For the past 15 years, the ACC/Big Ten Challenge has done its part to give the college basketball community some great early season games. But as you scroll through the annals of the event’s fun history, it’s not chock-full of historic moments. Don’t get me wrong — there were a number of great games to choose from, but aside from the hardcore college basketball aficionado (/raises hand), it’s tough to isolate a few stand alone plays or performances to define this stable of yearly games between two of the country’s best conferences. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but the bottom line is that the Challenge has not been an event known for so many great moments as much as great basketball.
Still, there have been a few. Here are some of those moments and games.
5) 11/29/06 – Purdue 61, No. 25 Virginia 59: Crump For The Win. Tarrance Crump only averaged 5.0 points per game and shot 41 percent from the field in his two seasons with the Boilermakers, but the floater he hit with 1.8 seconds left in the Challenge game to give Purdue the win over a ranked Virginia team may have been the biggest shot of his career. His game-winning shot was set up after Virginia’s Sean Singletary hit two free throws to tie the game with 29 seconds remaining. The win was notable in that it was Purdue’s first over a ranked non-conference opponent at home in 21 years. (Challenge result: 8-3 ACC.)
4) 11/28/01 – No. 22 Michigan State at No. 9 Virginia: Cancelled. The next game on this list technically still hasn’t ended. The Spartans and the Cavaliers were in the midst of a tight 31-28 contest in the Richmond Coliseum, a venue scheduled to also host a minor league hockey game the next day, when Virginia’s Travis Watson slipped and hit his face on the court. A particularly warm December day had caused the ice under the basketball floor to create slippery condensation on the hardwood, so with 15:04 remaining, the officials postponed the game and it was never finished. Then-Virginia coach Pete Gillen said at the time that the game “was like Bambi on ice.” (Challenge result: 5-3 ACC.)
3) 12/2/09 – Illinois 76, No. 19 Clemson 74: Big Comeback in Littlejohn. After falling behind 51-28 early in the second half, things obviously looked bleak for the Fightin’ Illini on this night in Littlejohn Coliseum. But a scintillating 35-10 run got Illinois all the way back into the game, capped with a Mike Tisdale jumper dropping with 41 seconds left to give Bruce Weber’s squad the lead for good (Tisdale also blocked a shot down the stretch). Clemson’s Demontez Still missed a jumper at the buzzer to seal the road win and marking the school’s largest comeback victory in program history. (Challenge result: 6-5 B1G.)
2) 12/4/04 – No. 3 Illinois 91, No. 1 Wake Forest 73: Statement Blowout. There were so many storylines going into this game – Chris Paul versus Illinois’ guard trio of Deron Williams/Luther Head/Dee Brown; a top three match-up – and so many more were created after the Fightin’ Illini dominated the Demon Deacons from the opening tip in Assembly Hall. They controlled the tempo throughout, held Paul (who averaged 15.3 points and shot 47 percent from three that year) and Justin Gray (16.0 PPG and 40.5 percent from three) to a combined 21 points on 7-of-27 shooting, and rode the momentum of that victory all the way to a 37-2 record and the 2005 national title game. Brown and Head combined for 32 points and Williams notched 11 assists, and the Challenge game was the final time the Illini played that season as anything but the No. 1 team in the nation. (Challenge result: ACC 7-2.)
1) 12/1/99 – No. 8 Michigan State 86, at No. 2 North Carolina 76: Streak Snapped. Ignore the rankings. From 1928 up until this first-year Challenge game against the Spartans, North Carolina had always won its home opener. In this Top 10 match-up of heavyweights, UNC lost that home opener for the first time in 71 years. As the score indicates, the game wasn’t especially dramatic, but Michigan State dominated this game in Chapel Hill as a precursor for finishing that season with Tom Izzo’s only national title (UNC also made a run as a #8 seed to the Final Four, where it lost to Florida). One of the more impressive notes from this one is that the Spartans won the road game without Mateen Cleaves in the lineup, who missed the game with a stress fracture in his right foot. Senior Morris Peterson, who went on to become the Big Ten Player of the Year and an All-American that season, introduced himself to the nation as he dropped in 31 points in the big win. (Challenge result: 5-4 ACC.)
David Harten runs The Backboard Chronicles. You can find him on Twitter at @David_Harten