It’s been nearly a week – time for my belated ACC-Big Ten Challenge wrapup!
Before I get too much into this, let me be clear that I don’t think it’s that big of a deal. No titles are decided, no careers are validated and it doesn’t even end the discussion of who the better conference is. If the Big Ten had won the challenge, I wouldn’t have been crushed. What is great about it though is that it provides eleven compelling games early in the season, giving (nearly) every conference team a chance to compare themselves against a relatively equivalent major-conference opponent. There’s also the added bonus that the games all count to a final tally, so they are slightly larger than regular games – it’s like a mini-tournament preview.
The other thing that’s so nice about it is that it adds a lot of connections between the teams, making comparisons easier and more accurate as we move along. Computer ratings get more accurate as teams become connected; well, there’s no easier way for two conferences to connect to each other than for them to schedule a bunch of games against each other.
But all that said, they do keep score in this thing and I really wanted the ACC to win. It’s just more fun that way. And while one set of matchups doesn’t absolutely resolve who the better conference is (to do it right, you need to include head-to-head results, computer ratings and postseason success) when one league wins every challenge for seven straight years, weeeeeelllllll I think that qualifies as a trend. If things were perfectly even or even perfectly random, the odds of one side coming out the victor seven straight times are 128-1. So, I think we can safely say that over the past seven years, the ACC has clearly been the better conference. Actually, I already say that, but this is just one more very public piece of evidence.
Instead of reviewing the games on the final night (especially that brutally ugly NC State-Iowa match that I’d rather not remember at all), I’m going to run down my list of Pleasant Surprises and Disappointments. We’ll start with the bad stuff, because honestly, there wasn’t that much bad.
Disappointments
NC State’s performance against Iowa. Now, nobody is shocked anymore when the Wolfpack turns in a horrid offensive performance, but even for them, this one was brutal. 24 turnovers against a non-pressing zone defense? Are you kidding?
Almost as bad as State’s general malaise was was their execution at the end of the game. I know Herb Sendek is a smart guy, but why does it so often seem like he has no strategy at the end of games? State was down three, so everyone in the place knew what they were looking for. So, what does the Pack do? Have Engin Atsur dribble up to the three-point line and just sort of stand there. He seemed stunned that Iowa wasn’t just going to give him that shot. After standing still and dribbling most of the clock away, he threw the ball to Ilian Evtimov who wasn’t coming off of a screen or anything. Evtimov seemed equally surprised that he too was being guarded. With time running out, he was forced to chuck up a butt-ugly attempt that was lucky to draw iron. It was pathetic.
I still think State will be a good team, and Cedric Simmons’ performance made me optimistic about that, but they need to forge an identity and find a player (or two) who can seize the game by the throat when things aren’t going well. I thought Evtimov would be that guy, but maybe he can’t be.
Virginia Tech’s effort. Maybe it was because they were playing on the first night and it was the only game, but the Hokies just didn’t seem into it in their game against Ohio State. I said before that I felt they’d drop back a bit this year after a great season in 2004-2005. I have no concrete foundation for this belief; it’s just a hunch. After last night’s effort against Duke, though I freely admit that I might be wrong. That also greatly diminished my disappointment in their effort against the Buckeyes as well.
Pleasant Surprises
Florida State. Wow. If I had been asked to guess which team might win by 40, I think it would have taken me a while to guess that it would be the Seminoles. Extremely impressive. The thing is, while I was very pleased, I realize that it really doesn’t mean that much. When a team like FSU (who isn’t exactly Duke) beats a major conference opponent by 40, it says a lot more about the losing team than the winner. Sure FSU was scoring the points, but they did it because Purdue seemed to Vinny Testaverde-like color blindness. It turns out that it does matter which guys you pass the ball to!
Wake Forest. Well, now that was different! I watched Wake struggle in some of their early games with Justin Gray at the point guard and it was almost literally painful. I love watching Gray play – he’s such a tough, confident player without ever seeming cocky. But he was anything but confident at the one. It was like watching a train wreck.
Fortunately, Skip Prosser is neither blind nor dumb, so he quickly scrapped that experiment. Gray sucked at the one, so why not bring in a freshman and suffer through his on-the-job learning? Surely he couldn’t be worse than Gray, and as a bonus, you get your All-American-calber shooting guard back! Well, lo-and-behold that worked, and not only was Gray back to his outstanding self, but Harvey Hale was pretty solid at the point. That team I saw play Wisconsin (a very good Wisconsin, I might add) was clearly a Sweet Sixteen caliber club. It was good to see.
