As the ACC/Big Ten Challenge comes to a close for another year, we ask the important questions that need answers on the final day of this year's installment.
1. Duke gets all the attention. But is North Carolina, right now, the best team in the ACC?
C.L. Brown: Not only is North Carolina the best team in the ACC right now, it is playing as well as any team in the nation. What has separated the Tar Heels from other teams has been how quickly its players fell into new roles, the most important of which might be Joel Berry II asserting himself, emerging as the team's leading scorer. Kennedy Meeks is playing at a level he began last season before getting injured. Freshman forward Tony Bradley has been better than advertised. Duke may have a higher ceiling if and when it gets healthy. But we don't have to wait to see Carolina play to its potential. The Heels are doing it now.
Myron Medcalf: I think North Carolina has an early argument as the best team in the ACC right now. Now, it's still debatable. Duke owns the nation's best offense even without its three potential lottery picks. And Virginia is the nation's top team and defense, per KenPom.com. The Cavs have allowed an opponent to score more than 41 points only twice this season. But North Carolina is a force inside and outside (40 percent from the 3-point line). Bradley and Meeks are having their way in the paint and stifling opponents at the rim. Berry is averaging 17.1 PPG, 4.3 APG and 4.3 RPG. With Duke's injuries still a concern, North Carolina could be king of the ACC right now.
Eamonn Brennan: Assessing the first month of any season is tricky, obviously, and especially so in the 2016-17 Blue Devils' case -- it's safe to say a Duke team with Harry Giles and Jayson Tatum and Marques Bolden is better than a Duke team without them. But the fact that I'm not fully comfortable declaring North Carolina -- which scored 1.27 points per trip and averaged a 30-point margin of victory in the Maui Invitational -- the obvious best team at the moment should tell you something about how well Mike Krzyzewski has managed his injury-riddled roster. Carolina is really good, top to bottom. But so is Duke.
John Gasaway: If Frank Mason misses that shot for Kansas a couple of weeks ago at Madison Square Garden against Duke, who knows, maybe we're not having this conversation. I've been banging the drum for Carolina loud and long, but it's also true there's no particular disgrace attached to the Blue Devils because they lost to KU by two on a neutral floor. Right now UNC has the better résumé, but these are two teams that can win a national championship and that are playing equally well -- by that I specifically mean as well or better than any other team(s) in the country.
2. Is Indiana in for another season of "The Hoosiers can score, but can they stop anyone?" questions?
Brown: The defensive numbers show improvement, although the eye test says otherwise as recently as the Fort Wayne game. The Hoosiers are fourth in the Big Ten in field goal percentage defense, allowing just 38.1 percent. They're allowing opponents to connect on just 27 percent of their 3-pointers, first in the league. But what Fort Wayne showed (and Kansas in the opener) is that IU still has trouble stopping opponents from penetrating against its man-to-man defense. Until the Hoosiers can figure out a way to stop dribble penetration, perhaps the question that fits: "Should IU play zone?"
Medcalf: Doubtful. Indiana's high-powered offense put up 103 points against Kansas in its season opener. But the Hoosiers also surrendered 99. Their surprising loss to Fort Wayne, however, centered on issues within their offense. Indiana actually slowed IPFW in the final 10 minutes of that game, as the Mastodons made just one of their final nine attempts from the 3-point line in regulation against Tom Crean's zone. This is not the imbalanced team that finished outside the top 200 in adjusted defensive efficiency but eighth in adjusted offensive efficiency in 2014-15. This season's squad can play top-50 defense when it focuses and still rely on its effective offense to finish teams.
Brennan: Here's the thing about Indiana: They don't have to be that good defensively to win. They just have to be decent. They were decent defensively last season and they won the Big Ten title outright and knocked Kentucky out of the tournament en route to the Sweet 16. The flip side to that is that the offense does have to hum. It has to be fast and free and exhausting for opponents to defend.
