West Virginia Mountaineers vs. Duke Blue Devils Betting Odds

Opening Line: Duke -2.5 / WVU +2.5 O/U 131

Time: 8:47 PM EST Saturday April 3, 2010 on CBS

In the Final 4 match up that has the highest regional seeds remaining the Duke Blue Devils take on the West Virginia Mountaineers. Duke is back in the Final 4 for the first time since 2004, which is quite a drought for them. West Virginia has a tough and physical team while Duke has a great guard combo that can shoot lights out.

If the Mountaineers can beat the Blue Devils it will be their 2nd straight win over a #1 seed, as they took out Kentucky in their last game.

Each of these teams has a solid defense each giving up an average of only about 62 ppg.

In their Elite 8 wins Duke beat Baylor 78-71 and West Virginia beat Kentucky 73-66.

This season Duke is 22-13-2 ATS and West Virginia is 17-19 ATS.

Duke has a well-balanced offense led by the backcourt guard duo of Jon Scheyer (18.2 ppg) and Nolan Smith (17.4 ppg). Down low they rely on F Kyle Singler (17.6 ppg 6.9 rpg). Duke is averaging 77.4 ppg this season and this trio gives the Blue Devils most of their offense.

In their Elite 8 win over Baylor Scheyer and Smith combined to score 49 points. Singler did not have a good game, to say the least, as he only had 5 points and did not make a field goal in the game (0/10). He also only grabbed 3 rebounds and he will have to play better in this game to keep WVU from moving up on the perimeter to keep the guards from having open looks.

Duke's stats from the win over Baylor are not pretty, as they only shot 36.1% from the field and on defense allowed Baylor to shoot 45.8%. Duke had more rebounds and they held Baylor to a 3-point FG% of only 27.8%. The Blue Devils also had many 2nd chance opportunities with 22 offensive rebounds, but since WVU has such a solid frontcourt they can't count on that happening again and they have to shoot the rock well.

West Virginia is led by the frontcourt trio of forwards Da'Sean Butler (17.4 ppg), Kevin Jones (13.7 ppg), and Devin Ebanks (12 ppg). In their win over Kentucky this trio combined to score 43 points.

Much like Duke West Virginia did not shoot well in their Elite 8 win, but they held Kentucky to a FG% of only 34.3%.

WVU's leading scoring guard G Darryl Bryant is likely out for this game and they will need another solid game from G Joe Mazzulla, who only averaged 2.6 ppg this season, but in the win over Kentucky scored 17 points.

Duke's big men of Singler (6.9 rpg), Brian Zoubek (7.6 rpg), and F Miles Plumlee (5.1 rpg) will have to man the boards and not allow the frontcourt of the Mountaineers to control the glass.

Betting Trends

West Virginia is 4-0 ATS in their last 4 games, 5-1 ATS in their last 6 games as an underdog of 0.5-6.5, and has an Under record of 7-1 in their last 8 games.

Duke is 4-0 ATS in their last 4 games as a favorite and has an Under record of 4-1 in their last 5 games.

Our Selection : Take Duke -2.5.