Big 10/ACC challenge
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by Suckatsports
The Big 10/ACC Challenge is back and better than ever! Let's take a look at the matchups!
Wake Forest at Iowa Although Iowa is playing at home, they lost Adam Haluska to graduation (after 10,000 years with the Hawkeyes) and Tyler Smith to the Tennessee Volunteers. Wake Forest isn't exactly talent loaded but have been impressive thus far, perhaps in honor of their late great coach Skip Prosser. Even though Iowa did a great thing this offseason in losing Steve Alford and replacing him with Todd Lickliter (addition by addition and addition by huge subtraction) and even though they are playing at home, look for Wake Forest to pull it off against the "rowdy" homecrowd at Iowa.
Georgia Tech at IndianaCandy Pants win because of 3 main reasons. a) DJ White is far superior to any GT big man and should tear them apart inside, even though Jeremis Smith of GT is a 24/7 threat to kill someone on the basketball court. Also, Ra'sean Dickey is out due to academic ineligibility. b) Do you really think that GT's guards can stop Eric Gordon? I just pray GT doesn't put that new white PG on him, unless they want to lose by 60. c) Indiana has Kelvin Sampson, and GT has Paul Hewitt. I would like to state officially right now that Paul Hewitt is the most underrated of all overrated coaches.
Northwestern at Virginia Northwestern lost to Brown. Northwestern is playing an away game. Virginia has Sean Singletary. Northwestern still runs a Princeton offense. Northwestern lost to Brown. To Brown. Virginia wins easily.
Minnesota at Florida State I know nothing about these two teams except that Tubby Smith is at Minnesota and Florida State has a very underrated coach in Leonard Hamilton. So this is a toss up to me. This is at FSU, and FSU just beat a decent Florida team, so I will pick FSU for the win.
Wisconsin at Duke Ooh boy, this could be a very very good matchup. Duke is good and talented, but seems due to be blindsided by a solid, underrated team by Wisconsin. I think this will be a very, very close game but I will give the edge to Duke since it's in Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Purdue at Clemson Well, Clemson seems to be a top 25 team again but I can't forget about how much they fell apart last year. Even though they are more mature, I have to give the edge to the Boilermakers. Very solid coaching, a stellar recruiting class, a tough style of basketball play will lead to a road win.
NC State at Michigan State Even though NC State just won the Old Spice Classic, it was on a very questionable call. MSU hasn't exactly hit on all cylinders lately, but I have confidence that MSU will be able to pull off a home win against a very talented freshman led team. This will be a little closer than you think though.
Boston College at Michigan I don't really like John Beilein and his BS style of basketball. And I'm not exactly impressed by Michigan's talent. BC still has Tyrese Rice and a pretty solid coach in Al Skinner, so I'll give the edge to the Eagles.
Illinois at Maryland Illinois doesn't have a wealth of talent this year once again, but has a solid tough team as always. Maryland meanwhile has a decent amount of talent but also still has Gary Williams. Even though the Terps are playing at home, they are also being led by a white guy named Vasquez who has looked just OK to me. I think that Shaun Pruitt and the Illini will win this one and Gary Williams will embarrass himself again this year.
UNC at Ohio State Ohio State is playing at home and does have a decent amount of talent left despite the mass exodus. Kosta Koufos has looked like a lottery pick at times and OSU looks ready to reload very soon. Even Butler hasn't shot himself and OSU in the foot as much as I'd thought. However, it is very obvious that the Buckeyes are not close to gelling together yet and I look for OSU's big men to be owned by Hansbrough. In addition, I think Lawson will be way too quick to guard, and I expect a blowout in the Tar Heels' favor.
VT at Penn State This is a toss-up, as both schools suck. VT is 2-2, Penn State is 2-3, each have bad losses. I will give the marginal edge to Penn State purely on the reason that they play at home.
Final tally: ACC - 6, Big10 - 5 Hermano thinks Wisconsin will pull off the upset over Duke, in which case the Big 10 would finally win the Challenge. However, I think that the officiating and the stupid Cameron Crazies will lead to their crucial victory. Big 10 loses again. Boo.
This post is cross-published from We Suck at Sports.
