ACC-Big Ten Challenge Still False Advertising

Yet again, the results of the annual ACC-Big Ten Challenge tip the scales heavily in the East Coast’s favor. Granted, the ACC is a basketball conference and the Big Ten is ... well ... the Big Ten just isn’t very good at sports right now. So sure, the fact that the ACC continues to dominate the “challenge,” winning for the 10th straight year (which is also as many years as the series has existed), is no big surprise. ↵↵Speaking of domination, UNC put an emphatic exclamation mark on the ACC’s 6-5 victory by completely embarrassing No. 13 Michigan State 98-63. Appropriately enough, it happened in Ford Field, the one venue where such a beating can occur and no one thinks twice of it. In fact, it’s a welcome distraction from the Lions. ↵

↵↵Following the loss, Michigan State’s head coach Tom Izzo cranked up the excuse machine. Let’s see what it churned out last night:↵

↵↵⇥“The blame goes on me for the scheduling,” Izzo said. “We were dead.” ↵↵

That’s odd that the Spartans would be dead, yet UNC, who had the same amount of days off as Michigan State – two – and had to travel from Chapel Hill to Michigan for the game, was fresh. In fact, Michigan State played the same exact schedule as Maryland. They both played three games at the Old Spice last week and then played their ACC-Big Ten game last night. Maryland won its game. Miraculously, they weren’t dead.↵↵But there’s more! Not only were they dead out there, but that wasn’t even the actual Michigan State team:↵

↵↵⇥“You didn’t see our real team tonight, but our real team might have lost by 20,” Izzo said. “They’re definitely one of the best teams I’ve seen in my 25 years at Michigan State.”↵↵So this mysterious “real team” would’ve lost 98-78 to UNC. Or, another way of looking at it: the real team is good enough to lose to Maryland by just 18. The Big Ten will be fine, however. Just look at how much promise Purdue provided. They only lost by 16, at home, to Duke. Baby steps.↵