Gasaway: What was forgotten was "The Hoosiers can score when they don't give the ball away, but can they ..." The great turnover fest of 2013-14 has returned with a vengeance in Bloomington, at least so far. The Hoosiers have coughed up the ball on 23 percent of their possessions while (oh, the irony!) never forcing turnovers on defense. If opponents continue to get many more chances to score than IU does, the previously lofty expectations for this team will need an adjustment.
3. Any advice for undefeated Ohio State on how to score against Virginia's stingy defense?
Brown: The good thing for the Buckeyes is they don't play at a breakneck pace to where Virginia will get them out of sorts if they slow down. That being said, Ohio State still needs to exercise patience against the Cavaliers. There are good shots to be had against the pack-line, but those opportunities generally don't come from trying to play fast.
Medcalf: Ohio State's first priority: Don't waste possessions. Virginia's opponents have averaged turnovers on one-fourth of their possessions. And the Buckeyes can't play to the shot clock if they expect to win. Virginia's opponents are 4-for-15 with less than four seconds remaining on the shot clock, per Synergy Sports. The Buckeyes can't panic. And they have to extend the Virginia defense by connecting on shots from the perimeter, midrange and interior. No team has done that yet. Most opponents have settled for rushed possessions. Marc Loving has to attack Mamadi Diakite and Virginia's talented bigs at the rim to give his team a chance at the upset.
Brennan: One year during the Bill Carmody era at Northwestern, the official student section shirt was a purple-with-white-lettering take on a frequent Carmody koan: "Make Shots." It was the least inspiring, most ironic student section shirt maybe ever, but you know what? Totally accurate. That's the best advice you can give a team playing against Virginia. Don't waste possessions with unforced turnovers, don't rush, stay spaced, work for good shots -- but, more than anything, make them.
Gasaway: Call me crazy, but I'm not picturing an offense that scored merely a point per trip at home against North Carolina Central lighting up the scoreboard on the road against UVa. But, hey, the Buckeyes can still win this thing (not likely, but stranger things have happened) by limiting the Cavaliers on offense. Get the ball out of London Perrantes' hands, space the floor on your end on offense, deliver the ball to your cutters in the paint (no more Austin Nichols to worry about in there) and maybe you can steal a win in a grinder.
4. Which team has a better chance of jumping into the top 10 and staying there -- Louisville or Purdue?
Brown: Louisville. The Cardinals seem to have one early-season loss every year that potentially puts them in crisis mode. Losing a 22-point lead against Baylor accomplished that this season. But what is also true is that more often than not, Rick Pitino has his team peaking by February. There's no reason to expect otherwise this season, especially considering that Tony Hicks, a graduate transfer from Penn, has played sparingly while trying to get acclimated to the system.
Medcalf: Louisville, somehow, blew a 22-point lead against a top-10 Baylor team in the Battle 4 Atlantis championship game. The Cardinals are a good team with a defense that's second only to Virginia's in the ACC. The Cardinals will have a multitude of quality win opportunities in ACC play. Pitino doesn't have the rich talent pool on his bench he's enjoyed in the past, but this Louisville team, at its best, can compete with the top programs in the country.
Brennan: I'll go with Louisville, if only because I feel more confident saying that the Cardinals' defense, when all is said and done, will be the best non-UVa defense in the country. Pitino will generate ways for his team to score, even if it doesn't seem particularly capable of making shots. Purdue looks like it's really good at everything and not necessarily great at anything. I just prefer the former to the latter. Then again, it's still early and I could be totally wrong. Is this a strong take? I'm doing it wrong, aren't I?
Gasaway: Tough one. On the one hand, Louisville is easily the strongest team getting the golden opportunity of a true home game against Kentucky this season. Win that and you'll be in the top 10 for a long while. But I'm just the tiniest bit wary of a team that relies so heavily on its (outstanding) D. I'll take the rather more balanced Boilermakers here. Caleb Swanigan is playing like a Big Ten POY and Dakota Mathias and Vincent Edwards are just killing opponents from the outside.