Northwestern to play Georgia Tech in Big Ten/ACC Challenge

Northwestern will travel to play Georgia Tech in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge, Georgia Tech announced on Tuesday morning. This will be the fourth meeting between the schools in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge, and the fourth since 2010.

The game will take place at Georgia Tech’s McCamish Pavilion in late November. Details, game time and television broadcast information will be released at a later date.

Here is the full lineup for the Big Ten/ACC Challenge.

In head coach Josh Pastner’s first year, Georgia Tech went 21-16 last season but went 8-10 in the ACC. Oddly enough, Georgia Tech managed wins over North Carolina, Notre Dame and Florida State, but lost to North Carolina State at home and were sent home by Pitt in the first round of the ACC Tournament. The Yellow Jackets made it to the finals of the NIT but lost 88-56 to TCU.

Georgia Tech is returning most of last year’s team, including center Ben Lammers (a senior) and talented small forward Josh Okogie (still just a sophomore). The team’s only major departure is power forward Quinton Stephens. Georgia Tech is far from one of the best teams in the ACC, and not really a marquee matchup for Northwestern, but they should be on the NCAA Tournament bubble again.

However, Northwestern has now faced Georgia Tech in four of its eight Big Ten/ACC Challenge games. Maybe the Big Ten and ACC really like pitting the nerds against each other. We had hoped Northwestern could draw a big name school like Louisville, Notre Dame or Duke after the Wildcats’ historic run to the NCAA Tournament, but we’ll have to make do with what we have.

Seriously though, how did Rutgers get Florida State over Northwestern?

The Georgia Tech game is added to a non-conference schedule that consists of games against Oklahoma, Creighton, Valparaiso and...not much else. Northwestern will face two of La Salle, Texas Tech and Boston College in the Hall of Fame Tip Off. The Wildcats will also play Sacred Heart and St. Peters as part of that tournament. That’s all we got, folks. Last year, Northwestern played four NCAA Tournament teams and a ranked Texas squad in non-conference. This year, it will be surprising if more than two teams from the non-conference schedule are even in the NCAA Tournament discussion.