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Maryland-North Carolina highlights 2015 Big Ten-ACC challenge
The Big Ten-ACC challenge will again provide maybe college basketball's most anticipated non-league game next season.
It will be Maryland at North Carolina on Dec. 1 in a potential preseason No. 1 vs. No. 2 matchup.
The Tar Heels are a strong candidate to begin the season atop the polls thanks to the return of four starters from a 26-win Sweet 16 team. All-American candidate Marcus Paige, potential breakout star Justin Jackson and talented big men Brice Johnson and Kennedy Meeks each might have been selected in this year's NBA draft had they opted to declare.
Maryland also is a contender for preseason No. 1 if its returning standouts mesh with some promising new arrivals. High-scoring point Melo Trimble and versatile forward Jake Layman return from last year's breakout season, while elite freshman center Diamond Stone, talented former Georgia Tech power forward Robert Carter and ex-Duke shooting guard Rasheed Sulaimon are the best of the crop of newcomers.
Great as the North Carolina-Maryland game could be, there will be some disappointment that the Terps were not pitted against former ACC rival Duke. The storylines for that matchup of likely top 10 teams would have been especially compelling with Sulaimon facing his former team and Krzyzewski facing the program he vowed never to schedule again after the Terps left the ACC for the Big Ten.
Instead Duke will host Indiana, not a bad consolation prize considering it's a battle of blue bloods and likely preseason top 20 teams. The reigning national champs will reload behind the nation's best freshman class, while the Hoosiers return the core of last year's high-scoring NCAA tournament team and add freshman big man Thomas Bryant to shore up their frontcourt.
The Duke-Indiana matchup is probably the best of an intriguing slate of second-tier games that also includes Louisville at Michigan State, Virginia at Ohio State, Wisconsin at Syracuse and Michigan at NC State. Heck, even Purdue at Pittsburgh, Notre Dame at Illinois and Florida State at Iowa all pit potential NCAA tournament contenders against each other.
Credit organizers for again putting together a slate replete with plenty of must-see games. The ACC leads the series 10-4-2, but the Big Ten won last year's event.
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Jeff Eisenberg is the editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at daggerblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
