On paper Saturday’s ACC college hoops contest between the No. 4 Duke Blue Devils and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish looks like a mismatch. As we all know the games are not played on paper. Led by future No. 1 NBA draft pick Cooper Flagg, the Blue Devils haven’t lost since before Thanksgiving winning nine in a row with payouts in six of their last eight. They are coming off a 76-47 win over Pitt on Tuesday where they covered the 14-point spread at the Bitcoin sportsbook. Meanwhile, the Irish dropped to .500 with back-to-back losses to North Carolina and Georgia Tech, leaving them at 3-7 in their last 10 games. ESPN will televise the game with tipoff set for 12 p.m. ET from Cameron Indoor Arena.
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Notre Dame Fighting Irish
The brutal three-game trip to North Carolina didn’t start well for Notre Dame, though it had a chance to. The Irish led by three with 14 seconds remaining only to give up a three-pointer and commit a foul on the shot. UNC made the free throw and held on for the 74-73 victory. It was Notre Dame’s second straight loss ahead of Thursday’s game with NC State. It’s been a topsy-turvy season so for the Irish, who opened the campaign with four straight wins. That was followed by five consecutive setbacks then a string of three more wins ahead of their current skid.
There was some good news from the UNC game with the return of leading scorer Markus Burton. Injured early in a loss to Rutgers on Nov. 26, he came off the bench against the Heels scoring 23 points on 7 of 14 shooting. Burton is averaging 18.9 points on 48 percent shooting and his absence was noticeable. He scored at least 16 points in each of his first five games and exited in the first few minutes against Rutgers with a knee injury. The Irish were 4-1 when Burton played the entire game and including the Rutgers game they went 3-5.
There isn’t a lot of depth on the roster so getting an impactful player like Burton back in the lineup is huge. Tae Davis picked up some of the offensive slack scoring at least 20 points in three straight games and four games total during Burton’s absence. I do think the Irish are better than their record indicates. The lost to Rutgers 85-84 in overtime in the game Burton was hurt and played close games with Houston and Creighton. And they probably should’ve beaten UNC on the road.
Duke Blue Devils
A lot has been said about the youthful Blue Devils and their roster of blue-chippers. Typically those guys like to show off windmill dunks, behind the back passes and long range missiles. Duke, mainly Flagg, is doing that while also paying close attention to defense. That’s likely what separates the ACC leaders as we head into the meat of the conference season. It’s hard to go through an entire season without a loss and Duke won’t do that in Flagg’s only season.
Duke’s only losses came to top 20 teams. The Devils were edged 77-72 by then No. 19 Kentucky on Nov. 12 and two weeks later lost to then No. 1 Kansas 75-72. A total of eight points are what stands between Duke being 15-0 instead of 13-2. And the Dookies are playing good ball ahead of this matchup. They haven’t lost since the Kansas game and each of their last six wins were by more than 20 points. Duke is 6-2 ATS in its last eight games failing to cash out as a 24.5-point favorite over Virginia Tech and a 34-point favorite against Incarnate Word.
With Flagg averaging 17.5 points and fellow freshman Kon Knueppel chipping in 12.7 points, the Dookies have plenty of options on offense. They average 80 points while shooting nearly 48 percent from the field. However, the defense has been the determining factor in a number of wins. They held their last seven opponents under 70 points with three of them failing to top 50. Duke ranks among the top 5 in efficiency according to KenPom and held Pitts top scorers Ishmael Leggett and Jaland Lowe to a combined 12 points on 5 of 27 shooting.
Notre Dame at Duke Same Game Parlay Picks
Duke ATS
Notre Dame / Duke UNDER
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