What once was a clash between conference rivals is renewed in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge when the Virginia Tech Hokies travel to meet the Maryland Terrapins on Wednesday’s sports betting calendar.
Wednesday, December 01, 2021 – 07:15 PM EST at XFINITY Center
The Hump Day collision will be like a couple of old neighborhood chums getting together for the first time in a while, the reunion accented by Virginia Tech and Maryland each coming off losses and needing bounce-back wins. The Hokies were on the verge of cracking the top 25 until dropping a pair last week in Brooklyn at the NIT Season Tip-Off, and the Terrapins are coming off their second loss of the season down in the Bahamas this past weekend.
After winning six of the first eight contests, the Big Ten is only one winning NCAAB score away from claiming at least a tie in the 2021 challenge. The ACC needs to win all six on Wednesday to claim its first win in the event since 2017, and the conference is an underdog in five of the half-dozen matchups.
This is one of the five games that online betting sites are chalking the Big Ten. Maryland is favored by 1½ on its home floor in College Park, and most shops are carrying 132 for the scoreboard target.
Wednesday is the first meeting between the Hokies and Terrapins since the final week of the 2013-14 regular season, and the 43rd matchup in a rivalry that dates back nearly 100 years. Maryland has a healthy 32-10 advantage over Virginia Tech, and won nine of the 15 battles as ACC foes between 2005 and 2014. The Terrapins won the last five of those conference clashes, covering four of the contests and pushing the spread in the other triumph.
Virginia Tech has a rather sickly 5-9 record in the interconference event, dropping each of its last two matchups, both of which came against Penn State. Maryland has played both sides of the challenge, winning 10 of 15 while in the ACC but managing just one win in six games as a Big Ten participant. The Terrapins are 6-4 at home playing for the two leagues combined.
Everything started so splendidly for Mike Young and the Hokies who came roaring out of the gates with five consecutive wins and covers. Even accounting for those five games coming against lesser opponents, Virginia Tech still got the job done and didn’t suffer a single misstep as Young’s squad won the five games by an average of 28 points.
Then came the trip to Brooklyn and the NIT Season Tip-Off. The Hokies had the lead in the opener over then-No. 9 Memphis with 4:36 to go, then went scoreless for more than four minutes to drop that matchup 69-61. The Tigers controlled the glass and took Virginia Tech’s offense out of its rhythm, resulting in 20 turnovers for the Hokies who only shot 34% from inside the arc.
Virginia Tech had a chance to bounce right back with a win over No. 25 Xavier two days later, and Intertops even made the Hokies 5-point favorites to do so. They couldn’t completely recover from a 6½-minute scoring drought in the first half and fell to the Musketeers on a late 3-pointer in a 59-58 final. The Hokies shot better, but once again lost the glass battle and never could come up with a way to stop Xavier’s Nate Johnson who had a game-high 30.
Mark Turgeon’s Terrapins might be a middling pick in the Big Ten, but considering how stacked the conference is, that’s something of a compliment. Maryland hasn’t really lived up to the expectations so far, a stacked Big Ten race before the season started, sort of playing down to its first two opponents, Quinnipiac and George Washington, then putting forth a sluggish first-half performance in a home loss to George Mason as 9½-point chalk on the betting odds.
Maryland’s Thanksgiving trip to the Bahamas started well enough with an 86-80 win over Richmond, the Terrapins overcoming a 12-point first-half deficit in a contest that closed around a pick. They couldn’t repeat the result in the follow-up game against Louisville, enduring a scoring drought in excess of five minutes of the second half in a 63-55 loss as small underdogs.
My college basketball pick comes down to two things: 1) The Hokies have the better defense, and; 2) Maryland’s collection of talent hasn’t learned to play together yet.
NCAAB Pick: Virginia Tech +1½ (-108) at Heritage Sports (visit our Heritage Sports Review)
*The line and/or odds on picks in this article might have moved since the content was commissioned. For updated line movements, visit BMR’s free betting odds product.