“10”

As the Michigan State Spartans did their finest Roberto Duran and begged – ‘no mas’, the North Carolina Tar Heels secured a six to five advantage for the Atlantic Coast Conference in the 2008 Big Ten/ACC Challenge .

Tyler Hansbrough dropped 25 points and Ty Lawson dished out eight assists as the Heels spanked the Spartans 98-63 in a game that wasn’t even that close. Hey Wally! How are you feeling about that ND loss to UNC now?

The ACC has won all ten of the events and now holds a 62-35 advantage in the Challenge.

Looking at these numbers can give someone a skewed perspective of the two conferences. During the same ten years each conference has sent nine representatives to the Final Four. The ACC winning three times – UNC ’05, Maryland ’02, and Duke ’01 while Michigan State the lone Big 10 winner in 2000.

Any time I hear someone giving up the Big Ten for dead, 2005 comes to mind. The Midwest conference looked rather average all season long (many, including yours truly, attributed Illinois’s gaudy numbers that year to the Big Ten being mediocre) and then all of sudden the Illni and Michigan State met at the Arch in St. Louie. Big Ten hoops can look less than spectacular at times – rebounding and playing defense, but there is no doubting its effectiveness come March.

Chances are the same thing will happen this year. Not sure who, but it would a safe guess to say two Big Ten teams will advance to the Elite Eight.

For now all we have is the Challenge to discuss.

Four of the contests were one-possession games – Boston College tripped Iowa 57-55, Clemson took the battle of the orange with a 76-74 win over Illinois, Penn State knocked off Georgia Tech 85-83, and Wisconsin nipped Virginia Tech 74-72.

The Tigers of Clemson used multiple presses to overcome an eight-point halftime deficit and win at Champaign. Clemson began to tip the game in their advantage when they used their run-and-jump defense. I am not sure why more teams don’t deploy this scheme. It can be very easily disguised and the defensive rotations are rarely consistent thus taking an offense out of any designed set.

Fans from both teams were decked out in orange creating a great atmosphere.

The Hokies have to be looking around and seeing if there any rattlers or pythons in the locker room because

they sure are snake bit early in the year. Dante Jackson’s half-court heave helped Xavier trip Va. Tech in the Puerto Rico Classic 63-62. Monday night Trevon Hughes’s jumper in the lane sealed a 74-72 win for the Badgers. Of course the Hokies could be accused of mismanaging the clock as they left Wisconsin more than 10 ticks to score the game-winner. Then the Va. Tech employed a matador defense saying Ole! as Hughes slipped past three defenders for the bucket.

And how about those Northwestern Wild…er…Mildcats? Bill Carmody’s gang beat Florida State 73-59.

Gotta give credit to Indiana and Tom Crean. Though they were dismantled by Wake Forest 83-58, the Hoosiers never stopped working. Wake Forest pressed for most of the first half and early in the second. The absolute last thing Crean and his crew of inexperienced players wanted to see. But with the Demon Deacs eliminating any semblance of a half-court offense, the Hoosiers resorted to taking the ball to the rack. And take it to the rack the Hoosiers did – unfortunately without much success. Again, I hope Kelvin Sampson gets severe carpal tunnel for the duration of the Hoosier rebuilding.

The most pleasant surprise for me had to be the performance of the Duke Blue Devils and in particular, Kyle Singler. Not long ago I was asked if I thought the Duke sophomore was one of the top 25 players in the country. I laughed…loudly.

Singler showed me very little until Tuesday night. But the other night he looked like he took the Robbie Hummel hype personally as he scored 20 and his six offensive rebounds were as many as the entire Boilermaker squad pulled down. Singler looked rather man-like at times.

Jon Scheyer also chipped in 20 including three 3s.

The most significant single play of the game for me occurred mid-way through the first half. With the play clock running down, and the Purdue defense extended beyond the arc, Nolan Smith took the ball to the rack and finished. Duke hasn’t had anyone who could do that since…since…since Chris Duhon. That play changed the complexion of the game. From then on Purdue had to respect Smith off the dribble. Now the sophomore has to learn to play defense without fouling.

The award for the most brainless play of the Challenge has to go to Miami’s Jack McClinton who was ejected less than ten minutes into the Hurricanes’ match-up with Ohio State. What could have happened in the first nine minutes of a non-conference game that would cause a player to take a swipe at an opponent? This would have been more understandable if the Hurricanes were playing a conference rival where there was a history between the two teams. But nine minutes into the game? Relax son – it’s December.

Hug a Hilltopper – though not part of the Challenge, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Western Kentucky’s

68-54 upset of Louisville. I only caught highlights of the game, but the picture of the Cardinal bench at the end of the game was priceless. The looks on the kids’ faces was that of fear thinking about Coach Pitino’s practice plan for the next day.

Western Kentucky didn’t stop there. Two nights later the Hilltoppers took care of Georgia 67-63. Western Kentucky looks fine despite losing last year’s leading scorer, Courtney Lee, to the NBA.

Time to enjoy the Pac-10 / Big 12 Hardwood Series.

Oh yeah – how many of you upon reading the title thought of Bo Derek? How many of you knew of Bo Derek before my previous question?