One word can be used to describe the college hoops games that have gone down over the past week: jaw-dropping. The annual ACC/Big Ten Challenge had some amazing games in addition to a battle of the titans between UNC and Kentucky.
ACC/Big Ten Challenge: Last Wednesday was the most anticipated game of the challenge. The matchup featured the first-ranked Wake Forest Demon Deacons and the third ranked Illinois Fighting Illini. The game wasn't even close.
Even without their star player and Big Ten Preseason Player of the Year Deron Williams contributing much due to an off-night in addition to foul trouble, the Illini waxed the Deacons in the first half. Illinois shot 60 percent from the field in the first half and was 8 for 16 from behind the arc, taking a blistering 54-33 lead into the locker room.
The Illini didn't let up in the second half, either. The rest of the Illinois team stepped it up with Williams down on luck. Roger Powell Jr. finished with 19 points and Dee Brown and Luther Head poured in 16 apiece for the Illini.
Wake, on the other hand, had a tough time finding the hoop. Shooting sensation Justin Gray went just 3 of 16 from the field and Preseason Player of the Year Chris Paul finished with only ten points.
"They played infinitely better than we did," Wake coach Skip Prosser said to reporters after the game. "I don't know how much more clearly I can say it."
The other key ACC/Big Ten game pitted the number nine ranked Michigan State Spartans against the number 10 ranked Duke Blue Devils. Boy, was this a game.
Duke came out firing in the first half, with sniper J.J. Redick putting up 21 points in the first half alone, leading his team to a 44-36 lead at the break.
But Michigan State held tight in the second half. When Duke made a shot, Michigan State would push the ball right back up the court and score. The peak of the Spartan momentum came late in the second half when Michigan State's Shannon Brown caught a long alley-oop pass and slammed it home over Duke's big man, Shavlik Randolph.
The Spartans were fired up but Duke's Daniel Ewing was too much. Ewing dropped in 15 points in the second half, finishing with 29 on the night on 10-14 shooting. The Dukies finished off State by a count of 81-74.
"There were a lot of good players out on that court," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said after the game. "But [Daniel] was the most mature player out there."
UNC/Kentucky: The other eye-popper last week was between the UNC Tarheels and the Kentucky Wildcats, ranked 11th and eighth at the time, respectively. Let's just say that Kentucky didn't lead the entire game.
Since its season-opening loss to unheard of Santa Clara, North Carolina has just about steamrolled every team in its path, improving to 6-1 with a 91-78 victory over the Cats.
The Heels jumped out to an 8-0 lead early on and didn't look back the whole way. UNC was led my Mr. Versatility, Rashad McCants, who finished with 28 points, as well as Jawad Williams (19 points, 7 boards) and big man Sean May (14 points, 19 boards). The only bright spot for Kentucky was big man Kelenna Azubuike putting up 24 points.
The win was the first for UNC over Kentucky since 1995.
Big Balla of the week: T.J. Thompson of the George Washington Colonials catapulted his team out of nowhere and into the Top 25 this week. Thompson had 27 points (5 for 7 from 3-point range) in the Colonials win over 16th ranked Maryland on Sunday after dropping 18 points on Michigan State on Saturday. His team, with a record of 5-1, is now number 25 in the polls.
