Penn State Looks to Make Mark in ACC/Big Ten Challenge

(Photo: UMD.edu)

Last week was full of ups and downs for the Men's Penn State Basketball team. Now Maryland is coming into town. Tonight could mean an important win for both teams as both are preparing for conference play.

As of this morning, the Big Ten is ahead of the ACC 4-2 in this early season tournament. We will find out tonight at 9:15 p.m. if Penn State can stay on track with the rest of the Big Ten.

Let's first take a look at how this prior week has prepared the Nittany Lions for this primetime matchup.

Penn State to Face Maryland In 2010 Big Ten-ACC Challenge

We couldn't find a quality picture of Gary Williams sweating, so we got the next best thing (H/T Drunk Athlete).

I'm really beginning to love the city of Louisville, Kentucky. First, there were the drunken shenanigans at the Derby a couple weeks ago and now, their newspaper (The Courier-Journal) is the first to leak the entire field of this year's upcoming Big Ten-ACC Challenge. This time around, the Fighting DeChellises have themselves a date at the Jordan Center against Maryland. Yes, THAT Maryland, as in coach Gary Williams and the buckets of sweat he creates during every game. We're also talking about a Maryland team coming off a season where they tied with Duke for the ACC's regular season title.

While this year's game should no doubt be a fine challenge for Penn State early on, it unfortunately comes a year after their talented, prima-donna, showboating point guard Greivis Vasquez graduates, which means the Nittany Nation loses an easy heckling target. In total, Maryland is losing its top three scorers from last year but given the talent that is returning plus Williams' ability to recruit, don't expect the Terps to be one of those ACC teams that PSU always plays one year too late and ends up killing their RPI as a result when said ACC team finishes near the bottom of the conference.

Personally, I'm loving this matchup. Perhaps it's because I jumped on the Terps bandwagon in the early part of last decade (back when PSU was wallowing away during the final years of the Jerry Dunn era) thanks to my uncle being a professor at Maryland, and taking me to a couple of games. I still recall proudly sporting a "FEAR THE TURTLE" t-shirt in school the day after Maryland won the national title back in 2002. No worries though, that was just a phase..much like how I also had the top part of my hair dyed lighter brown back in high school (remember that craze?).

Anyway, that's enough reminiscing for now. Here's a list of the rest of the games in this year's challenge:

Indiana at Boston College
Purdue at Virginia Tech
Michigan State at Duke
Ohio State at Florida State
North Carolina at Illinois
North Carolina State at Wisconsin
Georgia Tech at Northwestern
Michigan at Clemson
Iowa at Wake Forest
Virginia at Minnesota


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