Duke Is So Back 🔵

Championship Week hasn't disappointed so far, and the stakes are only getting higher. Duke has been on fire as of recent, and they highlight today's slate that is absolutely loaded. Let's take a look at the best matchups in the ACC and Big East 🏀 (3 min read)

Author

Kyle Trapp
March 10, 2023

Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images

ACC Showing Some Fight

Conference tourneys are truly a glorious appetizer to next week's official madness, and with do-or-die games going down all day long, all over the country, there's honestly too much to talk about. But I wouldn't be doing my job as a Cuse fan if I didn't start things off by giving a farewell to one of the most successful coaches the game has ever seen 🍊

At least the last game Boeheim coached was an exciting one, with some last-minute heroics that even caught the attention of KD. That's not the only wild finish we've seen so far in Greensboro, the site of the ACC Tournament, and don't be surprised if tonight's first semifinal matchup follows suit. Check out the lines for a clash between the top-seeded Miami Hurricanes and the surging Duke Blue Devils 👇

  • Spread: Duke -2.5

  • Moneyline: Duke -140 (bet $140, win $100), Miami +116 (bet $100, win $116)

  • O/U: 144.5

  • When: 7PM EST on ESPN

A down year for the ACC has been a hot topic of discussion recently, but both Miami and Duke have been on a mission lately to prove that UVA isn't the league's only threat 📈

  • Including yesterday's ACC tournament win over Wake Forest, the Hurricanes are 9-1 over their last 10 games, a stretch that catapulted them to the top of the conference standings, and helped earn their star junior guard some hardware ⬇️

Meanwhile, the Blue Devils have won seven straight themselves, and over half of those wins were by at least 16 points 🔥

  • They have an award winner of their own in ACC Rookie of the Year Kyle Filipowski, and the big man looks built for March. Since the calendar flipped to this month, he's put up a pair of 22-point games and only needed 16 minutes to do it yesterday 🤯

  • Duke as a whole shot a blistering 62% from the field in their 27-point win over a tough Pitt team, so it certainly looks like they're firing on all cylinders at exactly the right time

Miami might be slight underdogs tonight, but you know they'll be fighting until the bitter end — they've lost just two games by more than one possession all season. Factor in that the two teams split their first two matchups, and you have the recipe for one heck of a showdown 😎

Trivia Question: Who was the MVP of the ACC tournament the last time Miami won it?

Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images

Top-12 Battle In The Big East

Duke-Miami should be must-watch TV, and you can also count on the rest of the Power Five tournaments to pit some of the most dangerous teams in the country against each other. But if we're talking high-powered matchups, it's tough to top a Big East battle going down in the Big Apple

Here's how the lines are looking for a highly-anticipated meeting at MSG between Marquette and UConn 👇

  • Spread: UConn -3.5

  • Moneyline: UConn -170, Marquette +140

  • O/U: 147.5

  • When: 6:30PM on FS1

Like the first featured matchup, we've got another trilogy series here, and these two heavyweights traded blows during conference play 😤

  • The top-seeded Golden Eagles defended their home floor about as well as anyone this year (16-1), and that was indeed the case in a 82-76 Marquette victory back when these teams first met in early January

  • The Huskies got their revenge in dominant fashion though, with a 15-point victory back home in Connecticut. That win is part of an ongoing 9-1 stretch that has Dan Hurley's crew once again looking like the team that was ranked #2 in the country earlier in the year 📈

March Madness is all about peaking at the right time, and the UConn team we've seen recently is a serious threat to cut down the nets. Despite conference standings, they currently have better title odds (+1800, t-8th) than Marquette (+2500) 👀

  • But something tells me the Golden Eagles don't mind being a bit overlooked, seeing as they've been slept on for most of the year. They didn't crack the top-20 of the AP Poll until the last week of January, and star point guard Tyler Kolek was notably absent from any preseason honors. Just look at him now ⬇️

Kolek stuffed the stat sheet in yesterday's comeback OT victory over St. Johns, with 19 points, nine boards and six assists. Marquette may need another huge performance from him tonight if they're going to hold off Adama Sanogo and UConn 😤

Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images

For My Parlay Gurus

Miami and Marquette both won their conference's regular season title, and yet, they're both underdogs in their semifinal matchups tonight. And believe it or not, I'm going with both of them to lose. Check it out 👇

  • Duke -2.5 vs. Miami: -110

  • UConn -3.5 vs. Marquette: -110

$100 on this bet would win you $264 — if we hit, make sure you email justin.schnell@itsovertime.com for a chance to win up to $100*. Many will enter, only some will win 😉

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Trivia Answer: Miami last won the ACC tournament in 2013, and point guard Shane Larkin, who was also ACC POTY, was named tournament MVP

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