It was roughly around this time last year when the Washington Post decided to publish a three-part expose on Maryland head coach Gary Williams and his program’s decline since winning the National Championship in 2002. The Maryland faithful were growing weary of a team that had so recently won it all, yet had missed the NCAA Tournament in three of the last five seasons.

My, how things have changed. Thanks to a veteran lineup of three senior starters, as well as the arrival of freshman big man Jordan Williams, Maryland finally reentered both Top 25 polls on Monday and is currently in second place in the conference. While the team failed to meet expectations early in the season by falling to Wisconsin, Cincinnati, and Villanova, Maryland has rebounded down the stretch during conference play, surging to a five-game winning streak, including an impressive double-overtime thriller at Virginia Tech last Saturday night. Heading into last night, #4 Duke (25-5, 12-3 ACC) and #23 Maryland (22-7, 12-3 ACC) had situated themselves atop the conference with room to spare. In fact, Maryland’s last loss was against the Blue Devils in a game that was over just minutes after tip-off.

So it was fitting that Maryland’s Senior Day pitted the Terps against their conference rivals in a game that would likely determine who would claim the ACC regular season title. The sold-out Comcast Center and its 17,950 gold-clad fans filled the building with an atmosphere that was perhaps one of the most electric since the arena opened in 2002. The stakes had hardly been as high in quite some time, and with scalpers charging over $300 per ticket, it felt as if Maryland fans had been transported back to the earlier part of last decade, when Duke/Maryland was the rivalry in the ACC.