“I’m not thinking about Maryland. I’m not sure if or when we will schedule Maryland. My focus is on getting us back strong,” Ewing said.

He did not acknowledge the two dramatic games played the past two seasons as part of the Gavitt Games, which pits Big Ten teams against members of the Big East. Maryland narrowly won each of those games — the first home-and-home contests between the schools since 1973-1974 — including last season’s 76-75 dramatic comeback victory at Verizon Center (now Capital One Arena) on Nov. 15.

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That result left many area basketball fans hopeful that the programs could negotiate a consistent series after having not played in the Washington area for more than two decades.

But those plans never materialized during the offseason, especially after Ewing was hired in the wake of John Thompson III’s ouster in late March. Maryland will host Butler as part of the Gavitt Games this year; Georgetown will not participate in the event.

“I can’t imagine how busy Pat is,” Turgeon said at a Maryland booster function in June. “I haven’t even seen Pat, on the road. It was something, when I got here with John, we’ll talk about it. It was a great two-game series, crowd-wise, interest. So I think it’s something that Pat and I will talk about as we move forward.”

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When Ewing was asked Thursday why the teams are not in discussions to play in the immediate future, he playfully reminded everyone one of the long-standing scheduling cold war between the programs when they were led by legendary coaches John Thompson Jr. and Lefty Driesell.

“Did Maryland play Georgetown when I was here?” Ewing asked. “They had [Len] Bias, they had [Adrian] Branch, they were just as good as we were.