Big Ten Dominates ACC In Challenge

After losing the first 10 ACC-Big Ten Challenges, the Big Ten has won the last three – the latest thanks to a dominant 2011 performance. Indiana, Penn State and Michigan State swept the three opening games Wednesday night to lock up the Challenge with seven wins. Minnesota added another win in the late games to […]

Indiana Makes A Statement On The Road

This is not a game last year’s Indiana Hoosiers would have won. On the road. Athletic team. A late-game deficit. These are not your 2010-11 Indiana Hoosiers. Indiana (7-0) trailed North Carolina State 63-56 with just under eight minutes to play before closing on an astounding 30-12 run, started by Cody Zeller getting the ball […]

Site News – And Big Ten-ACC Challenge Open Thread

Good news! We gave up on our old suspended Twitter account and created a brand new one! We’re quitters! You can follow us on Twitter here. While you’re at it, you can like us on Facebook here. Meanwhile, you can add any thoughts you have on tonight’s Big Ten-ACC Challenge in the comments.

Replacing the Zooker

Speculation about who AD Mike Thomas will name as his new varsity football coach is rampant in the Champaign area, as fans are desperate for relevance that will probably never come. Shockingly, interest doesn’t appear to be extremely high to coach a team that loses its best in-state recruits to Notre Dame on a consistent […]

Cody Zeller Helping Make The Hoosiers Indiana Again

ESPN has a story on Cody Zeller, with a nugget that makes it clear how valuable the freshman center is to making the Hoosiers go (subscription required): During a preseason scrimmage in October, Indiana coach Tom Crean saw something he didn’t like: His top freshman, Cody Zeller, wasn’t getting the ball. So Crean stopped practice […]

After 70+ Years, No NCAA Tournaments??

I recently had a chance to make small talk with Coach Bill Carmody at Mike Ditka’s Steakhouse before a Northwestern University Athletics “Let’s Get Pumped for the Upcoming Seasons” event. The first question out of my mouth was “How’s the food?” and the second was “Are we going to make the tourney this year?”  For […]

Tickets Aren’t Flying Off Shelf For Big Ten Title Game

Hey, Badger and Spartan fans, get thee to Indianapolis this weekend. Seems tickets are there to be had: Ticket brokers say demand for the game is soft, with thousands of tickets available on the secondary market at well below face value. The Big Ten put 2,000 tickets on sale Tuesday through Ticketmaster at prices of […]

5 Reasons to watch the Gophers take on the Hokies (and other stuff)

Despite having all the air let out of the balloon that is Golden Gopher Basketball fandom last Sunday, the season must go on.  And so for better or worse, bring on the Hokie-birds and the Big Ten-ACC Challenge. The Barn will be hosting VaTech this Tuesday night on the ‘Duece (ESPN2 @ 9:15 EST), in […]

Buckeyes Crush Duke; Big Ten Leads ACC In Challenge

In case you don’t know: Ohio State is good. Damn good. They dominated a Duke team that beat a solid field in Maui and beat Michigan State on a neutral court. The Buckeyes are far and away the best team in the Big Ten. Overall, the Big Ten jumped out to a 4-2 lead in […]

Preview: Wisconsin At North Carolina

If Duke at Ohio State was the game of the night on Day 1 of the Big Ten-ACC Challenge, No. 7 Wisconsin at No. 5 North Carolina is clearly the class of Day 2. Not only that, it could rest on Bucky’s shoulders to lock up the Big Ten’s third straight Challenge – especially if […]

Preview: Indiana At North Carolina State

The Hoosiers and Wolfpack kick off Day 2 of the ACC-Big Ten Challenge in Raleigh. Indiana enters the Challenge 6-0 after facing few challenges in the first few weeks of the season. Then again, they also were 6-0 coming into the Challenge last year before losing to Boston College – touching off a 6-20 close […]

Preview: Florida State At Michigan State

This is a big game for the Spartans, who can ill-afford to go 0-3 in the Atlantic Coast Conference to start the season. The Seminoles should be an easier challenge than earlier Michigan State games against North Carolina (on the big boat) and Duke (in the big city). Florida State is 5-2 and coming off […]

Preview: Wake Forest At Nebraska

First off, we can all thank Nebraska for joining the Big Ten and allowing us to have 12 games for the first time. So, thank you, Cornhuskers. In five games, Nebraska has played both South Dakota and South Dakota State – which seemed odd until I remembered Nebraska borders South Dakota. Still getting used to […]

Preview: Virginia Tech At Minnesota

I would have picked Minnesota to win this game before its season buckled along with Trevor Mbakwe’s knee over the weekend. Now? Well, let’s let ESPN’s Eamonn Brennan sum it up: It’s devastating to Mbakwe — it is likely to end his collegiate career — but it’s devastating to Minnesota, too, as Mbakwe was the bruising, dominating […]

Preview: Penn State At Boston College

This is probably the worst ACC-Big Ten Challenge game of the year. Or ever. Penn State is a reasonably respectable 5-2. The two losses are to Kentucky (85-47) and St. Joe’s (65-47), with wins over Hartford, Radford, LIU, South Florida and Youngstown State. That’s the good. The bad? The Nittany Lions are 282nd in the […]

Big Ten! ACC! Challenge!

It’s ACC-Big Ten Challenge day – or as we like to call it: Big Ten-ACC Challenge day, because we’re parochial like that. (Note: The Big Ten is up 4-2 after Day 1. A game-by-game recap is here. The Day 2 recap can be found here.) Before we get to our picks, here’s some trivia: The […]