Thursday, December 01, 2005
The Big Ten/ACC Challenge
Last evening the 7th annual Big Ten/ACC basketball challenge drew to a close with the ACC winning again, as they have every year since the inception of the series. Some say that this is indicative of the Big 10's fall from prominence in college hoops. The conference sent two teams to the Final Four last year, proving such theories rubbish. I would say that the results do prove that the ACC is consistently a deeper conference when it comes to basketball, and I'm not sure even the most die hard Big 10 supporter would argue with that.
I had the pleasure of watching the UVA-Northwestern game in Alumni Hall here in Charlottesville. The 'Hoos are coming off a terrible season that resulted in the sacking of coach Pete Gillen and the hiring of formal DePaul head coach Dave Leitao. Expectations for the season were cautiously optimistic, but took a big hit Sunday night when the Cavs collapsed in the second half against Arizona and were blown off the court. There were some tense moments in the Northwestern game, as the Wildcats opened up a 7 point lead with about two minutes remaining in the first half. UVA pulled within one at halftime, and then took over the second half, shutting down Northwestern's backcut/three point shooting "Princeton" offense, while finally hitting consistently from the floor. They led by 12 with ten minutes to play and never looked back. It becomes clearer every game that sophomore guard Sean Singletary, who led scoring last night with 23 points (and 19 in the second half) is an emerging talent who could help this team exceed expectations.
The rest of the challenge told us some other interesting things.
Illinois beat North Carolina in a rematch of last year's finals, and although both fielded largely different teams than they did last March, both are good. North Carolina lost on their home court but played a lot of very young players and competed well. They will get better over the course of the season and could be scary in March. Dee Brown of the Illini is amazing to watch, and will probably have a huge year.
Purdue is a terrible, terrible team. They inexplicably trailed Florida State by about 40 points mid-way through the second half and, uh, did not win.
Indiana played a great game against #1 Duke last night in Bloomington. Duke won, as they usually do, but the Hoosiers made an impressive showing behind Marco Killingsworth, who scored 31 points and grabbed 10 boards. Indiana has failed to reach the NCAA tourney for the last three seasons, but based on this showing should be a competitor in the Big Ten this season. Duke, of course, remains the elite program in the nation and has to be the favorite to win it all until someone shows why they should not be.
Michigan State nipped Georgia Tech in what some people would call a surprisingly close win. The Spartens are coming off a grueling trip to Hawaii in which they lost twice. Followers of the Spartens under Tom Izzo are not concerned. His teams often start slow in the fall, playing a tough schedule, and by late winter are close to unbeatable. I expect a similar trend this season.
And finally, the Iowa Hawkeyes played one of the ugliest games ever televised in college basketball, defeating the NC State Wolfpack 45-42. A defensive struggle, the two teams combined for nearly 40 turnovers, and put up a dismal offensive performance:
The bright light in the game was the Wolfpack's Cedric Simmons, who was a force in the paint, scoring 13 points, grabbing 13 boards, dishing 5 assists and blocking 6 shots. I expect we'll hear his name again.
I had the pleasure of watching the UVA-Northwestern game in Alumni Hall here in Charlottesville. The 'Hoos are coming off a terrible season that resulted in the sacking of coach Pete Gillen and the hiring of formal DePaul head coach Dave Leitao. Expectations for the season were cautiously optimistic, but took a big hit Sunday night when the Cavs collapsed in the second half against Arizona and were blown off the court. There were some tense moments in the Northwestern game, as the Wildcats opened up a 7 point lead with about two minutes remaining in the first half. UVA pulled within one at halftime, and then took over the second half, shutting down Northwestern's backcut/three point shooting "Princeton" offense, while finally hitting consistently from the floor. They led by 12 with ten minutes to play and never looked back. It becomes clearer every game that sophomore guard Sean Singletary, who led scoring last night with 23 points (and 19 in the second half) is an emerging talent who could help this team exceed expectations.
The rest of the challenge told us some other interesting things.
Illinois beat North Carolina in a rematch of last year's finals, and although both fielded largely different teams than they did last March, both are good. North Carolina lost on their home court but played a lot of very young players and competed well. They will get better over the course of the season and could be scary in March. Dee Brown of the Illini is amazing to watch, and will probably have a huge year.
Purdue is a terrible, terrible team. They inexplicably trailed Florida State by about 40 points mid-way through the second half and, uh, did not win.
Indiana played a great game against #1 Duke last night in Bloomington. Duke won, as they usually do, but the Hoosiers made an impressive showing behind Marco Killingsworth, who scored 31 points and grabbed 10 boards. Indiana has failed to reach the NCAA tourney for the last three seasons, but based on this showing should be a competitor in the Big Ten this season. Duke, of course, remains the elite program in the nation and has to be the favorite to win it all until someone shows why they should not be.
Michigan State nipped Georgia Tech in what some people would call a surprisingly close win. The Spartens are coming off a grueling trip to Hawaii in which they lost twice. Followers of the Spartens under Tom Izzo are not concerned. His teams often start slow in the fall, playing a tough schedule, and by late winter are close to unbeatable. I expect a similar trend this season.
And finally, the Iowa Hawkeyes played one of the ugliest games ever televised in college basketball, defeating the NC State Wolfpack 45-42. A defensive struggle, the two teams combined for nearly 40 turnovers, and put up a dismal offensive performance:
Iowa went 15 minutes, 12 seconds without scoring a basket at the end of the first half and the beginning of the second.One Iowa sports writer said this of the game: "It was like watching Shaquille O'Neal shoot free throws for two hours." An excellent characterization.
To start the second half, Iowa missed its first eight shots, made one and then missed its next eight.
In the first half, Iowa missed nine shots in a row, but its 9-2 lead was whittled only to 9-7 because N.C. State wasn't much better.
The Wolfpack shot just 34 percent. Both teams shot 16.7 percent from 3-point range (a combined 5-for-30).
Only twice did N.C. State score on three straight possessions.
The bright light in the game was the Wolfpack's Cedric Simmons, who was a force in the paint, scoring 13 points, grabbing 13 boards, dishing 5 assists and blocking 6 shots. I expect we'll hear his name again.
0 Comments:
