Monday night doesn’t really feel like the real show, so what are we thinking about from here on out?
I’ll take MD, Penn State, Wisconsin, Notre Dame, NC State, and Duke in the Tuesday night games and Louisville, Michigan, Miami, Indiana, Virginia, and Clemson in the Wednesday games. I guess that would give the ACC a 8-6 win in the Challenge.
My predictions for the rest of the games
FSU-Minnesota: FSU (Done)
Wake-Northwestern: Northwestern (Done)
Pitt-Maryland: Maryland
Penn State-Tech: Penn State
Syracuse-Wisconsin: Wisconsin
Iowa-Notre Dame: ND
Illinois-NC State: NC State
Duke-MSU: Duke
Louisville-Purdue: Louisville
Michigan-Virginia Tech: Michigan
Miami-Rutgers: Miami (How did this match up happen???)
UNC-Indiana: UNC
Virginia-OSU: Virginia
Clemson-Nebraska: Clemson
Final Score
B1G: 5
ACC: 9
I’ll be interested to see OSU @ UVA – first real chance to see what OSU has this year.
Iowa has quietly had a lousy nonconference so far – if they get crushed by ND it could look like a long year for the Hawkeyes, although I believe they have a soft B1G schedule.
Louisville-PU could be a fun one - see how PU’s guards hold up against pressure. At least we’ll get some clips from the last time Spike played them.
Maryland getting destroyed at home… down close to 20 in the first half.
Very unimpressed with Tyus Battle from the spot minutes and highlights I’ve seen. Early, but somewhat therapeutic
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How much would it bite to have to wear a green tie to every game for the rest of your life?
Duke is gifting Sparty easy transition looks and open 3s, but Ward and Langford are nice. Ward’s probably a 4 year player because of size, but sure hope we dont have to deal with more than 2 years of Langford; watching his natural abilities and athleticism hurts.
Very poorly played game between MSU and Duke right now
Yea this is ugly. Duke can’t make an open shot and msu randomly throws the ball to duke. Nick ward is gonna be a beast though. If he ever gets in better shape, he will be scary.
Funniest part of this game, at least for me as someone with several state friends, is that they made fun of wisky and Michigan for years for taking charges. Now their team is filled with guys who all they do is try to take charges.
There is just no reason that Illinois shouldn’t be a more consistent basketball team. They have the talent to win a lot of games.
It’ll be interesting to see what Groce can get out of them this year. They took care of NC State rather easily last night at home.
Is Tracy Abrams a P.H.D candidate this year? Seems like he’s been there for going on 10 years.
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Wow. Didn’t realize the Big 10 has either tied or won the last 7 seasons.
Tied 4-4 going into the final night. I’m going to say another tie - Michigan/IU/Purdue win tonight.
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I think the ACC is probably a heavy favorite at this point, Michigan is the only real favorite out there left. OSU, Purdue on the road against teams ranked ahead of them. IU at home against a great UNC team. Rutgers on the road… Nebraska on the road…
Might be the ACC’s year.
I get all of the reasons why Illinois should be good, but at this point Groce’s seat has to be getting hot, regardless of his future recruiting.
A home win over NC State is nice, but I’m not sure that’s a tourney team. Still have to play VCU and Mizzou in the non-conference season as well.
Also, how loaded is the ACC? Ridiculous.
Really intrigued by how Virginia Tech plays out of the PNR game. Attack off of extra passes and bigs can drive off the pop.
http://www.umhoops.com/2016/11/30/game-7-virginia-tech-michigan/
Nice write up. Should be a good test tonight, but UM’s D has been pretty solid on rotations, with offensive rebounds being the biggest problem. If VT can’t expose that weakness, we may do pretty well. Maybe we get the threes falling at home in a game that could have some pace with an only okay D. Should be a fun one.
Hopefully Michigan’s switching can mitigate VT’s ability to swing the ball off the pick and roll. Can’t take advantage of rotations, if we don’t give them rotations! Seems like we definitely want to force their guards to make one-on-one plays.
Can’t wait for this game to tip off tonight. I know we’ve played a few already, but the BT/ACC Challenge always feels like the start of real CBB season to me. I’m really looking forward to seeing IU and UNC matchup tonight too. I think we will find out who the real Indiana is tonight.
I think we win a close one tonight if we can control the tempo.
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I was pretty confident about UNC’s chances going into Indiana yesterday but I’m just feeling an ice cold shooting day from them and a 82-74 Indiana win. I still think Michigan pulls it out against VT.
MSU game was funny. Izzo has the long arms of his propaganda machine in full effect. In case someone hasn’t heard: The team is tired from trips to Hawaii, Bahamas, and New York.
The team traveled a lot. NIck Ward likes to travel a lot too–hopefully the refs start calling that crap.
Duke was pretty bad at transition defense.
Sadly, MSU looked alright…
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