The college basketball season is moving along quickly and the schedule is already in December and one of the best events on the calendar in the early part of the year is the Big Ten ACC Challenge and this year a number of top teams are fighting to help win the Commissioner's Cup, with Duke, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Northwestern, Syracuse, North Carolina and Miami participating and on Wednesday the games will be on ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU and streaming on the WatchESPN website.
The schedule on Wednesday comes after some great games on Tuesday, as Maryland and Ohio State will be one of the early matchups along with Wisconsin and Virginia, while Northwestern and NC State will be one of the 7:30 pm games and that matchup will be on ESPNU. The best matchup of the second day is Michigan State and North Carolina and comes after Duke played and defeated Michigan on Tuesday night in a solid game. The rest of the schedule for Wednesday has Boston College taking on Purdue, while Miami and Nebraska play the latest game at 9:30 pm on ESPNU.
Syracuse pulled off a nice win against Indiana by 17 points on Tuesday and that game ended up a blowout after the Hoosiers kept it close, while Duke was able to beat Michigan by 10 in the matchup between top 25 teams. Minnesota took down Florida State while Pitt was able to down Penn State and in one of the most entertaining games, Illinois lost to Georgia Tech by three. Clemson, Virginia and Wake Forest did not make the cut this season and after the tournament ended in a tie last year, the ACC will be looking to take the Cup back this time around.
Michigan State has been a dominant team this season and now they will have a solid matchup against North Carolina on Wednesday night and the main focus will be Gary Harris, who has been excellent while putting up 17.7 points, 4.3 rebounds and 2.8 assists this season and the Tar Heels will have to watch out for him on the floor along with experienced senior Keith Appling.
The game between MSU and North Carolina will be at the Jack Breslin Student Events Center and comes after the team won over Oklahoma and Virginia Tech last week. The team has some tough matchups going forward and the Spartans come into the game averaging over 80 points per contest and they are also ranked first in the nation in assists. The Tar Heels are an athletic team and they will come out strong and the Big Ten needs MSU to win to keep things going in the Nig Ten-ACC challenge.