The ACC-Big Ten Challenge picks up again on Wednesday night with a number of solid matchups on the schedule, but none is better than the Michigan State Spartans taking on North Carolina Tar Heels and the game will be live on ESPN at 9:00 pm ET from Jack Breslin Student Events Center and streaming online from WatchESPN and has the number one team in the nation of MSU in action.
The tournament ended in a tie last season, leaving the Commissioner's Cup with the Big Ten for another season, but Duke got the better of Michigan on Tuesday and now the rivals of those teams will matchup on Wednesday. The Spartans are looking like a legitimate national title contender this season and Tom Izzo has been raving about the experience of his team, especially from senior Keith Appling and he also has had high praise for Gary Harris, who has been excellent for the team as a sophomore and he should be ready to go on Wednesday night after dealing with an ankle injury. The Spartans are one of the highest scoring teams in the nation, but games against North Carolina, no matter what the rankings are, have tended to be tricky for Izzo, as the Tar Heels have won all of them since Roy Williams took over and three of them were high stakes NCAA tournament matchups, including the national title game. The Spartans are undefeated at 7-0 this season, while the Tar Heels come in 4-2 after losing their last game to UAB on the road on Sunday.
Check here for the ESPN coverage for North Carolina and Michigan State.
The Tar Heels have plenty of young talent and they could get back into the mix in an ACC that looks very top heavy and that they will get some nice experience this week and the following week when the team plays Michigan State and then against number three ranked Kentucky. The Tar Heels of course have their games against Duke and those will be great matchups, but the ACC should be open for them, as the Blue Devils and Syracuse are currently the only two teams ranked in the AP Top 25.
Michigan State is coming into the game after a massive win over Mount St. Mary's and that game saw 17 points from Appling and after playing against North Carolina, the Spartans will play on the road against Oakland. The team comes in averaging over 85 points per game and they are ranked first in assists per game in the nation and are shooting over 50 percent from the field in the early goings. The Spartans are the overall favorites in the Big Ten this season and Ohio State is considered to be a contender as well over other ranked teams like Iowa and Michigan. The Spartans play a tough schedule this season with Georgetown, Ohio State, Wisconsin and Texas and Izzo thinks this team is good enough to go all the way.
Michigan State is scoring in bunches this season and they are averaging 90 points over their last stretch of games and now they will try and get their first win against the Tar Heels in over a decade and that came back in 2000 and that was at home as well, so the symmetry may be a good omen for MSU. The two teams have fast point guards and this time around a little extra will be on the line with the ACC/Big Ten challenge going on and this could be one of the games that turns it for one of the conferences. The game starts up at 9 pm on ESPN for North Carolina and Michigan State.