Some bad news for Vanderbilt, which was set up to be a contender in the SEC this year. Star point guard Darius Garland has a meniscus injury in his left knee and is out indefinitely. Garland suffered the injury early in the Commodores’ game against Kent State on Friday. Garland was the No. 1 point guard in the 2018 high school class and is a projected lottery pick in the 2019 NBA draft. He is averaging 16.2 points, 3.8 rebounds and 2.6 assists per game. Here’s a look at two interesting NCAA Basketball games this week. Check back for Mybookie Sportsbook Odds.
Top NCAA Basketball Betting Picks of the Week – November 26th
Highlights from JMo’s monster night 😤 pic.twitter.com/EmhoJvbUDv
— Indiana Basketball (@IndianaMBB) 24 de noviembre de 2018
Indiana at No. 1 Duke
- When: Tuesday, 9:30 PM ET (ESPN)
Part of the ACC-Big Ten Challenge. Indiana already has beaten one ranked team this year: Marquette. The Hoosiers are off a win over UC Davis on Friday. Juwan Morgan finished with 31 points (three short of his career-high) in the win and also added 10 rebounds for his third double-double of the season.
Through six games, Morgan is averaging 17.5 points, 8.8 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.3 blocks per game. He’s also shooting 60 percent on 3s on 15 attempts. Freshman Romeo Langford added 20 points. IU’s game-winning run was 26-3 from the 7:55 mark until there were 51 seconds left in the contest.
Morgan and Langford were selected to the 10-member Preseason All-Big Ten team. Both are among 50 players listed as candidates for the 2019 Naismith Trophy and Wooden Award and Langford is among 20 players on the NABC Player of the Year watch list. Coach Archie Miller’s squad is the top shooting team in the Big Ten making 55.4% of its shots through the first two weeks of the season. That figure ranks 3rd in the country. The Hoosiers are 9th in the country in three-point field goal defense. Opponents are shooting 22.1% from long range. IU is holding opponents to 60.0 ppg., on 37.4% shooting.
Duke will surely drop from the top spot in the polls Monday after it was knocked off by No. 3 Gonzaga 89-87 on Wednesday in Maui. With 22 points and 10 rebounds, freshman Zion Williamson recorded his second double-double this season. He also blocked three shots, with two assists and two steals.
The game marked the 12th time in the history of the AP poll that Top 3-ranked teams met in November. Duke has appeared in five of those games, the most in poll history, and is now 3-2 in those games. The game marked Duke’s 267th when playing as the No. 1-ranked team – the most in college basketball history. The Blue Devils are now 231-36 when playing as the No. 1-ranked team, including 208-31 under Coach Mike Krzyzewski.
Duke is now 950-217 when playing as a ranked team under Coach K, including 548-101 when playing as a ranked Top 5 team under Coach K. In ranked-versus-ranked games under Coach K, Duke is now 210-118, and 81-58 in Top 10-versus-Top 10 matchups and 29-16 in Top 5 vs. Top 5 games.
It’s the third time in four years these schools play in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge. Last year, No. 1 Duke pulled away late in a 91-81 victory in Assembly Hall. In December of 2015, the Blue Devils defeated the Hoosiers at home, 94-74. Duke leads the series 6-3. This will be the fifth meeting between the two teams in this event.
Duke has the most wins in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, winning 17 of 19 games, with their only two losses coming to Wisconsin in 2009 and Ohio State in 2011.
No. 7 North Carolina at No. 18 Michigan
- When: Wednesday, 9:30 PM ET (ESPN)
Also part of the ACC-Big Ten Challenge. The ACC won the last two ACC-Big Ten Challenges, with 11 wins last season and nine in 2016. The Big Ten won in 2014 and 2015, while the Challenge finished in a tie in 2012 and 2013. Since it started in 1999, the ACC has won 12 Challenges, while the Big Ten has won five.
These teams met last year in Chapel Hill — their first meeting since the national championship game in 1993 — with North Carolina winning 86-71. Carolina is 4-2 all-time against Michigan. Prior to last season, the initial five games in the series were played at neutral sites: Charlotte (1987 NCAA East Regional second round), Seattle (1988 NCAA West Regional Sweet 16), Lexington, Ky. (1989 Southeast Regional Sweet 16), Honolulu (1992 Rainbow Classic) and New Orleans (1993 NCAA championship game).
Carolina is 10-9 in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge: 5-4 at home, 3-5 on the road and 2-0 at neutral sites. The Tar Heels are 3-2 vs. Michigan State, 1-3 vs. Illinois, 1-3 vs. Indiana, 2-0 vs. Ohio State, 1-0 vs. Maryland, 1-0 vs. Michigan, 1-0 vs. Wisconsin and 0-1 vs. Iowa.
Michigan already has a quality win, trashing then-No. 8 Villanova on Nov. 14. The Wolverines improved to 6-0 last Friday with an 83-55 win over Chattanooga. Freshman Ignas Brazdeikis led the Wolverines with his second straight 20-point contest with 20. Also adding double-digit afternoons were Jordan Poole and Isaiah Livers, who chipped in 14 and 12 points, respectively.
Brazdeikis (15.7 ppg) and Charles Matthews account for 44 percent of U-M’s offense. The duo has accounted for nine of the 14 double-figure scoring games this season and three of the four 20-plus point games. So far in six games, U-M has forced its opponents into 14.6 turnovers per game. In fact, Villanova had more turnovers (21) than field goals (14). Holy Cross had 16 field goals and 16 turnovers as well.
