ESPN Men's Basketball

The Big Ten's hope to actually make the Big Ten/ACC Challenge a legit challenge took a body blow late Tuesday night when Michigan State lost at North Carolina. Asking either Indiana or Iowa to win was a tall order, so it was up to the Spartans to keep the league on the winning side of the ledger. Instead, with MSU's third loss in 12 months to its nemesis, the Big Ten went from up 3-0 to a 3-3 stalemate.

But the conference still has a chance to win this thing for the first time since 1999. The critical games are Boston College at Michigan, Minnesota at Miami and Florida State at Ohio State. Wisconsin at home will be tough, but asking the Badgers to beat Duke is a tall order. Ditto Illinois -- the young Illini are still trying to regroup after losing to Utah and Bradley and winning at Clemson won't exactly be a cakewalk.

So that leaves it up to the Wolverines, Gophers and Buckeyes. Michigan and Minnesota both have received an early comeuppance, tumbling from their early-season rankings after disappointing losses. The Wolverines, who dropped two to Marquette and Alabama, need to be more than the Manny Harris show, especially against a BC team that is much better than people think.

The Gophers, in the meantime, looked great upsetting Butler, but struggled offensively against Portland and Texas A&M. Miami can score -- the Hurricanes put up 85 in their upset of South Carolina in the Charleston Classic - - so Tubby's boys will need to get the offense out of the 60s to win.

Finally, Ohio State is playing much better after its disappointing half against North Carolina two weeks ago. Double-double machine Evan Turner, David Lighty and Jon Diebler are making for a potent attack but the Buckeyes can't afford to get fat and happy at home. Florida State was the surprise winner at the Old Spice Classic, with Chris Singleton earning tourney MVP honors there.

The blueprint to winning this challenge exists for the Big Ten.

The question is: For once, can the league follow it?

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- The good news for Roy Williams? There's still plenty of work to be done.

The better news: even a half-decent effort was enough. As North Carolina continues to grow into its ranking, the Tar Heels showed flashes of what they could be and glaring spots where they need to work, all in the span of a 40-minute game. UNC played about as flawlessly as a team can play in its first half against the Spartans, catching the net with nearly everything it threw up. But if there is no more a false promise than easy offense and the Heels figured that out in a hurry.

Were this last year's version of North Carolina, the 16-point halftime lead would have been a rout, but with this younger, less experienced version it became a ballgame, as Michigan State cut the lead to as little as six.

So there is work to be done, which is always a good thing for a coach in December.

As for Michigan State, what else is there to say? Deja vu is getting to be pretty tiresome. The Spartans can take solace in the fact they saved face by actually playing in the second half, but it does little to erase a woeful first-half effort. MSU lost its poise and its aggressiveness on both ends of the floor, sealing its fate for the third consecutive time before the break.

Izzo, most assuredly, will use this as a none-too-subtle teaching tool. It is far too early to count the Spartans out. But if Michigan State wants to be a serious player this year, it will have to understand that the time to play is when the ball goes up; not sometime a little later.

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- This isn't what Michigan State had in mind when it was thinking about avenging that national championship debacle. Thirty minutes into the game and the Spartans trail North Carolina, 50-34. Eight months ago in what ended up as a waltz to the title, the Heels took a 55-34 edge into the locker room.

If there was a play that epitomized everything that is wrong with Michigan State -- and currently setting Tom Izzo's blood to Heat Miser levels - it was this one: Draymond Green pulls down a defensive rebound (an achievement, since the Spartans are down six on the boards), but as he comes down, he's teetering on the end line. No one comes back to get the ball so Green tosses an outlet while he's falling. Dexter Strickland makes the easy steal and Ed Davis scores the and-one play. The Spartans have been passive and soft, a deadly combination.

Somewhere around the 10-minute mark, Michigan State lost its aggression and poise on offense and, coupled with the defense the Spartans left behind in East Lansing, dug themselves a ditch. The Spartans went 4:37 without a bucket while simultaneously letting the Heels score at will. The result: 21-21 became 32-23 in a hurry.

North Carolina is shooting a blistering 64 percent as the Spartans are so preoccupied with the Heels inside, they're stranding guys on the perimeter. The Heels have hit 5 of 7 treys this half.

Dexter Strickland, who hit a nail-in-the-coffin 3-pointer on the buzzer, has given the Heels a great boost off the bench. The freshman has eight points and two points. With another gear at the point, he's put some mojo in the Carolina offense, too.

If Michigan State wants to end the Nightmare on the Hardwood III, it will need to start taking the ball harder at the Heels inside and step in front of some people on the other end.

Northwestern’s 65-53 win over NC State is just the kind of win the Wildcats need. The Wildcats have to continuously knock off teams that are perceived to be below them as they mount a campaign for a first-ever NCAA bid.

When I was at Northwestern in October, I told Bill Carmody that the NC State game may not be one that the Wildcats can tout as a quality, NCAA-bound win. But it’s one that won’t draw negative attention if it goes in the true road win column. That’s what happened. Other teams may come in and beat the inexperienced Wolfpack this season. So if you’re trying to get a bid, you don’t want to be the team that loses to NC State.

Northwestern is proving to be deeper than projected. It appers Carmody’s program is now able to absorb a major loss, as it did when senior forward Kevin Coble went down with a season-ending foot injury. Guard Michael Thompson was the one who stepped up Tuesday with 22 points and senior Jeremy Nash contributed 12. The Wildcats will need these two to score to compliment John Shurna’s offensive output.

