FSN’s Sunday night coverage of ACC basketball continues with a trip to Cameron Indoor Stadium in Durham, N.C., for a showdown between Wake Forest and Duke. The Demon Deacons have been a solid team for the last 13 years, but have not won in Duke during tha
2010-01-15
FSN’s Sunday night coverage of ACC basketball continues with a trip to Cameron Indoor Stadium in Durham, N.C., for a showdown between Wake Forest and Duke. The Demon Deacons have been a solid team for the last 13 years, but have not won in Duke during that span. The chances don’t look good for Sunday either, but as always, the pointspread figures to be the great equalizer. Get the latest price on the game on the Sportsbook.com LIVE ODDS page before deciding on your wagers.
The Demon Deacons (12-3, 6-6 ATS) have one major weakness – outside shooting. Against teams they can overwhelm with their physical skills, the issue still persists, however is less noticeable. Playing against better quality competition, particularly those in the ACC that know their conundrum, well that is how the losses start accumulating, especially on the road. Freshman forward Ari Stewart can score from the outside, yet he is still learning about shot selection. Still, Wake Forest can play different styles and is 13-4 ATS against offensive teams like the Blue Devils scoring 77 or more points a contest.
Duke (14-2, 10-5 ATS) might be the best team in the ACC, but is far from infallible. Kyle Singler had a few off games of late and Nolan Smith will disappear at various points in games as well. As opposed to the last few seasons, the Blue Devils have room for improvement. Guard Jon Scheyer has been a rock at the point and the Plumlee brothers, Miles and Mason, are improving rapidly providing more help up front. Duke 34-18 ATS on the home court when it attempts 63 to 69 shots and 8-4 ATS off a SU win this season.
Duke is 20-5 and 18-7 ATS vs. Wake Forest, including 11-0 SU and ATS at home since 1997. The StatFox Power Line shows Duke by 16, and StatFox Steve had this to say about the game: Wake Forest has proven quite incompetent in the road underdog role. The Demon Deacons’ list of negative road trends is long and distinguished, and enough for me to believe that they are staring at another big loss in Durham this week. Take a look at this one: WAKE FOREST is 1-11 ATS (-11.1 Units) in road games versus explosive offensive teams - scoring 84+ points/game after 15+ games since 1997. The average score was WAKE FOREST 69.0, OPPONENT 88.0 - (Rating = 3*). Duke’s average win at home when it is favored by 12.5 or more points is by 25 points. While it might be a stretch to get that high, this still should be a relatively comfortable margin.
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