Penn State to Host Maryland in The Big Ten/ACC Challenge

Assuming that the leaked information floating around the interwebs is correct, we’ve got your matchups for the Big Ten/ACC Challenge. The Big Ten is going to be at a slight disadvantage (suprise) sending the top 3 teams in the conference on the road to play some pretty tough games. On the bright side Penn State won’t be on the road for the 3rd straight year. To think that Geary Claxton was on the court the last time the challenge was in Happy Valley is nuts. In the Lions defense though, they have won 3 straight Big Ten/ACC games, so the blame isn’t on us. (I moved the brief game previews from the last post to here for the sake of a full list)

•  Michigan State will travel to Duke and face the defending national champs in what’s bound to be the most anticipated game of the early season. It very well could be a matchup of No. 1 vs. No. 2. and ought to be a good measuring stick of both squads. I don’t see MSU coming out of this one on top, but hey might start off strong
• Purdue, a Top 5 team, will head to  play Virginia Tech– a Top 25 club. This game ought to give Ed a chance to scout out VT before they have to head down and take on the Hokies in person. Depending on how Tech’s season starts I wouldn’t be surprised to see them give Purdue a run for their money.
• Ohio State, another Top 10 team, will travel to Florida State. This actually might be one of the better games  in regards to the Big Ten measuring stick. Ohio State looked bad without Evan Turner while he was injured and Ohio State will need to find itself quickly to have a shot at another Big Ten title. Florida State is a speedy team, so they should give the Buckeyes plenty to think about

Actual picture of Evan Turner’s room

• Illinois will play host to North Carolina in a battle of two likely Top 25 teams. North Carolina is going to be under a lot of pressure this year just to not suck again, but Illinois can be a very impressive team at times so it won’t be easy for the Tarheels to turn it around early.
• Wisconsin will play N.C State in Madison which should be a good eye opener for the loaded freshman class NC State has coming in. Bo Ryan is losing a few guys, but he is also one of the few coaches that can coach the snot out of you until you play great ball. I don’t expect Wisconsin to lose this matchup.
• Northwestern will host Georgia Tech in a game Northwestern will most likely need a lot more than GT in terms of NCAA birth. After coming so close last year and having such a strong start to the season, Northwestern will need this win to start off on the right foot.
• Michigan will travel to Clemson. Michigan lost half it’s good players, and Clemson got a new coach. Between the two who knows what will happen. Generally Clemson isn’t an easy place to play so that could be a deciding factor in a game between two programs rebooting early in the season.

• Iowa will travel to Wake Forest. There isn’t much reason to think that Wake won’t win this game. But we know Iowa and their ways of messing with people.
• Minnesota will host Virginia and I would expect Minnesota to come out on top in that game. While they’ll be rebuilding a little bit, it’s hard to win in The Barn, and Tubby is too good to let a W slip away.
• Indiana will travel to Boston College. Boston College is a fun place to watch a game, and I wouldn’t be suprised if Indiana gave BC a run. Indiana is so close every game to finding their stride. With the amount of youth and talent on the team it would seem like only a matter of time. (I’ve heard that before huh?)
• Penn State will host Maryland

Looking at it yesterday, when it came down to the teams left over for Penn State to get a game against, Maryland was a really good catch. Sure there won’t be any Greivis Vasquez dances going on when the mighty turtles make their way to Happy Valley, but there are worse things than playing the team that tied for the ACC title. An initial glance at the numbers does cause some concern in regard to Maryland being able to pick up wins later down the road. They’re losing their top 3 scorers but are bringing back guys like Jordan Williams and Sean Mosley so a Gary Williams coached team isn’t going to go down without a fight.

NCAA Basketball Stats

This is exactly the kind of game Penn State needed. It is obvious that Penn State will need to get better to win, but picking up a game against a solid well known team can really help you in the long run. Assuming that Maryland doesn’t tank, they should single handily help Penn State’s RPI more than any other team (maybe VT) currently on the OOC part of the season. Ultimately you would want Penn State to pick up both wins, a win on the road and at home against two ACC teams fighting in the top of a premier conference. Might be a little wishful thinking, but we can’t complain about getting bad games if we can’t handle losing a few big ones.

—Bonus storyline– Maryland recruited Taran Buie for a while before Penn State snagged him.