ACC Basketball: Analyzing intriguing 2019 matchups versus Big Ten

The clashes for the 2019 ACC-Big Ten Challenge are set, and multiple pairings will shine the spotlight on ACC Basketball’s premier crews.

My affinity for ACC Basketball stems, in large part, because I attended Syracuse and love collegiate hoops like no other sport. Sure, I miss the old Big East Conference days, when my Orange would battle foes such as Connecticut, Georgetown and Villanova.

However, with Syracuse now in the Atlantic Coast Conference for a half-dozen terms, I find myself cheering on all the league’s representatives, except of course when they compete against my alma mater. One of the delights of the non-conference slate is, without question, the annual ACC-Big Ten Challenge, and the 21st installment of this fantastic event got announced on Thursday, bringing with it a ton of excitement.

Fourteen teams from both the ACC (sorry, Virginia Tech) and the Big Ten will go toe to toe for three days, beginning on Monday, Dec. 2. While tip times and television assignments will get unveiled in the future, ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU will combine to broadcast every single encounter.

Headlining the challenge is a monster bout between Duke and Michigan State, with the Spartans hosting the Blue Devils. In the 2019 NCAA Tournament, Michigan State shocked No. 1 overall seed Duke in the Elite Eight, propelling the second-seeded Spartans to the Final Four. The Blue Devils and Michigan State are each deemed as having extremely good chances to cut down the nets in April of 2020.

In a second Elite Eight rematch, Virginia, the defending national champions, will travel to Purdue. The Cavaliers snuck by the Boilermakers, in overtime, during their epic regional final, one of several nail-biting victories that Virginia claimed on its journey to the crown.

I’m also keen on Michigan at Louisville. The Wolverines, under new head coach and former Wolverines star Juwan Howard, took a huge hit due to a handful of players bolting for the NBA Draft, and Michigan will face a Cardinals group that many industry prognosticators have slotted in their pre-season top-10 rankings.

Another potential blockbuster has Ohio State making a trip to North Carolina. The Buckeyes are viewed as a top-four unit in the Big Ten, and the Tar Heels, from my perspective, should finish in the top three in the ACC.

Syracuse, which has beaten Ohio State and Maryland in consecutive ACC-Big Ten Challenges, will welcome Iowa to the Carrier Dome. The Orange got dinged by the early departures of wing Tyus Battle and forward Oshae Brissett, but Syracuse does bring in a promising five-member recruiting class for 2019-20.

Notre Dame, beset by injuries in a subpar 2018-19 stanza, will proceed to College Park to collide with the Terrapins, a squad receiving a bunch of hype as the 2019-20 campaign inches closer.

Since the event’s inception, the ACC is 12-5-3 in the challenge, and 127-98 in individual games, according to the statement from the ACC. That conference has not lost a challenge to the Big Ten dating back to 2015.

Here’s the full line-up for the 2019 challenge, via the press release from the ACC:

Monday, Dec. 2
Clemson at Minnesota
Miami at Illinois

Tuesday, Dec. 3
Northwestern at Boston College
Duke at Michigan State
Florida State at Indiana
Michigan at Louisville
Rutgers at Pittsburgh
Iowa at Syracuse

Wednesday, Dec. 4
Nebraska at Georgia Tech
Ohio State at North Carolina
Wisconsin at N.C. State
Notre Dame at Maryland
Virginia at Purdue
Wake Forest at Penn State