Non-UCONN WCBB Matchups 2017-18

[triaddukefan]

South Carolina and Tennessee play twice ..... gonna be a interesting post-game handshake line in Columbia

The Big 10-ACC Challenge matchups were announced today

2017 Big Ten/ACC Womens Basketball Challenge Matchups Announced
http://www.bigten.org/sports/w-baskbl/spec-rel/062817aaa.html
Ohio State at Duke is the highlight game of the event

Others...... Maryland at UVA, Notre Dame at Michigan, Louisville at Indiana

 

[nwhoopfan]

Those are mostly yawn inducing matchups. At least they could've had Maryland play one of the better ACC teams. Is anyone other than Ohio St. and Maryland halfway decent from the Big Number Challenged Conference?

 

[ed4ourgirls]

I have a feeling that Indiana will be improved this year. Whether they're improved
enough to give Louisville a game remains to be seen.

 

[triaddukefan]

Those are mostly yawn inducing matchups. At least they could've had Maryland play one of the better ACC teams. Is anyone other than Ohio St. and Maryland halfway decent from the Big Number Challenged Conference?

UVA probably will be a top 5 ACC team. As far as the Big 10 goes.......Michigan should be good. I think Indiana should be above average.

They usually try to make it so each school doesnt play on the road for two consecutive years. And I also think they try to mix up the matchups as well. They were a bit hamstrung this year as ND, Duke, Maryland, and Michigan played on the road last season. I was 99.5% sure that Ohio State would be venturing to Durham this year.. as OSU played at home, and Duke played on the road last season. Maryland played at Louisville last season... and I guess they didnt want the same two teams meeting in College Park this season. I guess they could have had FSU go to Maryland.

 

[nwhoopfan]

I pay more attention to the ACC-Big 10 Challenge in men's hoops than women's. Seems like they usually get at least 3-4 compelling games for the men. Yeah alternating home and away and not wanting to repeat which teams play each other too often can make it difficult. Maryland has pretty much ruled the Big 10 since they moved, I'd just like to see them play one of the top 2 or 3 teams from the ACC. I don't know much about UVa, but any one of Notre Dame, Louisville, Duke or Florida St. just jumps out more to me as an opponent.

 

[oldude]

Not sure why the BIG doesn't have a deeper bench of top WBB teams after the Turtles and tOSU. They have a number of outstanding universities with great traditions and very deep pockets, and yet their conference RPI ranked sixth in WBB this past season, behind the other 4/5 Big 5 conferences as well as the AAC.

I guess the BIG could fix that problem by adding a certain New England school located just east of Hartford.

 

[triaddukefan]

I pay more attention to the ACC-Big 10 Challenge in men's hoops than women's. Seems like they usually get at least 3-4 compelling games for the men. Yeah alternating home and away and not wanting to repeat which teams play each other too often can make it difficult. Maryland has pretty much ruled the Big 10 since they moved, I'd just like to see them play one of the top 2 or 3 teams from the ACC. I don't know much about UVa, but any one of Notre Dame, Louisville, Duke or Florida St. just jumps out more to me as an opponent.

UVA wont be a pushover by any means for Maryland.

 

[triaddukefan]

Not sure why the BIG doesn't have a deeper bench of top WBB teams after the Turtles and tOSU. They have a number of outstanding universities with great traditions and very deep pockets, and yet their conference RPI ranked sixth in WBB this past season, behind the other 4/5 Big 5 conferences as well as the AAC.

I could be off base but here is what I think. With the exception of a handful of schools...... Duke, TN, UCONN, and a few others..... most rosters on teams are made up of players from the region where they are located. Just looking at the top 100 players... most tend to come from either California, Texas....the South and the East Coast. Not so much the Midwest, except for Illinois (Chicagoland). This works out well for the SEC and the ACC. A talented player from say...... Georgia, Florida, Virginia may choose to leave their state.... but its an easier sell for them to spend their time in a Raleigh, Charlottesville, Tallahasee, Miami, than Iowa City, Minneapolis, East Lansing, Champaign... et al. Even with the talent in the midwest..... you have poachers like UCONN, Duke, et al ... coming in an cherry picking. How many players at Minnesota, Nebraska or Michigan are from the South/East? Cant be that many.