All Tied Up

AP Photo/Michael Conroy

The Big Ten/ACC Challenge got itself really  going last night with 5 games on the docket.  Going into the final day of competition the two conferences find themselves deadlocked at 3-3.  In the 9 years of the competition, the Big Ten has never won the Challenge, and this year does not look like it is going to be much different.  Though the series is tied up at 3 wins a piece, tonight’s match-ups do not swing in the favor of the conference with 11.  They had a couple opportunities to take a lead in this evening, but failed in doing so.  Let’s take a look at last nights action.

Dook 76 Perdue 60 -  This game was the second most hyped game of the Challenge, and the hype itself may have been too much for the Boilermakers.  They looked tight to begin the game, having difficulty converting bunny layups, and locking down defenders. But let’s not get caught up in what the media is already trying to promote after last nights win for the Blue Devils.  They were not that impressive in their win, Purdue was terrible though.  Duke managed to shoot 42% from the floor, and hoisted 22 3’s, connecting on 8 of them.  They actually committed more turnovers than the host, forced fewer steals, and had no consistent flow to their offense.  They won this game on the boards, which is the one glaring weak spot on Purdue’s team.  The main contributors for the Boilermakers had terrible starts to the game, most notably Keaton Grant, who was 1-9 from the floor.  Before we start pimping Duke as challengers to the ACC throne, and throwing Purdue to the Big Ten wolves, let’s remember that it is only December 3rd.  Purdue is good, really good, and they had a terrible game.

Ohio State 73 Miami 68 -  This was one of the games that the Big 10 was able to steal.  How were they able to do so? Because Jack McClinton was a moron.  Miami was rolling early, and McClinton himself was hitting 3 pointers from 30 ft with ease.  It looked as if the Canes were going to trounce the extremely young, but talented Buckeyes.  Then with about 10 minutes left in the first half, the Buckeyes Anthony Crater, was playing tight defense on McClinton and inadvertently hit him in the face while he was trying to face guard him.  The All ACC First Teamer took exception and took a swipe at Crater’s head.  He would end up burying a 3 pointer seconds later, but a timeout was called and the officials made the correct decision to eject McClinton from the game.  Miami held a 14 pt advantage into the 2nd half, but was unable to contain Evan Turner down the stretch, and did not have anyone of their own to answer offensively with McClinton gone.

Boston College 57 Iowa 55 – This game was ugly, it was so ugly that even yahoo didn’t write much about it. Iowa had an opportunity to send the game into OT when Andrew Brommer went to the line, but the 20% FT shooter missed the front end of a 1-1, and that was the game.  That was 1 blown opportunity by the Big 10 to take the lead.

Clemson 76 Illinois 74- The Fighting Illini squandered an 8 point halftime lead at home to the Tigers, and failed to get off a possible game tying or game winning shot at the end of regulation.  I kept yelling, shoot it, shoot it, SHOOT IT!!! And nobody shot it.  #2 blown opportunity by the Big 10.

Minnesota 66 Virginia 56 – The Cavaliers are not a team to write home about, but Minnesota is still an extremely young team this season, and any non-conference win against a team you have actually heard of will only help raise their confidence.  Tubby Smith is a great coach, and he is having a great impact on the Gophers program. A program that has been scrambling since the Clem Haskins academic fraud debacle.

Look at tonight’s games with predicted winners in BOLD:

Indiana @ Wake Forest – Can the Hoosiers keep it within 30?

Michigan @ Maryland – Yeah, Michigan upset UCLA, but needed OT to be Savannah St.

Penn St @ Georgia Tech – Hmmm…Penn State is suppose to be the sleeper tourney team in the Big Ten this year. Time to prove it.

Florida St @ Northwestern- They should just stop playing basketball Evanston.

UNC vs Michigan State (From Ford Field in Detroit)  Could we be seeing these two teams play again from the same spot in April?  Hansbrough is a game time decision, and the Spartan’s Goran Suton is as well (he won’t play).  Michigan State has to hope for home cooking to play a role tonight, but it probably will not be enough.

Looks like another loss for the Big 10.

*Day 2 because Wisconsin knocked off Va Tech on Monday.

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