Duke, UNC come up short in measuring-stick games against Big Ten’s elite
After so many seasons in which the ACC-Big Ten Challenge has been a sizing up of sorts — wary boxers slowly circling each other in the ring, neither willing to expose himself by throwing the first punch — it’s more than a little jarring to see both Duke and North Carolina both so badly outclassed.
These were measuring-stick games against older teams that entered the season with the kind of national-title aspirations that appear almost annually in Durham and Chapel Hill, and oddly, if not unexpectedly, both of the ACC’s blue bloods found themselves severely wanting.
North Carolina wilted under Iowa’s long-range barrage before showing some spirit in the second half yet again, but was clearly outclassed. Duke was outmuscled early by Illinois, but the Blue Devils’ inability to find any kind of rhythm on offense had been a fatal flaw in these two early home losses to elite opponents.
What Tuesday night showed, with North Carolina’s 93-80 loss at Iowa, and Duke’s 83-68 loss to Illinois, was not that the Tar Heels and Blue Devils aren’t on the same level as their Big Ten opponents. That much was abundantly clear going in, with the only uncertainty whether UNC and Duke can get there over the course of the season.
No, what Tuesday night showed was just how big the gap is on a national level, and just how much work North Carolina and Duke have ahead of them, and just what a strange season this is going to be with both starting this far off the pace at a national level — they may still yet again be the class of the ACC by default — and trying to figure it out as they go.
Once North Carolina stopped giving up open 3-pointers — Iowa made 17, the most against UNC since the 2019 NCAA tournament loss to Auburn — it was able to make a game of it at Iowa, just as it did last week after falling behind against Texas. That fight bodes well for the Tar Heels, as does the continuing development of guards R.J. Davis and Caleb Love.
And Duke has struggled with the physicality of Michigan State and Illinois — older, stronger, smarter teams — but won’t see anything close to that in the ACC this season. If the Blue Devils can figure out who their go-to guy is going to be on offense, whether that’s Matthew Hurt or Jalen Johnson or Jeremy Roach, some of the other missing pieces should fall into place.
It’s easy to lose that perspective given the degree of difficulty inherent in their schedules, North Carolina in the middle of a three-game stretch against ranked teams, Duke facing its second top-10 opponent at home in the space of a week. Illinois and Iowa may not be Gonzaga or Baylor, but they’re right there in the next tier.
And with all the disruption to this season, without secret scrimmages or exhibition games or a run of warm-up games against opponents playing for a paycheck, it’s a bad year to be young. Duke always is. North Carolina, with its all-freshman backcourt, isn’t far behind.
There’s every reason to believe that both teams will continue to improve, even if it’s hard to tell at this point what the ceiling is for either. But the gap between what they are and what they will become is massive at the moment, and that’s above all else was on display Tuesday.
It’s all very ominous for the ACC.
There’s not a more meaningless title in sports than “ACC-Big Ten Challenge Champion” but the ACC is an also-ran this year, down 6-1 with four to play. Its usual standard-bearers are either under construction or quarantine, and the Big Ten has the advantage in both talent and temperament. There’s a long list of Big Ten teams — Iowa, Illinois, Michigan State, Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan — that would feel pretty good about their chances in the ACC this season.
As for the usual suspects in the ACC, they have some work to do. A lot of it. Tuesday was a pretty good indication of just how much. It’s not unusual for North Carolina or Duke to be in this position in December. It’s quite staggering that both are.
This story was originally published December 8, 2020 at 11:51 PM with the headline "Duke, UNC come up short in measuring-stick games against Big Ten’s elite."
