It's on

The ACC-Big Ten Challenge has given us a real measuring stick game for the program on November 28th when the Hoos visit the Kohl Center and the Grateful Red, home of the Wisconsin Badgers.

Wisconsin Basketball: The Great White North

If ever there was a team to compare us to this is it. Bo Ryan and Tony Bennett run almost identical systems, but the system has much longer, deeper, and more developed roots at Wisconsin. This game is going to measure where we are as a program relative to what could be considered the gold standard of slow it down basketball. If the over/under of this game is above 85, bet the farm on the under. If we can manage to beat Wisco on their floor playing their style of ball it shows a couple of things. First and foremost it will show that Tony Bennett can coach with the best of them. Each team will know exactly what to do against the other because they pretty much practice against this all season. The success or failure will come down to coaching adjustments. It will also however show how big a factor having superior athletes will be in the success or failure of this system. As good as Wisco has been they still don't have access to the kind of athletes in the B1G that UVA has in the ACC, especially with bigger programs scooping up kids out of Chicago and Milwaukee. While UVA does not necessarily have better players in the system, it's safe to say we are close to, if not more athletic than the Badgers.

All in all this is a good measuring stick game. We will have an experienced point guard, 3 shooters, and some bounce in the paint. Wisco can probably out muscle us down low, but if we can knock down perimeter shots and take advantage of fast break chances we should be able to force them to play our kind of game, which could eventually evolve into a weird up-tempo slow down system which takes advantage of mistakes on the fast break and also kills you in the half court. We'll be up against the model, let's see how it goes.

We're coming for you Bo Ryan.