North Carolina’s freshman. OK, maybe this wasn’t a huge surprise as I expected them to be good. Carolina’s freshman are always good. But I really liked they way they went toe-to-toe with Illinois, who may be the Big Ten’s best team. I knew Hansbrough was supposed to be good, but Danny Green and Marcus Ginyard really looked nice as well and I loved the way the played together. You can tell that Green and Ginyard and friends and have already played a bunch together – they each gave other a couple of beautiful passes.
(Note: I was going to write this even before UNC went and beat Kentucky in Rupp Arena. But obviously, that only reinforces my point.)
Marco Killingsworth. Holy crap, was that guy a beast or what? I had read about him, but I had no idea he was that good. No idea. If that game was an accurate indicator of his play this year, that guy is the best player in the country. Easily.
Unfortunately, my excitement was tempered a bit the next day when I read that he is a senior. I figured that since he was a transfer from Auburn that he was either a sophomore or junior. Being a senior doesn’t make him any less good, but it does drop his potential a bit to know that he’s actually a year older than Shelden Williams. Still, the guy’s a straight stud.
Clemson. I didn’t get to see their game, but I really liked the way they handled themselves (from watching the score and reading about it afterward). Clemson was expected to win and they went on the road and did it. They got a lead, held on and won. Very professional and let’s be honest, very un-Clemsonlike. I really like what Oliver Purnell is doing down there. He may hit a ceiling soon, but we’ll see.
Virginia’s poise. You could say many things about Pete Gillen’s tenure in Charlottesville, and many did, but no one ever pointed out how poised and patient the Cavaliers were. Well, early in this season, Virginia has already played two Princeton offense teams, and they beat them both. Dave Leitao’s squad is woefully thin and under-talented, but they are doing the little things well (the little things clearly don’t include such basics as “shooting”) and they are quietly winning. Virginia took care of a pretty decent (I think) Northwestern squad in the challenge, and as the team unanimously picked to come in dead last in the ACC, they are doing pretty well for themselves.
Maryland’s resilience. Maryland was down seventeen points in the first half of their game against Minnesota, a team coming off a loss to Gardner-Webb. Last year’s Maryland team would have fallen apart and maybe gotten into a fistfight with each other during a timeout. Not this time. They chipped the lead away so that it was close at the half and then they blew the Gophers out in the second. That’s definitely cause for some optimism in College Park.
Georgia Tech’s effort. As I wrote in my preview, I fully expected Georgia Tech to get spanked up in East Lansing. The Yellow Jackets are young and inexperienced and they’d be playing on the road against a veteran team that had already played several top squads this year. On top of that, Tom Izzo’s teams are always well-coached and they’re just tough. It just seemed like a unrealistic challenge for Tech. For a while, it seemed like I was right, but those pesky Jackets hung around and eventually got it to the point where they had a shot to win the thing. Point guard Zam Frederick’s three bounced off the rim at the end of that game; had it gone in, the Jackets would have pulled off a huge upset. Considering that they lost by 22 points at home to an Illinois-Chicago team that was coming off a loss to an NAIA team, that close loss to the Spartans was inspiring.
So, all-in-all, the Challenge was a rousing success for the ACC. Most folks, including myself thought that this would be the Big Ten’s year. Too many ACC players were gone this season, including nine underclassmen, to expect the league to be as strong. But, many teams are playing better than expected and a few that aren’t (including Duke and Wake) look like they will continue to improve.
One question about the Challenge, as successful as it has been, is should it continue? The ACC has dominated this thing! Will the Big Ten want to continue? While it’s clearly good for all the teams involved, it clearly brings in money and it clearly shines a bright spotlight on the two leagues early in the year, might the Big Ten be feeling a bit apprehensive about doing this again? That bright spotlight is cool and all, but it can hurt when it amplifies the perception that your league as not as good as another. Maybe it’s time to mix things up. I love having the Challenge and I hope that no other leagues decide to have their own, but I would like the ACC to switch opponents. I want to see the ACC-Big East Challenge return. That would be a hell of a show. The Big East is getting a lot of hype as the new best conference. There’s the past bad blood from when the old ACC-Big East Challenge was killed by a few Big East coaches. There’s the recent bad blood from the switching of three Big East teams to the ACC and the resulting lawsuits. It would make for some great television.
So come on, John Swofford. You’ve screwed basketball up with your evil plans, so why don’t you try to make some amends. Give us a new challenge – the ACC-Big East Challenge.
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