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Ten for Ten is a weekly Big Ten basketball column. Every week, Adam and Donovan will discuss 10 of the biggest questions buzzing around the league and keep tabs on the conference’s best players, coaches and teams.
As Adam and Donovan walked into the United Center on Tuesday night, one thing was clear: college basketball is in a league of its own. The Champions Classic — which was the highlight of an epic Big Ten slate this past week — brought together four teams, four fan bases and four cultures, turning Chicago into a melting pot of some of the biggest brands in the sport. Michigan State represented the Big Ten by upsetting the ACC’s finest, No. 2 Duke, punctuating what was a roller coaster week of ups (hello, UCLA) and downs (oh, Purdue) throughout the rest of the conference.
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Weekly ballot
1. Who was your team of the week?
Adam: Michigan State
I picked Duke to beat the Spartans 80-68 ahead of Tuesday’s Champions Classic. I was wrong.
Tom Izzo’s squad is UNREAL on defense this season, and that was something I didn’t pick up on ahead of its performance against Duke. Against the Blue Devils’ five-star-laden roster, I was amazed by how well the Spartans rotated to help each other in the paint. There was never a free drive to the basket, and it forced Duke, a team without a true shooter, to play from the outside. The Blue Devils shot nearly 50% of their field goals from three-point range, despite being a team that now through three games has shot just 30.1% from distance. Duke wanted to get to the basket and the Spartans just didn’t let it happen.
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After holding Duke to 33% shooting from the field, Michigan State is now KenPom’s No. 3 defense and has the best win of the college basketball season under its belt. Bravo, Sparty!
Donovan: Michigan State
Tom Izzo is known as one of the most vocal and emotional figures in the world of college basketball. Yet, look at his face on Tuesday:
Izzo, and everyone in the stadium and watching at home, knew that they were…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/ten-ten-week-2-sparty-183106694.html
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Publish date : 2026-11-12 18:31:00
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