Big Ten vs. ACC

[Da Coach]

The ACC has dominated this series since it began, but this year the results are plain ugly for the Big Ten.

Iowa lost at home last night 56-47 to Wake Forest, but it was not really that close as Wake lead by much larger margins most of the game.

And tonight, the ACC won 4 of 5 matches, to go to 5-1 so far.--
Virginia 94 - Northwestern 52
Florida State 75 - Minnesota 61
Duke 82 - Wisconsin 58
Clemson 61 - Purdue 58
Indiana 83 - Georgia Tech 79

5 more games tomorrow--
N.C. State at Michigan St.
Boston College at Michigan
Illinois at Maryland
North Carolina at Ohio State
Va. Tech at Penn State

[MacabreMob]

5 more games tomorrow--
N.C. State at Michigan St.
Boston College at Michigan
Illinois at Maryland
North Carolina at Ohio State
Va. Tech at Penn State

B10 sweeps tomorrow and wins the Challenge.

[BradleyBrave]

B10 sweeps tomorrow and wins the Challenge.

And pigs fly...

[lefty]

I'm a BT fan as well but the ACC is better conference top to bottom pretty much every year.

[tornado]

The Duke - Wisconsin game points out something I have commented on for years.
Even though the announcers were gushing over how great of a coach Bo Ryan is and how great Wisconsin is....here are some facts....

Wisconsin does, and always has enjoyed an amazingly powerful home court advantage, and as a BIG TEN team, they rarely ever play a nonconference game away from home.
But when they do, they seem to be...ahem ....quite vulnerable.
Maybe even they appear a bit overrated.....
With the recruiting benefits of being a BT school and close to Chicago/Milwaukee...etc....they still are and have been recently quite beatable if you take away their home court.

Here are some facts......
Bo Ryan is 31-37 away from home
Wisconsin has historically been so bad away from home that their away record by decade is almost shocking:

1960-1970: 25-75
1970-1980: 21-91
1980-1990: 23-94
1990-2000: 33-83
2000-present: 40-52
Total since 1960.....142-397!!!!!

Thus the proof is quite clear...if you can get them out of their own arena they are not only beatable, but very beatable.

[MacabreMob]

Where's Mr Happy at a time like this?

[SFP]

B10 sweeps tomorrow and wins the Challenge.

ACC has a chance to sweep tonight. The best games should be NCSU-MSU and Ill - MD. I'd give the home teams an edge in both games. The other 3 should be an ACC win. This is ugly as coach has pointed out. That being said this has nothing to do with HS talent but everything to do with recruiting. The ACC has two advantages better weather and better national TV coverage. Another advantage is that the ACC has schools in large metropolitan areas (Boston, DC, Charlotte, Atlanta, Miami). Imagine if Northwestern gave out scholarships, they would probably rule the Big ten.

[BradleyBrave]

The Duke - Wisconsin game points out something I have commented on for years.
Even though the announcers were gushing over how great of a coach Bo Ryan is and how great Wisconsin is....here are some facts....

Wisconsin does, and always has enjoyed an amazingly powerful home court advantage, and as a BIG TEN team, they rarely ever play a nonconference game away from home.
But when they do, they seem to be...ahem ....quite vulnerable.
Maybe even they appear a bit overrated.....
With the recruiting benefits of being a BT school and close to Chicago/Milwaukee...etc....they still are and have been recently quite beatable if you take away their home court.

Here are some facts......
Bo Ryan is 31-37 away from home
Wisconsin has historically been so bad away from home that their away record by decade is almost shocking:

1960-1970: 25-75
1970-1980: 21-91
1980-1990: 23-94
1990-2000: 33-83
2000-present: 40-52
Total since 1960.....142-397!!!!!

Thus the proof is quite clear...if you can get them out of their own arena they are not only beatable, but very beatable.

I think most teams are bad away from home. What's BU's record under Jim Les away from Carver Arena?

[tornado]

I agree Bradley has historically (even in other coach's eras) had difficulty on the road....but I am not sure that's relative...because nobody is talking about Jim Les on National TV as if he is one of the top 3 coaches all time and a HOF candidate!

My point was that all the extolling of how great a coach Bo Ryan is, and how he has such a winning tradition, always seems to ignore the fact that he simply can't win on the road. His success is purely built on the huge home court advantage they have....and that they've always had, independent of who coaches them!!!!

In Bo's six seasons at Wisconsin, he has averaged only 5 road wins per year, and of course those are generally the ones against Penn State, Northwestern, Minnesota, etc...but even recent road cupcakes they have played like Pepperdine, Missouri State, Hawaii, Xavier, Weber State, etc (the last three were in their Big Ten Championship season) have all been losses to UW.
Their only non-conference road wins over the past 3 years have been Penn, Ohio, Rutgers, & UW-Green Bay (a D-II school!).

Bottom line...Bo wins more because he has employed the strategy of scheduling MORE home games, in fact almost exclusively home games except where contracts and conference requirements force otherwise.
His road and neutral site W-L records are no better than any of his immediate predecessors.
If he were a better coach than his predecessors...he'd win a few of those Pepperdine and Missouri State games.

By the way...one of Bo Ryan's "immediate predecessors" is Dick Bennett......who moved on to Washington State, and who (with his son) have built Washington State into a solid ppower...and Tony Bennett won many of the National Coach of the Year awards last year. Maybe that has some Wisconsin people envious...as Washington State DID win a BUNCH away from home last year...
they were 11-4 away from home and those 4 losses as you might guess were to powerhouses like UCLA, Oregon, etc.
No losses to guys like Pepperdine!

[houstontxbrave]

UW Green Bay is division 1 and plays in the Horizon League.

[tornado]

sorry--- it was Platteville they beat..

[Beninator]

The Duke - Wisconsin game points out something I have commented on for years.
Even though the announcers were gushing over how great of a coach Bo Ryan is and how great Wisconsin is....here are some facts....

Wisconsin does, and always has enjoyed an amazingly powerful home court advantage, and as a BIG TEN team, they rarely ever play a nonconference game away from home.
But when they do, they seem to be...ahem ....quite vulnerable.
Maybe even they appear a bit overrated.....
With the recruiting benefits of being a BT school and close to Chicago/Milwaukee...etc....they still are and have been recently quite beatable if you take away their home court.

Here are some facts......
Bo Ryan is 31-37 away from home
Wisconsin has historically been so bad away from home that their away record by decade is almost shocking:

1960-1970: 25-75
1970-1980: 21-91
1980-1990: 23-94
1990-2000: 33-83
2000-present: 40-52
Total since 1960.....142-397!!!!!

Thus the proof is quite clear...if you can get them out of their own arena they are not only beatable, but very beatable.

Wisconsin also looked slow in transition against Duke last night. Wisky plays Marquete at home on December 8. I like Marquette's chances.

[MacabreMob]

Wisky plays Marquete at home on December 8. I like Marquette's chances.

I don't... from what I've read... Wisky sounds too good at home.

[Da Coach]

Of the 5 games tonight, the ACC is 3-1 with 1 game still to be decided. So the overall results are ACC 8 - Big Ten 2 with the Penn State-Va. Tech game very close with 8 minutes left.

http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaab/scoreboard?d=2007-11-28&refresh=60&c=big10

[Da Coach]

Penn State pulls one out for the Big Ten. So the final score is ACC 8-Big Ten 3.