The highlight of the post-Thanksgiving holiday week of college basketball betting action is easily the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, when teams from that conference square off on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. But it’s just one game per team against a foe from the opposite conference, not some sort of tournament. Two teams from the 2016 Final Four – North Carolina and Syracuse – are among the participants in the 18th annual ACC/Big Ten Challenge. ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU will combine to televise all 14 games of the event matching top college basketball programs playing for conference supremacy and the Commissioner’s Cup. All 14 games will also be available via WatchESPN.
Top College Basketball Betting Games of the Week (Nov. 28 – Dec. 4)
TOP 25 REWIND: Tar Heels on a roll after Maui, likely to climb in poll https://t.co/0uyF2uF89L @jmarshallAP
— AP Top 25 (@AP_Top25) November 28, 2016
No. 18 Syracuse at No. 16 Wisconsin, Tuesday
These two also played in the Challenge last year. Syracuse lost at home to Wisconsin 66-58 in overtime. Wisconsin overcame an uncharacteristic 20 turnovers by crashing the glass for a 51-25 edge, pounding the ball inside the Orange’s zone defense for a 30-14 edge in the paint, and taking advantage of Syracuse’s woeful free-throw shooting (11 of 20). Nigel Hayes had 15 points and 12 rebounds, converting a critical three-point play to break a tie in overtime, and Ethan Happ led the Badgers with 18 points and 15 rebounds. Both those guys are back this year and are UW’s best players. SU comes off a 64-50 loss to South Carolina on Saturday, its first defeat of the season. The Orange never led in the game in Brooklyn and shot just 31.8 percent. Take UW here.No. 24 Mississippi State at No. 6 Duke, Tuesday
No team has played a tougher schedule thus far than the Spartans and Coach Tom Izzo publicly apologized to his players for making it so challenging. MSU already has three losses, losing to No. 10 Arizona, No. 2 Kentucky and No. 20 Baylor, all at neutral sites. Now MSU has to go to Duke, perhaps the toughest place to play in the nation. But the Blue Devils could be vulnerable as their three touted freshmen, Jayson Tatum, Marques Bolden and Harry Giles, remain out injured. “We’ve been back to what we’ve done the last two years where there’s no contact in practice, you can hardly practice … and that’s frustrating. But you do what you need to do. We don’t ask anybody to feel sorry for us,” Coach Mike Krzyzewski. In addition, returning star Grayson Allen injured his toe in Tuesday’s win over Appalachian State and is in question. Take Sparty if Allen sits.
