Odd Pairing: Deacs rip some sort of Hoosiers

Challenges take different forms. In the ACC-Big Ten Challenge last night, Wake Forest had to overcome California daydreaming and spaced-out ballhandling against another overmatched opponent.

The Deacons achieved both goals just three days after winning a West Coast tournament with 4,652 in attendance -- for all three rounds. That's how, barely a month removed from the college-basketball exhibition season, Wake Forest committed 24 turnovers and won a virtual exhibition game, wiping out Indiana's Shadow 83-58.

The nation's 15th-ranked team plugged into a loud Joel Coliseum crowd of 12,454 and recycled the energy. Precision sometimes took a back seat to showtime. Disgusted by turnovers, Coach Dino Gaudio stomped his foot with three minutes left, then balled up his notes and hurled them under the bench.

Despite the errant passes and clumsy footwork, the audience adored the high-flying trapeze acts, none more than the first-half play when L.D. Williams and Jeff Teague arrived at the left side of the same rim at the same time, both elevating for Ish Smith's lob.

Williams got there first, by a nose, and got the dunk. Teague turned away at the last instant, toward the baseline.

"I didn't even see Jeff," Williams said. "I was just running to the rim. Ish and I have a connection. If I'd seen Jeff, I'd have let him get the ball. You don't see that very much -- a guard lobbing to another guard."

Teague shook his head and smiled ruefully. "I thought I was high enough, but I guess L.D. got a little higher," he said. "I'm sure I'm going to be in that poster."

Indiana used to sell posters and other trinkets. Indiana has won five NCAA championships, the last in 1987, but that was long before Coach Kelvin "Speed Dial" Sampson and his assistants abused certain recruiting rules, especially those involving cell phones.

The short version: Sampson disappeared into the NBA as a Milwaukee assistant, replaced by Marquette's Tom Crean, and the NCAA imposed a three-year probation that lacks any serious penalties regarding TV or tournament appearances.

D.J. White and Eric Gordon joined the NBA circus, and other talents transferred, leaving behind two lettermen who scored 1.6 points a game last season, together. Crean started four freshmen and a junior-college transfer last night. Shortly thereafter, the fellow bound for the scorer's table was Kipp Schutz, a pro-baseball prospect invited aboard after a friendly 3-point contest against the basketball team.

Indiana's Shadow has beaten Northwestern State, Indiana U./Purdue U. at Indianapolis (IUPUI), Division II Chaminade (by two) and Cornell. Notre Dame and Saint Joseph's beat Indiana's Shadow 168-104 combined, a double blowout even by the low standards generally associated with last-place Big Ten teams.

Everyone could see another blowout coming. Check that. The ACC and Big Ten officials who arranged this curious game either developed momentary blindness or chose to look the other way. The ACC-Big Ten Challenge sometimes produces an unavoidable mismatch. This was avoidable.

No matter how negatively anyone viewed Wake Forest months ago, no one with basketball savvy could have ranked the Deacs lower than fifth in the ACC. They're now third with a bullet, a virtual lock for the NCAA Tournament and a candidate for mischief against the Carolina-Duke axis. No matter how positively anyone projected Indiana's Shadow, the Hoosiers must stretch to rank higher than last in the Big Ten.

Maybe the Big Ten (11, actually) merely chose to sacrifice Indiana's Shadow -- by any margin, a loss is still a loss -- and hope that other conference teams would benefit from slightly easier matchups. You can't fault the Big Ten, which had flunked all nine previous challenges, the last two by 8-3.

This challenge produced further evidence that Virginia Tech's Seth Greenberg can lose a buzzer-beater by any means necessary. His defense retreated at exactly the wrong instant, allowing Wisconsin a 14-footer that sank the Hokies 74-72 in Blacksburg.

Miami blew a big lead against Ohio State, its backcourt depleted by a suspension (Eddie Rios) and an ejection (star Jack McClinton). A Buckeye hit McClinton first, but McClinton slapped the aggressor in the face. Even with three minutes of replay review, the refs nailed only the guy who reacted, again. That will give the Hurricanes something to whine about later, during lobbying for bids and seeding.

Those two stumbles erased the ACC's potential edge, offsetting road wins by Duke at Purdue and Clemson at Illinois. Everything came down to the final night.

Maryland beat Michigan, Carolina hammered Michigan State and Wake Forest took care of Indiana's Shadow. The ACC prevailed again, but not without a challenge, and a deep breath.

■ Lenox Rawlings can be reached at lrawlings@wsjournal.com.