Virginia coach Pete Gillen isn't going into the final regular season game at Cole Field House next month thinking the Cavaliers can't win. But he freely admits it's got to be one of the toughest assignments anyone in the ACC will have to endure.

That March 3 game between Maryland and Virginia will officially close the building. But Sunday's guest, Duke, could provide Cole with its the last big game. The type of game that puts a final stamp on the legendary old barn. The game folks will talk about long after Maryland is calling the Comcast Center home.

	Maryland students will be waiting for Duke's final visit to Cole Field House.

Students camped out Saturday night -- last Saturday night -- in the bitter cold, for the right to sleep inside Cole Field House Monday night for Tuesday's ticket distribution. The Maryland athletic department showed kindness and wasn't about to let students camp out for three straight nights in the winter winds. Maryland hands out its student tickets sometimes as many as five days in advance of the game.

"I haven't been here that long, but I had never heard of camping out that much," said Maryland senior Byron Mouton, who transferred to the school three years ago. "It makes it that much more exciting. We're all looking forward to playing the game and making this a game to remember, an Instant Classic (on ESPN)."

The reason for this game being as big as it is this:

Duke is No. 1. Maryland is No. 3.

Duke beat Maryland last month in Cameron Indoor Stadium.

Duke won three of four meetings last season, including the ACC tournament semifinal and national semifinal game.

The first of those wins came at Cole Field House one year ago and ended in overtime after Duke came back from a 10-point deficit in the final minute of regulation. Yes, it was an Instant Classic, athought it didn't draw high ratings in the Baltimore-Maryland viewing area.

This season, Maryland desperately wants to win the ACC, and has put itself in position to do exactly that with a win over Duke, and no surprising losses down the stretch. Duke lost at Florida State and would be one game behind in the loss column. None of the Terps' four remaining games are locks, but not winning home games against Wake Forest and Virginia, or road games at Clemson and Florida State, would be upsets.

And beating Duke would end any thoughts of an inferiority complex in the ACC regular season.

"No offense to Virginia, but this game determines the ACC championship and it has more meaning and that's why it's the biggest," Mouton said. "Bringing the ACC championship would be big for this university and it's the way I want to end my senior year. I want to be a part of history, win the ACC, get to the Final Four and win a national championship. It's stuff you can't dream up."

	House of Upsets
	Maryland has defeated the nation's No. 1 team five times in Cole Field House. Only Notre Dame's Joyce Athletic Center has been a home to more No. 1 upsets: Jan. 14, 1998 Maryland 89, North Carolina 83 Feb. 7, 1995 Maryland 86, North Carolina 73 Feb. 27, 1982 Maryland 47, Virginia 46 Jan. 27, 1979 Maryland 67, Notre Dame 66 Feb. 21, 1959 Maryland 69, North Carolina 51

In the preseason, Maryland coach Gary Williams talked about how much he would have liked Duke-Maryland to be the final game at Cole. But the ACC is locked into Duke-North Carolina as the last game in the conference schedule. Duke just happened to fall on Feb. 17, and the league wasn't about to change the schedule, according to Williams.

And that's why Williams is naturally guarded about putting too much emphasis on this game. Win, but then stumble at Florida State or Clemson, and the game loses its meaning for, perhaps the ACC title, even if it finally gives the Terps confidence that they can beat a completely healthy Duke.

"We'd like to win the game, but we've had other great wins here," Williams said in response to whether or not this would be one of the greatest wins at Cole. "There have been other great wins through the 48 years of Maryland basketball here like when North Carolina was No. 1.

"The players know it's a big game, but we're going to do what we normally do rather than put pressure on our players," Williams said. "This is what you play for. Few college players get a chance to play against the No. 1 team and be ranked No. 3 in the country. It's a great experience and it will be one for the players to remember for a while."

Winning shouldn't necessarily change the outcome for this Maryland team. While it's popular to say the Terps might find themselves too complacent, almost thinking they've arrived if they finally beat Duke, the players and coaches are proving that they're not that emotionally transparent.

This team has matured from a year ago, let alone last month. Last season, the nature of the 10-point collapse let the Terps get down on themselves, question themselves and lose four of five games before recovering for a No. 3 seed and eventual Final Four run.

"We got caught up with that game last year," Mouton said. "Everything was always Duke, Duke, Duke. Just beat Duke. There was so much pressuring in beating Duke and we felt like we disappointed everyone and we got caught up in the disappointment. We were caught up in it for a few days after and ending up losing games after that.

"This year's team handled the loss like mature people and the next thing is that we haven't lost since playing Duke," Mouton said of the Terps' seven-game win streak since losing to Duke in January.

Williams was quick to point out that the loss to Duke last season was different than the one last month because of the nature of the defeat. Maryland was ahead 49-48, but then got crushed in the second half 51-29 for the eventual 99-78 Duke win.

"That was a different loss than last year," Williams said. "They put us away in the second half this year. But we're a year older and we've got seven guys who played last year in the four Duke games. They know that they can't let this game affect our season. We've still got to take care of business after the Duke game."

So how does Maryland beat Duke?

"We have to play well for a longer period of time," Williams says simply enough. "The way we played against Duke for the first 20 minutes, we have to do it for the whole 40. Every team except Florida State has had trouble sustaining it. N.C. State looked great for the first 10 minutes (Thursday), too. We have to play well. We're not going to beat anybody as good as Duke if we don't play well, so that's our focus -- how well we play. That's what we can control the best -- our level of play -- and hopefully we can do a good job."

That means getting more looks for Juan Dixon, who took only nine shots with Dahntay Jones draped over him for stretches of the first game. Williams said Dixon shouldn't worry about not getting shots if they don't come early in the game. That would help with Maryland's perimeter defense (Steve Blake on Jason Williams at times has been a plus) and its size and strength inside (Chris Wilcox, Lonny Baxter and Tahj Holden versus Carlos Boozer and any help he gets).

But the Terps should get its biggest advantage from a crowd that will be rocking, hoping to see an event, the last big game at Cole against their rivals of the day -- Duke.

"Duke is still the defending national champion and they beat us the first time we played this season so we haven't proven anything yet," Williams said. "We know we can play and that's what we've done this year. We know we can play basketball. We have to play at a high-level for 40 minutes to expect to win."

Williams would like nothing better than to cap his Cole career, which has spanned as a player and a coach over 18 seasons in five different decades, with a win over Duke. He's won plenty of games, got to the Final Four, and his team and this program don't have to beat Duke to prove they belong in the elite.

But this would be the way to go out in this building, the arena that Williams said is the greatest place to watch a college basketball game because of the unobstructed sight lines, the cozy feel, the sounds, the humidity and the noise that you can feel pound your chest just like at Duke, Kansas and a few other spots.

Sunday isn't officially it for Cole, but this is the specially prepared entree with the Wake Forest and Virginia games a desert that will simply cap off an incredible history of college basketball at Maryland.

Andy Katz is a senior writer at ESPN.com.