Monday night college basketball and we will see the Pittsburgh Panthers travel to Cameron Indoor Stadium to take on the Duke Blue Devils. The game has a start time of 7:00 pm (Eastern) and will be televised on ESPN. Current Vegas betting odds have Duke listed as 15 point favorites, while the total is set at 146.
Analysis: The Pitt Panthers have had a decent start to their year as they come in with a 13-5 mark overall, which includes a 3-2 mark inside the ACC. They are off a hard fought 70-65 win over Georgetown, but that was at home and this one is on the road, where they are just 1-2 on the year. Pittsburgh is 6-20-1 ATS in their last 27 games following a ATS loss and 1-6 ATS in their last 7 road games vs. a team with a winning home record. The Panthers have been a very average offensive team this year, ranking 184th in scoring (67.4 ppg), 153rd in shooting (44.0%), 216th in 3 point shooting (33.1%) and 160th in FT shooting (69.5%). Defensively the Panthers have been solid this year, ranking 77th in points allowed (61.9 ppg), 192nd in defensive FG% (42.8%) and 101st in 3 point defense (31.8%).
The Duke Blue Devils come in off a nice 63-52 road win over Louisville. They needed that win badly after a couple of DD losses to NC State and Miami, in which they allowed 90 & 87 in the two losses. Duke is now 15-2 on the year, including 8-1 at home. Duke is 2-5 ATS in their last 7 home games, 3-9-1 ATS in their last 13 vs. the ACC and 2-11 ATS in their last 13 Monday games. The Blue Devils have been a very good offensive team this year, ranking 9th in scoring (82.0 ppg), 4th in shooting (50.2%), 83rd in 3 point shooting (36.7%) and 147th in FT shooting (69.8%). Defensively the Blue Devils have been decent, as they come in ranked 129th in points allowed (63.6 ppg), 148th in defensive FG% (42.0%) and 30th in 3 point defense (29.2%).
Pick: Going with the Under in this one. Duke went into the Louisville game struggling on defense, but they switched to the Zone for that game and it paid off big time for them as they allowed just 52 points in the game. A key to that switch was ghat the Cardinals were a bad outside shooting team and the Dukies will face another one tonight in the Pitt Panthers as they come in 216th in the nation in 3 point shooting and have hit just 26.5% from long range on the road so far. Duke will pack it in again and make Pitt beat them from the outside, which is something that the Panthers can't do. For Duke, they are a strong offensive team, but Pitt can play some some good defense as they have allowed 61.9 ppg on the year. Pitt has allowed 69.7 ppg on the road overall, but just 64 ppg in their 2 ACC road games so far. This should be a rather slow paced game, especially from the Pitt side and with the Duke defense looking like it found something I just can't see this one putting up more than 130 points.
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