The bigger news was Northwestern’s defense, which limited NC State to 2-of-18 on threes. Before their Big Ten opener at Illinois, the Wildcats play four straight home games, including a date with Stanford. Northwestern should be 10-1 heading into Big Ten.

Meanwhile, Purdue did what it was supposed to do -- beat Wake Forest at home to push the Big Ten to a 3-0 to start in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge.

Wake Forest got off to a great start in the first half, but the experience and productivity of the Boilermakers took over eventually. This Demon Deacons’ squad will improve over the season, but Wake needs to come up with a quality win soon. Next up is a road trip to Gonzaga over the weekend and that would qualify as a shelf-life win for March.

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- If one of the North Carolina players tweaks an ankle or suffers a hangnail, he's not going to get any sympathy from his head coach.

Roy Williams is playing through pain. The North Carolina coach had shoulder surgery last week and is admittedly in some real discomfort. During the Tar Heels' last game against Nevada, he ditched his jacket and his tie in an effort to find a comfortable way to coach. According to the Raleigh News & Observer, Williams didn't take his painkillers at halftime and by game's end, he tweaked the shoulder so badly the UNC athletic trainer, Chris Hirth, walked down the bench to check on him. Not long after, Williams' wife, Wanda, came down from to the bench from her seat in the stands, with a pill bottle in her hand.

For the demonstrative Williams, keeping still is never easy and in a game like tonight's - with No. 9 Michigan State in town - it will be especially difficult.

North Carolina crushed Michigan State in last season's NCAA title game, but at least one mini-historical trend favors the Spartans in tonight's championship rematch.

Rematches of the previous season’s national title game happen more often than you might think. Over the last 20 years, this will be the 11th time that the championship game participants have faced each other in the following season. The title game runner-up has won three of the last four such games, with all three wins coming from Big Ten schools.

Scary news out of Villanova today that freshman Mouphtaou Yarou is out indefinitely with Hepatitis B. Certainly the primary concern is the Wildcat big man regains his health from a scary disease that can affect liver function.

But losing Yarou for quite possibly the entire season also will impact Villanova's attempt to return to the Final Four. The biggest question mark for a talented Villanova team is in the frontcourt, where the Wildcats are trying to replace Dante Cunningham and Shane Clark. Junior Antonio Pena has been a surprising bright spot. Pena is averaging 12.5 points and 10.5 rebounds through the first six games, putting up incredibly productive numbers after serving as Cunningham's understudy.

But after Pena, the Wildcats are very thin. Duke transfer Taylor King isn't a post-up player and Maurice Sutton, while a serviceable backup, hasn't been asked to contribute much in his career. Rookie Isaiah Armwood, too, is a good role player off the bench.

Villanova has experience winning without a big man. The Wildcats went to the Elite Eight with four guards and an undersized center in Will Sheridan in 2006. The guards in place now -- Scottie Reynolds, Corey Fisher, Maalik Wayns and Corey Stokes -- are talented enough to carry the Cats, but asking them to do what Randy Foye, Allan Ray, Mike Nardi and Kyle Lowry did is a pretty tall order.

How Pena continues to develop -- and his ability to stay out of foul trouble -- will be critical, especially in the always physical Big East.

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- Just arrived in Chapel Hill, where I expect to see a pretty good game tonight between the Tar Heels and Michigan State. Both have been smacked in the mouth a little bit in the early season, with North Carolina taking a big hit from Syracuse and the Spartans sent tumbling on Friday night by Florida.

It's hard to glean a lot of absolutes out of a December game, but I do think there are a few things worth keeping an eye on:

1. How does Larry Drew handle the Spartans backcourt? The growth of the UNC point guard is pivotal to the Heels' development this year and while he's handled himself well, he -- and his entire team -- have turned the ball over too much. The Tar Heels are averaging 17.3 giveaways a game and tonight will be facing the toughest backcourt they've seen in this early season. Carolina's ability to take care of the ball will be a big key.

2. Tom Izzo called North Carolina a "forest of redwoods'' when I spoke with him on Sunday night, laughingly saying "it's unfair for one team to have that many guys.'' He's right. The Heels' frontcourt is as deep as it is big. That's literally a tall order for a Michigan State team that goes no bigger than 6-8. Izzo thought the Spartans' defense and rebounding kept them in the game despite 23 turnovers against Florida, but hitting the boards will be tougher tonight and even more critical.

3. Is Raymar Morgan finally and completely back? He's basketball's Job, done in last year by mono, pneumonia, a broken nose and now this season a foot injury and high ankle sprain that sidelined him for 21 days. Against UMass he finally looked like himself, notching 17 points and five rebounds. But Morgan hasn't gone for double-digits in scoring in back-to-back nights since the beginning of March. Can he do it here?

4. Finally, I know Michigan State says this is not a revenge game but I still have to think that the Spartans are looking to at least restore their dignity tonight. I'm anxious to see just how amped the Spartans are, carrying their own pride as well as toting the Big Ten's hopes on their shoulders. This is supposed to be the Big Ten's year, considered the deepest and most talented conference by a lot of people (present company included) at the start of the season. Penn State beating Virginia was a nice start for league in its quest to finally win the Big Ten/ACC Challenge. This would be a slightly larger feather in the cap.