There were six games in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge on tap Tuesday night, bringing the total to eight thus far. Two of them – both won by the ACC school – will stand out at least to this point given how convincing a win each was.
First up was Louisville’s 58-43 win over Michigan, where the Cardinals’ defense dictated the outcome. Louisville didn’t put on a clinic at the offensive end, shooting just 36.7 percent from the field, but they held Michigan to under 26 percent, including 3-19 from long range, and slowed leading scorer Isaiah Livers to just three points on 1-9 shooting. Michigan scored just 18 points in the first half.
Louisville got to the top of the polls as the week began, but more by default than anything. The Cardinals haven’t played a tough schedule by any means and were not in an early tournament like the Wolverines were, with Michigan rising in the polls thanks to convincing wins en route to the Battle 4 Atlantis championship. With other teams losing, Louisville got to the top spot, and surely some wondered what they had done to deserve that. Polls don’t matter to a program like Louisville, at least not the way they would matter to a mid-major that has never been ranked, but they are a conversation piece.
Two Cardinals posted double-doubles, led by Jordan Nwora with 22 points and 12 rebounds. The junior is playing like a national Player of the Year candidate thus far, and that’s a race that will get more interesting as the season wears on. Steven Enoch had 13 points and 10 rebounds as well, and besides Livers, the Cardinals also limited Zavier Simpson, another who has been playing like an All-American. The senior guard had nine points, but just three assists with four turnovers.
In the later games, Duke went to Michigan State for what is always a headline game, although it’s the first time Duke has gone to East Lansing in a while. This time around, Michigan State raised Draymond Green’s jersey to the rafters, with several Warrior teammates plus head coach Steve Kerr in attendance. With the way Duke’s defense played, especially in the first half, you would never have thought that. The Blue Devils constantly disrupted Michigan State and took them out of everything they wanted to do, then turned the defense into offense constantly en route to an 87-75 win that didn’t feel that close.
What’s ironic is that Duke actually committed one more turnover (15) than they forced defensively (14), but they set a tone and made it hard for any Michigan State run to matter. They were also 7-15 from long range, while holding the Spartans to 4-16 from there. The Spartans made a couple of runs to try to make it interesting, but you never sensed they had enough to make it a real ballgame after Duke first broke the game open.
Vernon Carey Jr. (26 points, 11 rebounds) and Tre Jones (20 points, 12 assists) had the big nights for Duke, with Jones also playing a key role defensively as Cassius Winston had 12 points but on 4-14 shooting for Michigan State. Duke got something from everyone who played at least a full minute of action, with Jordan Goldwire – a guy who may thought would never play many minutes in Durham – leading the way off the bench in logging 24 minutes, and he had three rebounds and three assists while also being another defensive pest.
With one night to go, the Big Ten/ACC Challenge is knotted at four games apiece, with road teams being 5-3.
Side Dishes
In other action in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge, Northwestern handled Boston College 82-64, Iowa went to Syracuse and beat the Orange 68-54, Pittsburgh got by Rutgers 71-60 and Florida State rallied but ran out of gas in losing at Indiana 80-64.
Other results of note on the evening: Memphis took care of Bradley 71-67 despite a nice double-double from Bradley’s Elijah Childs (21 points, 14 rebounds); Butler moved to 8-0 with a 67-58 win at Ole Miss behind 31 points from Kamar Baldwin; George Mason is now 9-1 after a 67-60 win over Jacksonville State; Kent State is quietly 7-1 after a 92-57 romp over Detroit Mercy; Cincinnati held off Vermont 82-73 behind 23 points from Keith Williams; Belmont won the latest Battle of the Boulevard over Lipscomb 80-75 behind 27 points from Adam Kunkel; Missouri State edged Murray State 71-69 in a dandy; Texas held off UAB 67-57; SMU moved to 8-0 with a 77-51 rout of Northwestern State; LSU got a double-double from Emmitt Williams (18 points, 10 rebounds) in a 90-54 rout of New Orleans; TCU took care of Illinois State 81-69 behind 23 points and nine rebounds from Desmond Bane; and Arizona State went on the road and got 14 points and 11 rebounds from Romello White en route to holding off San Francisco 71-67.
Tonight’s Menu
A busy slate is highlighted by the final games in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge and another conference getting their slate underway.
- The night begins with a Big 5 matchup as Villanova hosts Penn (6:30 p.m.)
- A nice mid-major matchup to watch is James Madison making the short trip to Radford (7 p.m.)
- UMass gets a visit from South Carolina (7 p.m.)
- The Big Ten/ACC Challenge slate gets going with Virginia at Purdue and Nebraska at Georgia Tech (7:15 p.m.), with Notre Dame at Maryland a bit later (7:30 p.m.) Then Wisconsin goes to NC State and Wake Forest travels to Penn State (9:15 p.m.) before Ohio State goes to North Carolina to close it out (9:30 p.m.)
- A big rivalry game thankfully on tap once again is Utah hosting BYU, while Georgetown hits the road to visit Oklahoma State and Texas State travels to Houston (8 p.m.)
- Texas Tech tries to get back on track as they visit undefeated DePaul (8:30 p.m.)
- In-state rivals meet as Eastern Washington heads west to Washington (10 p.m.)
- Five early Mountain West games are on the slate as well, highlighted by Boise State at New Mexico and San Diego State at Colorado State (9 p.m.)
