The Syracuse Orange and Michigan Wolverines are playing live on the men's college basketball schedule for the ACC Big Ten Challenge on Tuesday night and the matchup from the Crisler Center in Ann Arbor as the two big name schools matching up on ESPN and the game is streaming online from the WatchESPN website starting up at 7:30 pm ET.
Rakeem Christmas is leading the Orange in scoring this season and the team comes in unranked after a win against Holy Cross. The Orange are one of the favorites in the ACC if they can get things going although they are not likely to beat Duke or North Carolina overall in the standings. The team plays against St. John's next after the matchup with Michigan and they have lost one game this season, a neutral site matchup with the Cal Bears. The team doesn't have a nice win yet, as they have played five cupcake games and now they will get a taste of the top 25 with the Wolverines.
Syracuse has not been superb to start the season, but they should be ranked again soon and they come in ranked 19th in rebounds per game so far this year. The ACC is very tough and coming up the team starts off with Virginia Tech and Georgia Tech before playing FSU. The team has a ranked matchup this month with Villanova and then on the schedule they don't hit another ranked team until playing against Miami.
UNC and Duke are both ranked in the top 25 and Louisville comes in at number five and those three teams will be the toughest to deal with. Virginia was strong last year and they are ranked in the top 10 and the final stretch to end the season is brutal for the Orange. The team plays against Duke and UVA and they have three of four games on the road, with the other matchups being NC State and Notre Dame. Christmas is leading the team in scoring and rebounding and he will be the key player against Michigan.
Michigan comes in after a win against Nicholls State and they are ranked 17th in the nation into this game and they are 5-1 on the season as well. The team is averaging 76 points per game and they are 4-0 at home this season. The team lost to Villanova on a neutral court and that was their lone loss and now they have some easy games coming up before a top 25 matchup with Arizona. The Wildcats are currently ranked at number three and the team then has ranked Illinois coming later.
The Wolverines have a few brutal stretches through the season, including games against ranked teams in Ohio State, Wisconsin and Michigan State. The team also has a matchup with Maryland and two against Illinois. The toughest stretch will be late in the season when they matchup with four currently ranked teams all in a row, with MSU and OSU coming in back to back games. Michigan lost a number of top players and now they are looking to have a strong start to the season and a deep run in the Big Ten.
Check here for the Syracuse Orange and Michigan Wolverines live coverage.