Now that we’re at the midway point of the college basketball regular season, more and more intriguing conference battles are headed our way. Over in the ACC, the Duke Blue Devils will finally clash with the Wake Forest Demon Deacons on Wednesday, which should make for another heated bout out in the Atlantic Coast.
Let’s take a closer look at this upcoming match below. For more coverage on Wednesday’s slate, check out our previews for Xavier vs. St. John’s and California vs. Oregon.
[sc:MarchMadness ]Duke Blue Devils vs. Wake Forest Demon Deacons Preview
Where: Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Winston-Salem
When: Wednesday, January 6, 7:00 PM ET
Line: Duke Blue Devils at Wake Forest Demon Deacons – view all NCAA Basketball lines
Betting on the Duke Blue Devils (12-2)
The No. 14 Duke Blue Devils are in great form right now as they continue their long march towards a shot at becoming back-to-back national champions.
[sc:NCAAB240banner ]A confident 81-64 win over Boston College on Saturday gives the Blue Devils their third-straight victory after the Utah Utes snapped their seven-game run with a two-point squeaker on December 19.
Head coach Mike Krzyzewski’s boys are definitely lighting up the scoreboards this season by averaging 88.4 points per game, good enough for the fourth-best mark in the nation. Leading the charge for Duke is sophomore guard Grayson Allen.
Allen has been sensational, scoring an average of 20.6 points per contest with three 30-point outings this season already. And in last year’s 94-51 shellacking of Wake Forest, Allen was the main catalyst in that game, going 9-of-11 from the field for 27 points.
Standout freshman Brandon Ingram has also cranked-up his output just in time for the crucial stretch of the season ahead. He had 25 points most recently against Boston College and is now averaging nearly 22 points per game over the last seven contests.
The Blue Devils should be able take care of business against the Demon Deacons this Wednesday considering that they have won nine of their past 10 meetings. However, they still have to be wary of the Deacs’ mettle nonetheless as they only went 4-and-6 against the spread during that 10-game span.
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Betting on the Wake Forest (9-4)
Even though Duke has had the Wake Forest Demon Deacons’ number for quite some time now, this season’s squad from Winston-Salem seems poised to finally match their conference rival.
The Deacs have proven to be problematic for some of the nation’s top teams this campaign. They’ve already beaten the Ben Simmons-led LSU Tigers before the end of 2014, led by as much as 18 before fizzling down the stretch against Xavier, and gave No. 16 Louisville all sorts of fits in a loss on Sunday.
Wake Forest will need its top seniors in Devin Thomas and Codi Miller-McIntyre to be on the same page if the team wants to upset Duke on Wednesday. In a match against the Blue Devils around this exact time of the year from last season, star forward Thomas led his team with 24 points. And this season, Thomas is playing his best basketball to date, averaging a double-double – he has seven of them already – and nearly two blocks per game.
On the other hand, Miller-McIntyre might still have some ways to go before he regains his 2014 form. Since recovering from a fractured foot, the streaky guard from Concord has only played six games this season, shooting a dismal 26.7 percent from the floor for just about four points per game. It’s a huge drop-off from his stats from last year (45 percent, 14.5 ppg), but a critical match against Duke may just be the proper motivation to get his game right back on track.
All things considered, though, we shouldn’t really keep our hopes up that the Demon Deacons can actually match Duke’s firepower. Given that the total has gone under in all six of the Deacs’ last six games where they were pegged as underdogs against the spread, it would be wiser to bank on the team to at least cover the spread instead with the knowledge that Duke hasn’t been able to beat them in dominant fashion that often.
Writer’s Prediction
Duke dispatches the Deacs with ease, 92-78.
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