The Duke Blue Devils handed the Miami Hurricanes a walloping earlier this month. The Hurricanes surely want to score a revenge win, but they will have to get it together and play their best basketball for them to take down the Blue Devils at the Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Betting on the Miami Hurricanes (10-6 Overall / 2-4 Conference)
The Hurricanes added another loss to their conference play ledger by falling prey to the NC State Wolfpack in Raleigh last Wednesday, 80-63. Miami let the Wolfpack gain steam and confidence early in the game, which was a big factor why the Hurricanes had a hard time catching up. That’s a lesson Miami should take seriously heading into its matchup against the Blue Devils, especially since that was the same scenario the Hurricanes found themselves in during their 95-62 home loss to Duke earlier this month. Miami was down by 14 points at the half of that game and was outscored by 19 points in the second half. To be fair, Miami, at point, was only trailing Duke by three points, 23-20, before the Blue Devils went on a barrage the Hurricanes simply couldn’t stop. Miami needs Chris Lykes to be better. Lykes, who paces the Hurricanes with 15.6 points per game, shot just 2 for 5 and finished with eight points in the loss to Duke.
The under is 2-0 in the last two games of Miami, which is putting up 72.1 points per contest.
Betting on the Duke Blue Devils (15-2 Overall / 5-1 Conference)
Duke was coasting in conference play with five straight wins over ACC opponents until the Blue Devils got tripped up by the Clemson Tigers on the road last Tuesday, 79-72. Duke, which plays the Louisville Cardinals this Saturday at home, shot 50 percent from the field and went 8 for 20 from behind the arc, but got outrebounded by the Tigers, 35-27. The Blue Devils also shot themselves in the foot repeatedly with 15 turnovers — more than their already atrocious average of 13.5 miscues per contest. Duke also had 14 turnovers in its win over the Hurricanes in the first meeting between the two teams. However, the Blue Devils were able to put the clamps on Lykes and the Hurricanes’ offense while also shooting exceptionally well that it was easy to ignore whatever Duke did bad in that contest. Duke shot 59.7 percent from the floor and held Miami down to only 39.7 field goal shooting percentage. The biggest difference was on the glass, with Duke getting 41 rebounds to just 24 by Miami. The Blue Devils are second in the ACC as of this writing with 40.1 rebounds per game.
Duke is 2-0 against the spread (ATS) in its last two home games against the ‘Canes.
