Updated throughout the day with quick takes from staff.
Yet again, the results of the annual ACC-Big Ten Challenge tip the scales heavily in the East Coast’s favor. Granted, the ACC is a basketball conference and the Big Ten is ... well ... the Big Ten just isn’t very good at sports right now. So sure, the fact that the ACC continues to dominate the “challenge,” winning for the 10th straight year (which is also as many years as the series has existed), is no big surprise.
Speaking of domination, UNC put an emphatic exclamation mark on the ACC’s 6-5 victory by completely embarrassing No. 13 Michigan State 98-63. Appropriately enough, it happened in Ford Field, the one venue where such a beating can occur and no one thinks twice of it. In fact, it’s a welcome distraction from the Lions.
Following the loss, Michigan State’s head coach Tom Izzo cranked up the excuse machine. Let’s see what it churned out last night:
"The blame goes on me for the scheduling," Izzo said. "We were dead."That’s odd that the Spartans would be dead, yet UNC, who had the same amount of days off as Michigan State – two – and had to travel from Chapel Hill to Michigan for the game, was fresh. In fact, Michigan State played the same exact schedule as Maryland. They both played three games at the Old Spice last week and then played their ACC-Big Ten game last night. Maryland won its game. Miraculously, they weren’t dead.
But there’s more! Not only were they dead out there, but that wasn’t even the actual Michigan State team:
"You didn't see our real team tonight, but our real team might have lost by 20," Izzo said. "They're definitely one of the best teams I've seen in my 25 years at Michigan State."So this mysterious “real team” would’ve lost 98-78 to UNC. Or, another way of looking at it: the real team is good enough to lose to Maryland by just 18. The Big Ten will be fine, however. Just look at how much promise Purdue provided. They only lost by 16, at home, to Duke. Baby steps.
This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.
11 comments
Comments
Very weak analysis of the ACC/Big Ten challenge. Yes, the ACC won ‘the Challenge’ again. But the margin was 6-5. That margin does not equal ‘tip the scales heavily in the East Coast’s favor.‘ Also, Michigan, Illinois and Iowa lost by 5, 2 and 2 respectively. Overall, the Big Ten nearly won ’the Challenge’ this year.
Clearly, at the top of the conferences right now, the ACC is much stronger (UNC and Duke over MSU and Purdue). They should be, they are far more talented teams, with better recruiting classes each year. But the ACC appears to have no more depth than the Big Ten so far this season, surprising considering the turmoil at traditional power Indiana, and the fact that the ACC is usually stronger top to bottom.
Also, Duke has lately made a habit of being stronger at the beginning of the season than the end (in the NCAA’s). Even UNC has lost to less talented squads in the NCAA’s each year since winning in 2005. And UNC is the only ACC team that has even made it to the Final Four in the past four years. OSU, MSU and Illinois have all made it in that stretch.
This is not a knock on the ACC. ACC teams have performed better than any other conference over the last 10 years in the NCAA tourney – the ‘Challenge’ that really matters. But in the past 10 years, 9 Big Ten teams have also reached the Final Four. More than any other conference except the ACC, who also has 9. Yes, only MSU in 2000 won it all, but it’s pretty ridiculous to say ‘the Big Ten just isn’t very good at sports right now.’
Is Mr Mottram’s memory that short to have no concept of recent history? Did Mr. Mottram write this column before the ‘Challenge’ games were actually completed? Does he actually get paid to write this?
by edgamart on Dec 4, 2008 12:53 PM EST reply actions
"Is Mr Mottram’s memory that short to have no concept of recent
history? Did Mr. Mottram write this column before the ‘Challenge’
games were actually completed? Does he actually get paid to write
this?"
To answer your questions: Yes, no, yes.
by cmottram on Dec 4, 2008 1:08 PM EST reply actions
True, the ACC has better elite teams than the Big Ten, but the contest went 6-5 (rather close) to the ACC and that’s with two games being decided by 2 pts.
To say the Big Ten is very good at sports righ now, misses the closeness of this series and other accomplishments made by the Big Ten in not only FB and BB, but other sports!
by Revkume on Dec 4, 2008 1:32 PM EST reply actions
B10 lost three games by 2 and the ACC lost two games by 2. Thats almost a wash. ACC won by an average of 14+ and the B10 won by 6+ a game. ACC was 3-2 on the road. The ACC has won this thing 10 straight years. Not sure how the B10 is close to the ACC when it comes to basketball.
by puttsfromtherough on Dec 4, 2008 1:58 PM EST reply actions
Yes, no, yes – fair enough. Hopefully for TSN you are paid on an hourly basis, as that column couldn’t have taken more than 15 minutes to write.
by edgamart on Dec 4, 2008 2:00 PM EST reply actions
"Yes, no, yes – fair enough. Hopefully for TSN you are paid on an
hourly basis, as that column couldn’t have taken more than 15 minutes
to write."
Good thing it was a blog post and not a column then, right?
by cmottram on Dec 4, 2008 2:07 PM EST reply actions
Good point
by edgamart on Dec 4, 2008 2:18 PM EST reply actions
guys,
sorry, i’m a numbers guy so i just have to jump in. don’t be too hard on mottram here. maybe it is fair to say that he is too harsh in criticizing the big 10 as being bad in sports right now. however, there should be no question as to the issue of this "challenge" being a little beyond competitive at this point. 10 years in – same result. now if conferences are relatively similar in skill & coaching levels you could certainly see 5-5, 6-4, 7-3, but beyond that, when one conference wins 8 or 9 or 10 times out of 10… that begins to be statistically improbable for two equally matched sets of teams. if you run the numbers, there is a 0.09765% change of this happening… so unless you are feeling really unlucky – the acc is much much better in basketball (over the long haul). even in really mismatched competitions, the lesser conference should at least win 1 in 10, so with that thought, maybe the big 10 should have won one along the line here somewhere. maybe this was the year if things had fallen differently.
by zentz on Dec 4, 2008 3:20 PM EST reply actions
Don’t blame the Nittany Lions for the Big 10’s poor performance in the Big 10 ACC challenge. Nittany nation has won 2 straight of these games now, last year we beat Va Tech in the challenge, and we just beat Ga Tech. Man if we could only play Texas Tech in a bowl game we would own the Tech schools right? Go State!
by nick417 on Dec 4, 2008 4:32 PM EST reply actions
people seem to forget that Jack McClinton got ejected eight minutes into the game and Miami was handing it to OSU. McClinton was on fire and OSU would have lost by more than 10 instead of winning by a few if McClinton was playing…the margin should really be 6-5 with an asterisk for McClinton absence when OSU came back. ACC all the way.
by daatcdawg on Dec 4, 2008 5:30 PM EST reply actions
You were paid to write this? Maybe I should change my major to Journalism.
by Iverson1 on Dec 6, 2008 3:15 PM EST reply actions
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