The marquee matchup of the SEC/ACC Challenge is Wednesday night when No. 2 Auburn visits No. 9 Duke in a possible Final Four preview.
The Blue Devils are almost never home underdogs and are short favorites on the NCAAB odds in Week 5.
| Opening NCAAB Lines Subject to Change: Duke -2.5 (total 146) Expert Prediction: Auburn 74, Duke 72 |
Auburn Tigers NCAAB Line +130
Auburn (7-0) moved up to No. 2 in the AP and Coaches Poll after beating Memphis 90-76 last Wednesday to win the Maui Invitational title. Tigers star Johni Broome, the tournament MVP, recorded a second straight double-double by halftime, finishing with 21 points, 16 rebounds, six assists and four blocked shots. Broome dominated in Maui, playing 101 minutes in fewer than 48 hours, registering three triple doubles, averaging 21.7 points, 15 rebounds, 4.3 assists and three blocks per tournament game.
Ready for the challenge 🔥🫡 pic.twitter.com/U55FhQExpS
— Auburn Basketball (@AuburnMBB) December 4, 2024
Johni Broome
“We played tremendous defense and tremendous basketball against great opponents,” Broome said. “Our word this year was sacrifice, taking care of your body, not being up too late, getting to things on time. All those things help win championships. These last two days, we’ve shown how committed we are to each other because we see how good we can be.”
Dylan Cardwell
Cardwell enjoyed a career day scoring 18 points on 8-for-8 shooting. Chad Baker-Mazara scored 14 points on 5-of-6 shooting, adding five assists. Denver Jones added 11 points. Auburn shot 56.7 percent and had 23 assists with only nine turnovers. Auburn was only the third SEC team to win the Maui Invitational all-time and first since Kentucky in 1993.
Broome is now the favorite as National Player of the Year and has had five-straight double-doubles, the first Auburn player to do that since 1988. Against Memphis, Broome also moved past Charles Barkley for 28th on Auburn’s career scoring list finishing the game with 1,188 points.
The Streak
The Tigers are off to a 7-0 start for the third time in the last six seasons after starting 8-0 during the 2022-23 season and 15-0 in 2019-20. As noted, Auburn moved up two spots to No. 2 in this week’s Associated Press Top 25 Poll receiving 26 first-place votes, while Kansas remained No. 1 with 35 first-place votes. The Tigers were No. 1 in the AP poll for a few weeks in 2021-22 but that’s the only time. They have never been No. 1 in the Coaches Poll but perhaps will be atop both next Monday with a win here and not being upset this weekend by Richmond.
^What to expect from Duke?
“Some of the guys on their bench were five-star, McDonald’s All-Americans, going to be great players and are just waiting their turn because the guys they have out there are terrific,” Coach Bruce Pearl said. “For Duke to be playing this well this early, with this young of a team, is a credit to their coaching staff. They hang their hat on their defense. They’re the No. 1 defensive team in the country, in part because they’re so long. They’re the tallest team in the country.”
To prepare for the trip to Cameron Indoor Stadium, Auburn cranked crowd noise during recent practices and focused on hand signals in case the decibels at Duke drown out Pearl’s play calls. Quieting the crowd will be easier if Auburn can slow Duke’s outside shooting. The Blue Devils average 13 3-pointers at home while shooting 38-percent on long-range shots.
“It’s really hard to find much of a weakness,” Pearl said. “Best team we’ve played so far.”
Auburn is looking to join Georgia Tech, Kentucky, Tennessee and Vanderbilt as the only teams to win at Cameron Indoor Stadium as a member of the SEC. AU is looking for its fifth win away from home and its fourth ranked win of the season, all away from Neville Arena. The Tigers’ three ranked wins are the most in the country. A fourth ranked win would match the 1994-95 Auburn squad for the most regular-season ranked wins in program history.
Duke Blue Devils NCAAB Line -161
Duke (5-2) has been off since a 70-48 blowout win over Seattle on Nov. 29. The Blue Devils held the visitors without a field goal for over 10 minutes to start the second half and received a balanced scoring effort on the offensive end, led by Tyrese Proctor’s 13 points and Kon Knueppel’s 11 points. Freshman star Cooper Flagg produced across the stat sheet, scoring nine points while also adding a game-high seven assists and a team-high nine rebounds.
