A very nice start by the ACC, no? Of course, it could have been better, but Wisconsin played by far their best game of the year in beating Maryland. The Badgers played some very tough defense (as they always do) and the Terps missed the front ends of two critical one-and-ones in the last couple of minutes.
But on to the more fun results. I watched most of the first half of the Georgia Tech – Michigan “game” and man, was that fun! The Jackets were running, pressing, dunking and shooting all over the Wolverines. Tech quickly jumped out to a festive 30-9 lead to make it clear who the Alpha Bee was. Welcome to the Thriller Dome, Michigan! GT middled around for a bit in the middle of the half and then started nailing threes late and ended with a 59-32 halftime lead. The second half was for statistical purposes only.
Michigan State came into Cameron with legitimate upset hopes. They wanted to avenge last year’s drubbing in East Lansing, but it wasn’t to be. The Spartans really couldn’t have played too much better and landed the first blows. They rolled to an early 19-9 and it looked like Duke was going to learn some lessons. Nope. JJ Redick and Daniel Ewing simply took over the rest of the game and Duke moved on to 6-0 in the ACC – Big Ten “Challenge.”
BTW, let me interject a little sumthin-sumthin here. Everyone loves to hate on Duke and talk about how they are overexposed. That may be true to a point, but last night’s game and Duke’s overall ACC – Big Ten record says why. In each of those six years, Duke played the best or second best Big Ten team. And each year, Duke beat them. They are damn good. They’ve dominated the ACC of late, and they would do the same in any other conference. When you are good, you get on TV.
The most surprising result of the night was Florida State winning on Minnesota’s elevated floor. It’s not so much the win that was shocking, I mean the Gophers are no Texas A&M – Corpus Christi, but that FSU came from 14 down with only seven minutes to play. That’s some pretty good composure for a team that has already lost three games this year. Maybe Leonard Hamilton’s club is starting to put it together. And maybe the Gopher really suck.
The final four games of the “Challenge” (remember, I’m using quotes in that name until the Big Ten puts up a challenge) are tonight. I’m guessing the ACC goes 3-1 or 2-2 tonight to wrap things up. Carolina will wax Indiana and Virginia will take care of Northwestern. I have no idea about Clemson vs. Ohio State, but I think Illinois will “upset” Wake Forest. It’s not really an upset, because Illinois is at home and ranked #3 in the country, but since Wake is #1, it’ll be called one anyway.
So, once the ACC finishes up a 7-2 or 6-3 drubbing of the Big Ten, we need to look to the future. This thing is played. We need a new opponent. I think what the ACC should do is challenge a different conference each year. The Big Ten needs some time to lick their wounds. Maybe take on the Big East next year (I’m assuming that the newer batch of coaches won’t chicken out like they did years ago) and then give the Pac 10 a little what-for the next year. After that, beat down the SEC and Big 12. That would be fun, wouldn’t it? Each year give some other conference a chance to unseat the king. Make it happen, John Swofford, if you aren’t too busy trying to find some more football schools to grab.