Duke Blue Devils at Clemson Tigers Betting Preview

Opening Line: Blue Devils -1 / Tigers +1 O/U 146

Time: 9 PM EST Saturday January 23, 2010 on ESPN

In an ACC match up on Saturday night the 16th ranked Clemson Tigers host the 6th ranked Duke Blue Devils. The Blue Devils have lost 2 of their last 4 games, including their last game, and they have yet to win a road game this season. The Tigers are also coming off a loss, but before that had won 3 straight. The winner of this game will be all alone in 3rd place in the ACC while the loser will be .500 in conference play.

This season the Tigers are 9-1 at home and 9-7 ATS and the Blue Devils are 0-3 on the road and 11-6 ATS.

In their last games Clemson lost to Georgia Tech 66-64 on Tuesday night and Duke lost to North Carolina State 88-74 on Wednesday night.

Duke is not playing the best basketball as of late, but they still have one of the better backcourts in the nation with the G duo of Jon Scheyer (19.1 ppg) and Nolan Smith (18.3 ppg). F Kyle Singler (16.1 ppg) is their main frontcourt player and he has been playing well, as in Duke's last 2 games he has scored at least 21 points and in 2 of 3 games he has grabbed at least 10 rebounds.

Clemson also has a legit backcourt with guards Demontez Stitt (11.2 ppg) and Tanner Smith (10.6 ppg), but their leading scorer is F Trevor Booker (15.6 ppg), who has at least 19 points in Clemson's last 4 games.

The Tigers have to rebound well as a team tonight, as Booker (8.4 rpg) is the only real rebounding threat that Clemson has. He has to keep Singler (7.6 rpg) and F Miles Plumlee (6.4 rpg) off the boards in this game, which will not be easy.

The Tigers do not feature a lot of height in their lineup and they have to body up on Miles Plumlee (7.7 ppg), who is 6'10". Clemson has to be physical with him inside and not let him get easy buckets in the lane.

The Blue Devils are a very athletic team that averages just over 82 ppg, so the Tigers will have to slow the tempo down and not allow Duke to get out on the break. If this game is a high tempo one Duke definitely has the advantage.

Duke is 5-2 ATS in their last 7 games and 5-2 ATS in their last 7 games against teams with a winning percentage above .600.

Clemson is 6-0 in their last 6 home games, 7-3 ATS in their last 10 games, and the total has gone Under in 5 of their last 6 games.