Now Malcolm Delaney can go back to rooting against Duke.
"It's back to normal now," the Virginia Tech guard said moments after Ohio State dispatched Florida State to give the Big Ten its first overall victory against the ACC in the 11-year history of the series.
For 10 consecutive seasons, the ACC came out on top against the Big Ten in the annual showdown between the two power conferences. It was getting to be nearly as one-sided as Notre Dame's dominance over Navy on the gridiron. Well, at least prior to the Charlie Weis Era.
But finally, after Wisconsin handed Duke its first-ever loss in the annual matchup between the two leagues, the Big Ten has bragging rights.
Ohio State's Evan Turner became a scoreboard watcher on Tuesday night while the two leagues split six games.
Purdue's Robbie Hummel admitted to checking the scores while in a management class meeting on Wednesday before going back to his apartment to watch the rest of the games.
"We were rooting real hard for all of our teams," Hummel said. "It's good for our conference."
Delaney and many of the other players in the ACC were also keeping close tabs.
"It's definitely been on my mind," Delaney said. "I even wanted Duke to win."
When Clemson took a commanding 23-point lead against Bruce Weber and Illinois, it appeared as though the ACC would take a 4-3 advantage in the series.
However, the Illini came storming back and pulled out a huge road win.
Big Ten 4, ACC 3.
But Boston College won at Michigan and Miami held court at home against Minnesota.
The ACC needed just one more victory with two games left on the docket to put another year of dominance in the books.
It appeared unlikely that Wisconsin, a team picked towards the bottom in the Big Ten, would come away with a victory against No. 5 Duke — a team that had never suffered a setback in the 10 years playing in the event.
But Bo Ryan's Badgers pulled out the victory and Ohio State cruised to an easy win in Columbus over Florida State to finally give the Big Ten bragging rights.
"It's huge because it got old," Hummel admitted about constantly having to hear about it. "Everyone always says the ACC is better and there are years when that's true, but I think we showed how deep the Big Ten is this year."
"It feels great," added Wisconsin senior guard Jason Bohannon. "We've been close a couple of times, but we've never pulled it off. This was a big win for our team and for our league."
Entering the season, there were many who built up the Big Ten as the top conference in America. In fact, I put six teams in my preseason top 25 — the most of any league in the country.
But Illinois, Michigan and Minnesota each suffered two losses this past week and the Big Ten was left with just three teams — No. 4 Purdue, No. 9 Michigan State and No. 15 Ohio State — in the top 25 while the ACC entered the week with four teams in the poll.
While some of the coaches downplay the importance of the series beyond what it means for their own team, the players admit it's a source of pride for both sides.
Turner flashed a smile late in the Ohio State game when he heard the news that Wisconsin had knocked off Duke.
"It's pretty cool," Turner said. "It's nice to finally get the win because people kept talking about it, but now it shows how good our conference is."
Turner, Hummel and the rest of the Big Ten knew they needed this one. Desperately.
"If we lost another couple of these, I could see them discontinuing it," the Purdue star said.
Even though the Big Ten can finally, after years of coming up short, talk the talk and walk the walk, Delaney had a message for them.
"They've still got to win a lot more to catch up," he said.
These kids care.
