The Big Ten made things interesting last night. If either Illinois or Iowa, both of whom had a chance to tie their games in the final few seconds but couldn’t convert, had pulled out a win, the Big Ten could have taken a 4-2 lead into tonight’s game.
Purdue couldn’t keep pace with Duke in the main billing last night. Three-point shooting, normally Purdue’s calling card on offense, favored the Blue Devils, who hit 8 of 22 attempts from beyond the arc. Purdue, meanwhile, could only hit 2 of 13 three-point attempts. And Duke took advantage of Purdue’s weakness on the boards, pulling down 16 of 37 offensive rebounding opportunities (43.2%) and 33 of 41 defensive rebounding opportunities (80.5%).
With Wake Forest and North Carolina going in as heavy favorites (vs. Indiana and MSU, respectively) tonight, events will really have to be of a confluent nature for the Big Ten to finally take home the trophy (or whatever it is they give the ACC for winning this thing every year).
P.S. North Carolina fans aren’t taking us very seriously (perhaps rightly so at this point).
How close is the ACC/B10 challenge:
3 wins each
ACC B10
Points 405 402
Fg-FGA 141/325 143/325
Home W/L 1-2 1-2
It was interesting to see Purdue’s rebounding troubles. This should be good for MSU, because that aspect of the game should be decidedly to MSU’s advantage when the two meet up. Improved 3-point defense, a return from Suton, and suddenly I am now liking our chances against Purdue in the conference.
The Carolina March review was actually pretty measured. MSU is still pretty young, so I think inconsistency is to be expected a little bit. There was a rush to over-project their jump from freshmen to sophomores. And I do agree (as was the case the previous seasons too) that we are undersized in the perimeter. I actually think Morgan would actually be ok absent the constant foul trouble, but though I love the Lucas-Summers-Allen-Lucious core and think this is a core than can eventually bring a championship, all those guys look about 2 inches shorter and 15 pounds lighter than what they’re listed. On TV, at least.