Blue Devils to Face Wisconsin in ACC/Big Ten Challenge
By Chris Brown
ESPN has officially released the schedule and matchups for the 16th annual ACC/Big Ten Challenge. Duke will play in the final game of the challenge against Wisconsin which made it to last season’s Final Four, on December 3rd at 9:30 pm on ESPN. The entire schedule can be seen here. The challenge is expanding to 14 teams for the first time as the conferences have grown, compared to 12 games before. All 14 Big Ten teams will be participating and 14 of the 15 ACC men’s basketball programs will participate (Boston College is the odd school out this year). The ACC won the first 10 challenges (1999-2008), then the Big Ten won three in a row (2009-2011), and the conferences have tied in 2012 and 2013.
Considered by most experts to be the two best conferences in college basketball, this years tournament will be especially interesting. Nine teams total are on the ESPN Preseason Top 25 poll: Duke(2), Wisconsin(4), North Carolina(6), Virginia(7), Louisville(8), Michigan St.(18), Syracuse(21), Michigan(24) and Iowa(25). Additionally, 10 schools were listed on ESPN RecruitingNation 2014-2015 class rankings: Duke, North Carolina, Louisville, Ohio State, Maryland, NC State, Virginia Tech, Indiana, Syracuse and Purdue.
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7 ACC teams (Duke, Virginia, North Carolina, NC State, Pittsburgh, Syracuse and Louisville) and 6 Big Ten teams (Wisconsin, Iowa, Michigan State, Michigan, Nebraska and Ohio State) made it to the NCAA tournament last season and two teams from each conference advanced pretty deep into the 2014 NIT tournament (Minnesota won the NIT title while Illinois lost in the second round. Florida State and Clemson of the ACC both advanced to the semifinals).
The headline game will be Wisconsin vs. Duke, but there will be a lot of other intriguing matchups this year including No. 21 Syracuse at No. 24 Michigan, No. 25 Iowa at No. 6 North Carolina, No. 8 Louisville in its first year in the ACC at Ohio State, No. 18 Michigan State at Notre Dame, and No. 7 Virginia at former ACC member Maryland, who will be entering their first season in the Big Ten.
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Duke has been very successful in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, posting a 13-2 record all-time and a 1-1 record against Wisconsin as part of the challenge. In last year’s challenge, the Blue Devils defeated Michigan 79-69 at home. Duke won against Wisconsin at Cameron Indoor Stadium in 2007, but the Badgers won the 2009 match-up in Madison at the Kohl Center. Both Duke and Wisconsin are projected to be in the top 5 NCAA teams and if the rankings hold true, this will make be a very interesting and headline matchup before conference play begins.
Duke will enter the season with the #1 recruiting class and a ton of talent and potential, but Wisconsin will be a veteran team coming off of an appearance in the Final Four and returning nearly everyone from that team including star forward Frank Kaminsky. Kaminsky will definitely cause matchup problems for Amile Jefferson/Jahlil Okafor with his ability to stretch the floor and shoot from distance as well as his size in the post. Duke will have their work cut out for them this year if they want to continue their dominance in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge and a win to their Challenge-best 13-2 record for either conference.