Duke outscored Seattle 22-8 in the paint, representing the first Blue Devils’ opponent to net single digits in that category. The previous season-low was Wofford (Nov. 16) with 16 points in the paint. Duke outrebounded the Redhawks, 44-37, and has now grabbed more boards than six of seven opponents for a 5-1 record in those contests.
The Blue Devils tallied assists on 78% of their field goals, with 18 helpers on 23 baskets. After limiting the Redhawks to 48 points on Friday, Duke has now held its opponents to 62 points or less in all four home contests this season, an average of 50.1 points per game. Seattle shot just 21.3% from the field against the Blue Devils, a season-low by a Duke opponent.
Duke is now 35-3 at Cameron Indoor Stadium in the past three seasons under head coach Jon Scheyer, including a 4-0 home record this season.
Jon Scheyer
“There’s a lot that we need to work on,” Coach Scheyer said. “I give Seattle a ton of credit. They’ve lost a couple of really close games. They’re physical. They’re incredibly well-coached. They have a good team and good players that we knew would make us work for everything. That doesn’t change the fact that there were a lot of things I would like us to do better. We need practice time, so I’m excited to get back to practice and get to work.”
Cooper Flagg
Flagg tops Duke in points (111), rebounds (59), assists (29) and blocks (10). Proctor has made two 3-pointers or more in all seven regular-season games to lead Duke with 23 triples. Proctor is now shooting 46.9% from distance this season (23-of-49).
History
Auburn is just the second non-conference opponent ranked among the top-2 in the nation to visit Cameron Indoor Stadium since 1965. The last to do so was top-ranked Michigan on Dec. 5, 1992 – a 79-68 Duke victory. It’s a clash between Duke’s No. 1 defense against Auburn’s No. 1 offense, according to KenPom’s national adjusted defensive/offensive efficiency ratings.
The Blue Devils rank fourth in the country in field goal percentage defense (.352), ninth in scoring defense (58.6), 12th in 3-pointers per game (11.1) and 17th in scoring margin (+22.1). Indeed, Duke is the tallest team in the country, according to KenPom, with an average height of 79.6 inches, better than 6-7.
top 5 from the win over Seattle pic.twitter.com/4thzOe67jm
— Duke Men’s Basketball (@DukeMBB) November 30, 2024
Against the Top Teams
Duke has had 79 meetings against teams ranked No. 1 or No. 2 in the nation, winning 29 of those contests dating back to 1950. The Blue Devils have won 13 of the last 24 clashes against top-2 opponents.
^How to Bet Auburn at Duke Lines NCAA Basketball
When: Wednesday, 9:15 PM ET
Where: Cameron Indoor Stadium
TV: ESPN
Stream: ESPN+
Auburn vs Duke Series History
The schools have met three teams and Duke has won all three. The last was in November 2018 in Hawaii with the Blue Devils prevailing 78-72. The other two games were in Durham as they have not yet met at Auburn.
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2018 Duke at North Carolina
You could make an argument for Michigan-Ohio State or Alabama-Auburn or Army-Navy or a few other matchups to be the best rivalry in college football. But there’s no doubt the best rivalry in NCAA basketball: Duke-North Carolina. They meet for the first time this season on Thursday night with the No. 9 Blue Devils as slight NCAA Basketball odds road favorites vs. the No. 21 Heels.
Duke at North Carolina NCAA Basketball Odds & Betting Preview
When: Thursday, 9 PM ET Where: Smith Center, Chapel Hill TV: ESPN Stream: WatchESPN Radio: Blue Devil IMG Sports (Duke) / Tar Heel Sports Network (North Carolina) Opening NCAA Basketball Odds: Duke -1.5 (-110)
Last Season
The Tar Heels lead the overall series 135-110. The teams split their regular-season games last season, but Duke defeated UNC 93-83 in the ACC tournament, the Tar Heels’ last loss before winning the NCAA tournament. In Chapel Hill, North Carolina was ranked No. 5 and beat No. 17 Duke 90-83. Joel Berry scored 28 points, including a critical late-game burst of seven straight for his team. Isaiah Hicks scored 21 points for the Tar Heels. The game featured 24 lead changes and 14 ties before UNC finally pushed ahead for good in the final six minutes, with its final margin the biggest lead for either team all night. Luke Kennard finished with 28 points to lead the Blue Devils. He’s in the NBA now. Carolina and Duke meet for the 246th time overall and the ninth consecutive game in which both teams are ranked in the AP top 25.
