Big Ten/ACC Challenge open thread

Submitted by ThadMattasagoblin on

Iowa beating UNC 5-2 on ESPN, Notre dame beating MSU 18-16 on ESPN2, and Virginia Tech beating PSU 15-10 on the U.

alum96

December 3rd, 2014 at 11:53 PM ^

Bo has the Izzo model up in Madison with a lesser ranked type of player. 

Model - keep almost everyone for 4-5 years.  Have a lot of seniors/juniors supported by 1-2 very talented younger guys.   In this modern NCAA there is a big advantage to rolling out 21-22 year olds when a lot of teams (like ours) are constantly relying on 18-19 year olds.  When your 18-19 year olds are not of the UK variety especially.

Izzo has been living off that system for 10 years now - but the NC and the hype machine of ESPN has him getting a lot better quality player than Bo.  Bo is maximizing talent whereas Izzo has a ton of HS All Americans walk thru there (Dawson, Appling, Harris on last year's team alone along with 5 star Payne) who are often less then their sum of parts.  And he keeps them there almost always til seniors (Harris the rare exception).  A guy like Valentine was ranked exactly where Nik Stauskas was - one guy is in the NBA, the other is "a great leader and incredibly well developed" NCAA player per the analyst crew.  Now Valentine is a total bonehead with his decision making but he has the raw tools to already be in the NBA under Beilein.  But that's the difference right there - Valentine will be around all this year and next.  We have to reload.

AnklePick

December 3rd, 2014 at 10:10 PM ^

B1G vs. ACC Challenges. Beilein vs Boeheim in a Final Four rematch. State and UNC losing to unranked teams. All of which came down to the wire. Having the series wrapped up early. Wiscy/Duke shaping up well. I Wish we did this with a conference in football for one of the non-conference games!

GRBluefan

December 3rd, 2014 at 10:15 PM ^

Might have set a record for players who just look like they deserve a nice solid face punch? Valentine, trice, forbes, schilling for state. Several for nd, but vasturia in particular.

CR7

December 3rd, 2014 at 11:12 PM ^

Impressed with Maryland's resolve. They easily could've quit when it was 18(?). Had it to 11 and there's a lot of time left but Virginia are so good defensively.

B-Nut-GoBlue

December 3rd, 2014 at 11:15 PM ^

So ESPN is bottom-lining ppp stats for these teams (Duke-Wiscy). Are they crediting or referencing KenPom with this? I'm guessing not since that's what they do but that's bullshit.

alum96

December 3rd, 2014 at 11:38 PM ^

Impressive road win here for Duke.  They look a lot better than they did vs MSU.

Very young team that is improving very quickly with a centerpiece 5 and some nice wings.  You can see the difference in athleticism out there at almost every position.  Wisconsin is a savvy experienced group for the most part playing a lot of elite athletes - reminded me of the MSU vs UK game that kicked off last season.  One team had a ton of experience and that was their calling card - the other team had players still in their infancy but some serious prodigies.

CR7

December 3rd, 2014 at 11:47 PM ^

Virginia's win at Maryland also very impressive. ACC incredibly top heavy. Duke/Virginia/Louisville are gonna beat each other up this year.

alum96

December 3rd, 2014 at 11:59 PM ^

You think its bad for them watch the Big 10 this year - on any given night the #9 team could beat #2 - they are all going to be almost identical

You can throw Maryland, UM, OSU, Illinois, MSU, Nebraska, Iowa in a bucket any night and not know who is going to come out. 

Even teams like Indiana and Minnesota and Purdue have enough talent to pull a lot of upsets, especially at home. 

Then throw Wiscy on top of all that.

The Big 10 is going to be brutal this year with tons of parity.  If Wisconsin was not in the conference I would bet the 1st place team would have 6 losses.  You are going to see a ton of teams between 8-10 and 11-7 this year in conf play.  Possibly 9-10.

CR7

December 4th, 2014 at 11:55 AM ^

The Big Ten has maybe one elite team whereas the ACC has 3. Those 3 will compete for a national championship. Only Wisconsin, and that's a big maybe because they didn't impress me at all, will compete for the title. I said the ACC was top heavy because of this and those games will likely decide that conference championship.




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NashvilleMaize…

December 4th, 2014 at 1:05 AM ^

It looks like Michigan was the only ranked team in the Big Ten to win their ACC matchup. ILL, OSU, Wisc, MSU, and MD all lost, with MSU and Wisc losing to lower ranked (in MSU's case, an unranked Notre Dame) teams.




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