A pair of really thin teams who have looked awfully beatable at times in March will be on the court together in the Sweet 16.
The Duke Blue Devils have had a favorable run to get to this point, and they'll have some help once again when they take on the Oregon Ducks.
NCAA Tournament Odds
Duke Blue Devils +2.5
Oregon Ducks –2.5
Over/Under 157
HOW THEY GOT HERE
Duke is an interesting team. It was probably over-seeded as a No. 4 seed, and it was put in what was clearly the weakest bracket. Still, the Dookies had to get some good fortune along the way, too. They ended up drawing a Yale team which looked completely overmatched in the Round of 32 instead of a very physical Baylor team.
Now, the Blue Devils get to play on an extra day and a half of rest in relation to Oregon, as they had to play on Saturday afternoon while the Ducks were the last winners on the court on Sunday night.
Live bettors though, can't really complain with what they've seen out of the U of O. The Ducks were always expected to be in a bit of a war against St. Joe's in a tough second round matchup, and the fact that they rallied on a night when they weren't their usual offensively-dominant selves is a good indication that perhaps they can win playing different styles of basketball against good teams. That might come in really handy down the line.
Oregon did nothing to disappoint in a romp of Holy Cross on Friday.
KEY MATCHUP
Oregon is one of the most athletic teams in the nation. We have no doubt that it'll be able to go shot for shot with Grayson Allen, and Chris Boucher should have no problems neutralizing Marshall Plumlee, but we're not all that sure what's going to happen with Brandon Ingram, the man who is the real X-Factor in this game for the Blue Devils.
Simply put, when Ingram is making his outside shots, he's virtually impossible to stop. You have to respect his ability to pass the ball and his uncanny ability to sneak past defenders into the lane, but if you leave him too much room, he's knocked down 78 threes this year. Furthermore, he's 6-foot-9, and no one guarding him is going to be bigger than 6-foot-6.
Ingram is the only man in this game who won't be stopped if he's at his best no matter what the other team does, and that's what makes him the player to really keep a close eye on in live betting, especially after he dropped 20+ points against both UNC-Wilmington and Yale.
KEY STATS & TRENDS
Even though Duke has done a really nice job against its last two foes, it hasn't had a lot of success against major conference teams of late. The Blue Devils went 0-4 ATS in March against ACC foes, and they haven't covered a game against a big time power conference foe since beating North Carolina in Chapel Hill just after Valentine's Day.
Live bettors who backed the over in the Oregon/St. Joseph's game had to be frustrated by the fact that just 133 points ended up on the board. The Ducks had scored at least 76 points in each of their previous nine games. Sure, they've won 10 in a row, but they're now just 2-2 ATS in that run when scoring fewer than 80 points and 4-2 ATS when they've reached that magical 80+ point plateau.
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Don’t miss out on getting paid because you couldn’t bet. Click here and deposit at BookMaker now! The Sweet 16 game between the Duke Blue Devils and Oregon Ducks will go down Thursday, March 24, 2016, at 10:07 p.m. ET at the Honda Center. The game will be televised nationally on TBS.
