ACC / Big 10 CHALLENGE
My Winners
Virginia- I predict 15-30 for Landsberg
NC St- Find a way to get the tough win
Purdue- Aminu will keep it close but the P3 will take over
Indiana- Low scoring affair with Indiana with the squeaker
North Carolina- I see this as a double overtime game. UNC's frontcourt takes over
Virginia Tech- They will put out this win
Ohio St.- Turner, Lighty and Buford do well
Duke- Come on....Singler does his thing.
Minnesota- Minny has a good team and pulls a win against Miami
Michigan- Manny Harris will drop 20 plus
Illinois- Illi with the lockdown D.
My Winners
Virginia- I predict 15-30 for Landsberg
NC St- Find a way to get the tough win
Purdue- Aminu will keep it close but the P3 will take over
Indiana- Low scoring affair with Indiana with the squeaker
North Carolina- I see this as a double overtime game. UNC's frontcourt takes over
Virginia Tech- They will put out this win
Ohio St.- Turner, Lighty and Buford do well
Duke- Come on....Singler does his thing.
Minnesota- Minny has a good team and pulls a win against Miami
Michigan- Manny Harris will drop 20 plus
Illinois- Illi with the lockdown D.
Penn St. @ Virginia---I'll go Penn State. This is the battle of 2 slept on players. I think Talor Battle is one of the better players in college basketball, but he's rarely talked about. He's super clutch out there to and he's a leader. Landesburg is a prospect that casual fans don't know, but he's touted highly by diehards and scouts. But I think Battle will make Penn State overtake UVA. He'll show a will to win.
Northwestern @ NC St.---I'll go NC State, both teams are not very good but with Kevin Coble out for the season, I'll give NC State the edge.
Wake Forest @ Purdue---I'll go with Purdue here. Aminu will have a decent game and Ish Smith will distribute fine, but Purdue will be tougher and smarter.
Maryland @ Indiana---Maryland should win easily. Indiana has a lack of talent right now.
Michigan St. @ North Carolina---I'll go with MSU. Lucas should have little trouble with UNC's guards on both ends of the floor. I do want to see if Delvon Roe and Co. can keep up with UNC's frontline though.
Virginia Tech @ Iowa--Tech should handle them. I watched Iowa the other day and they are not good. They have a 2-guard named Matt Gatens that's decent, but other than that, there is nothing. Jeff Allen should take them to work.
Florida St. @ Ohio St.----This will be a defensive struggle, but I expect Ohio State to win this game. FSU doesn't have any shot creators on their team. While OSU has the best player in college basketball in Evan Turner.
Duke @ Wisconsin---I'll go Duke. This should be a methodical game, but I think Duke has more offensive punch to get it done easier. This will be a hard fought game, I wouldn't be surprised if Wisconsin won in the closing seconds.
Minnesota @ Miami---Minnesota should win this. But Miami has a bull down low in Dwayne Collins that could be a matchup problem for Minnesota and their lack of girth down low.
Boston College @ Michigan---I'll go Michigan in a low scoring game. They'll have just enough offense to outscore Boston College, who doesn't have any scorers.
Illinois @ Clemson---I'll go Clemson. Mike Davis v. Trevor Booker should be an entertaining matchup though. That press Clemson runs should work against Illionis and their lack of a true PG, it'll make it harder for them to break it.
So I think Big 10 will win 6-5. The game I'm looking forward to is the Illinois v. Clemson and FSU v. OSU game. Both shuld be tough games with alot of defense.
I'm a big ACC guy, but this looks to be the Big 10's year. My predictions match up exactly with Iguodala's, but the most competitive game will probably be UNC/MSU. It could really go either way and will probably determine the outcome of the challenge.
So far the results are:
Big Ten- 3 Wins
ACC- 3 Wins
I've missed only one game so far. I thought Virginia would win but they didn't. 5 games tonight:
I think Duke beats Wisconsin. They just have too much talent. Wisconsin is not a good scoring team.
I'm picking Michigan to beat Boston College. Manny Harris will be balling like always. Michigan is the better overall team to begin with plus playing at home helps.
Miami will beat Minnesota. Miami has a lot of good athletes. A couple of their guards are really quick. The Gophers are not ready for this game.
Clemson will beat Illinois. I don't think Illinois will be able to score enough points. Clemson has too much length & versatility.
I also like Florida St. to beat Ohio St. FSU will lock down Ohio St. I think Evan Turner will have a rough game. Look for the bigs of FSU (Singleton & Alabi) to make a huge impact on the game.
So basically yep I'm expecting the ACC as a whole to dominate tonight. Should be interesting to see what conference wins the challenge.
Big Ten- 6 Wins
ACC- 5 Wins
Big 10 Wins the Challenge for the first time ever!
There were a lot of upsets last night. Looks like we all struggled at picking the winners in these games haha. Iggy & QHaynes did predict that the Big 10 would win the challenge though. I thought the ACC would.
I noticed in the majority of these games from this challenge it was the "tougher" team that normally won the game. The more "finesse" team normally lost. When the NCAA tournament rolls around I think one of the factors in who wins the games that is often overlooked is simply "toughness".
Penn St. @ Virginia
Northwestern @ NC St.
Wake Forest @ Purdue
Maryland @ Indiana
Michigan St. @ North Carolina
Virginia Tech @ Iowa
Florida St. @ Ohio St.
Duke @ Wisconsin
Minnesota @ Miami
Boston College @ Michigan
Illinois @ Clemson
So the question is what Conference is going to dominate this Challenge? ACC or Big 10? How many games does each conference win?
What game are you looking forward too most? All these games will be televised on ESPN, ESPN 2, & ESPN U
A lot of solid NBA prospects will be playing in these games.
My prediction: I think the ACC is going to somewhat dominate. I think they win 8 games while the Big 10 wins 3.
Game that I am looking forward to watching most: Florida St. @ Ohio St. FSU is a very stingy defensive team. This will be a real test for Evan Turner. FSU has lots of length & size in the post.