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ACC shines again vs. Big Ten

Submitted by kentysiac on 12/04/2008 - 10:32

Dick Vitale said it best Wednesday night while watching North Carolina wallop Michigan State 98-65 in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge.

Vitale said he was looking forward to the North Carolina-Michigan State and Duke-Purdue games because they were matching premier teams, but neither game lived up to its billling in the sense of being competitive.

Duke crushed Purdue 76-60 in West Lafayette, Ind., before a North Carolina team Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said might be playing on a different level from anybody else hammered the Spartans in Detroit.

So in addition to winning the ACC-Big Ten Challenge for the 10th straight season, the ACC proved it once again will be very strong at the top. This year's made-for-ESPN event was closer than most, with the ACC eking out a 6-5 advantage over the Big Ten to improve to 62-35 overall in the Challenge.

In addition to North Carolina and Duke, the winners in the event included:

・Wake Forest, which displayed the talent of its freshmen and sophomores on a big stage against Indiana.

・Clemson, which improved to 8-0 with a win at Illinois, showing that it still has enough veteran talent to be an NCAA tournament contender.

Losers included:

・Virginia Tech, whose improbable string of losses on buzzer beaters was extended by Wisconsin.

・Miami, which was comfortably ahead of Ohio State before Jack McClinton was ejected for taking a swing he undoubtedly regrets.

・ N.C. State, which didn't get a chance to play in the Challenge by virtue of its last-place finish in the ACC last season.

Comments

"N.C. State, which didn't

Fri, 12/05/2008 - 09:53 — JPMajor

"N.C. State, which didn't get a chance to play in the Challenge by virtue of its last-place finish in the ACC last season. "

haha

Acc & Big 10 (oop's I mean 11)

Fri, 12/05/2008 - 09:47 — jcg3

I have just finished reading the comments above and it appears that the ACC is now considered a weak b-ball conference in that they won the Big Ten challenge. Of notice is the fact that the (5) losses were all very tight games and Miami is obviously a better team than OSU if they could keep their players on the court.

I think he is saying...

Thu, 12/04/2008 - 23:23 — JPDOhio

that the bottom half of the ACC is bad, and UNC and Duke are not challenged enough. So they don't get better as the season goes on and therefore get beat in the NCAA tourney.

But I gotta say I had to read it several times to get to that point and I'm still not sure I've got it right. If I do, well I disagree completely. Nice to hear from someone new though.

lol gvillegtr

Thu, 12/04/2008 - 23:01 — JPMajor

I would have said something, but i dont have an idea what he's trying to say? I got lost at "Now I know I'm not going to get any thumbs up down here in ACC country"..

But if he's trying to say that the ACC isn't a tough conference then he's crazy. That all i can take from that post...

i cant believe no one had

Thu, 12/04/2008 - 21:58 — gvillegatr

i cant believe no one had responded to this cat yet. I guess everyone was waiting on me!? lol. thanks!

ima16yrold whatever your name is

Thu, 12/04/2008 - 21:57 — gvillegatr

i read your post twice and for the life of me I cant comprehend much of it but I think i'm getting your drift.

only one team can win it every year and 64 other teams will lose. those are the facts. I hate admitting it as much as you refused to write it.

as far as the Big televen goes, bout the only thing I can tell ya is your conference is irrelevant and the only teams worth a darn in your league got ran out of their own respected (not anymore) states. your football conference is almost as bad. I only pray they would switch this "Challege" to football!

thx for coming out though and feel free to stop by whenever you like!

ACC Bashing

Thu, 12/04/2008 - 15:07 — ima16yearoldfoo...

Now I know I'm not going to get any thumbs up down here in ACC country for saying this, but the truth lies rather evident in front of our faces. The ACC does not have a bottom half of the conference. Now I'm not going to say that the reason UNC and Duke have such good records then go into the tournament and lose to teams like Virginia Commonwealth University is because they aren't actually good and get credit for the blowouts against teams thought to be evenly matched, ( because they beat the top two big ten teams easily and decisively) in fact I'm saying just the opposite. It's no secret that if you play easy teams all year long then go up to the next level you get crushed. UNC and Duke are two of the best teams in the nation and honestly, does this ACC conference help them improve this year? I'll now name the teams that knocked off "better" ACC teams in the NCAA tournament last year. VCU, UNLV, Butler, Southern Illinois, and Georgetown. If I'm correct only one team of the six teams to make the tourney from the ACC even made it to the Sweet-Sixteen. This has always been a notoriously good basketball conference, just the past two years things just haven't been the same.

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