Why Bet on Duke?
The Blue Devils (19-4, 7-3 ACC) were clearly caught looking ahead to this game Saturday when they lost at a bad St. John’s team out of conference, 81-77. The Red Storm entered winless in the Big East and on an 11-game losing streak. St. John’s outscored the Blue Devils 32-14 in the first 12 minutes of the second half to take an 11-point lead. There was a 3:57 stretch in the second half where Duke didn’t score a point, and a 7:06 stretch when it made only one field goal. Duke had a late offensive surge to take a one-point lead with 1:34 left, but Shamorie Ponds (33 points) fired off five straight points, and St. John’s held on. Freshman sensation Marvin Bagley III scored 19 for Duke but sat out a significant chunk of the second half with four fouls. Wendell Carter Jr. added 14 points and 15 rebounds. Grayson Allen made his first field goal with 35 seconds remaining. He’s now averaging just 8.5 points in Duke’s four losses. Allen has not reached the 20-point plateau since Dec. 30 and has recorded back-to-back double-digit scoring outputs just once since the start of 2018 “We didn’t play basketball the first 32 minutes worthy of our program,” Coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “It was disgusting, really.” Bagley leads the Devils in scoring (an ACC-best 21.4 points per game) and rebounding (an ACC-best 11.4 per game) while Carter averages 14.4 points and 9.6 rebounds per game. Bagley is bidding to be the first Blue Devil and the first freshman to lead the ACC in scoring and rebounding. Of the 12 previous ACC players to accomplish it, eight have gone on to win the league’s Player of the Year award, including each of the last four.
Why Bet on North Carolina?
Carolina is coming off a 96-65 win over Pitt on Feb. 3, which snapped a three-game losing streak. UNC shot 51.4 percent from the floor. It was the 10th time this year UNC shot 50 percent or better (fourth time in ACC play). The Tar Heels had 29 assists, second most in a game this year (31 vs. Western Carolina). It was the first game this season six Tar Heels scored in double figures. UNC has four wins over teams ranked this week in the AP top 20 (over No. 14 Ohio State, No. 15 Tennessee, No. 16 Clemson and No. 20 Michigan). Two of UNC’s seven losses have come against current top-five teams (No. 2 Virginia and No. 4 Michigan State). Luke Maye leads North Carolina in scoring (18.3) and rebounding (10.3). He is second in the ACC with two 30-10 games this season. The 6-foot-8 junior has grown from one-time unheralded recruit and role player to the Tar Heels’ most consistent performer as he’s on pace to become only the sixth UNC player to average a double-double in four decades. 
Opposing guards have feasted on the Blue Devils this season and the Trevon Duval-Grayson Allen pairing has failed to offer much resistance against dynamic scorers. In losses to St. John’s and Boston College, Duke allowed a combined 63 points to Ponds and Jerome Robinson. UNC’s Joel Berry is one of the ACC’s best guards and is and is 7-for-15 from 3 in his last two games. Duke averages 42.7 rebounds per game, second in the country only to UNC (43.4). Rebounding has been one of the key stats when Duke and Carolina get together. Duke has won 13 of the last 20 games from UNC, including all six when it has outrebounded the Tar Heels. In two of Duke’s four losses this year, the winning team has out-rebounded the Blue Devils. And though St. John’s didn’t, they did haul in 16 offensive rebounds that led to 10 second-chance points. Teams that have beaten Duke have also forced 61 Blue Devil turnovers. Duke has committed about 3.5 more turnovers in losses than in wins. Carolina is 63-36 in Chapel Hill vs. Duke, including 17-15 in the Smith Center. Head coach Roy Williams is 12-18 against Duke as Carolina’s head coach, including 6-8 at the Smith Center. This is the first time in six meetings Duke is ranked higher than UNC.
Latest NCAA Basketball OddsTrends
- Duke is 9-3 ATS in the last 12 games on the road
- Duke is 19-4 SU in the last 23 games
- The total went OVER in 13 of Duke’s last 19 games
- North Carolina is 4-1 ATS in the last 5 games at home
- North Carolina is 18-7 SU in the last 25 games
- The total went OVER in 5 of North Carolina’s last 6 games
Expert Prediction & NCAA Basketball Betting Pick
Duke has more talent, but I’m sticking with the veteran home team here.
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