NCAA Basketball: Ranking the 2020 Big Ten/ACC Challenge matchups
8. NC State at Michigan
This is a genuinely good mid-tier matchup between two teams with NCAA Tournament aspirations but could use a win against one another to bolster their respective resumes. An early edge may be given to the Wolfpack since their roster is familiar with one another. Forward DJ Funderburk is back, along with guards Braxton Beverly and Devon Daniels.
The Wolverines will be breaking in a pair of new transfers in Chandee Brown of Wake Forest and Mike Smith of Columbia. Returning key players such as Isaiah Livers, Franz Wagner, and Eli Brooks gives them a number of scorers capable of taking over a game. They’ll need freshman forward Hunter Dickinson to take care of Funderburk down low to win this and that may be a mismatch that NC State takes advantage of.
Prediction: NC State
7. Louisville at Wisconsin
Depending on who these teams schedule before, this could be the first true test for the Badgers, a consensus top-15 preseason team. They return all of their key rotation pieces, including guards Brad Davison and D’Mitrik Trice, along with leading scorer and forward Nate Reuvers. The Cardinals, on the other hand, lost a fair amount of talent on last year’s team, including Jordan Nwora and forwards Steven Enoch and Dwayne Sutton.
Along with Malik Williams handling the frontcourt duties, Louisville did add a pair of impact grad transfers in Carlik Jones and Charles Minlend. The issue is that not only will it take time for them to gel and get acclimated with the new system but that they’ll have issues with the strong defense that Wisconsin always possesses. Look for them to frustrate the mid-major guards all game.