003 incident in College Park with him for his four years at Duke, and Redick said during one game members of the Maryland crowd invoked the name of his then 12-year-old sister.

Much of the jeering, though, was college kids being exactly that. Like when Maryland students passed around Redick’s cell phone number at bars. Or what happened in 2004: With Duke up by six at Maryland in the final minute, Redick waited at the free throw line between shots. A chorus of "Fuck you, J.J." began, and as Redick took the pass, he raised his eyes, looked at the student section, and smirked. The shot went through, good for his 26th point, a season high.

“I probably deserved it,” Redick says. “I was sort of a prick.”

Redick says throughout that game, he and Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti, seated courtside, exchanged barbs. “He was talking noise to me the whole game, and I was just yapping back,” Redick says. “I watch video now of me in college, and I just think, What are you doing, man?”