Final Four Preview: No. 2 Seed West Virginia Mountaineers vs. No. 1 Seed Duke Blue Devils

Butler Bulldogs will face the Michigan State Spartans Saturday, April 3, 2010 in the first of two Final Four games that day.

2010-04-05

The streak is finally over for the Duke Blue Devils, who are back in the Final Four for the first time since 2004 after defeating the Baylor Bears 78 to 71. The Baylor Bears were the first team in the tourney to successfully shut down Kyle Singler, keeping the player from making a single shot. With Singler struggling Nolan Smith and Jon Scheyer had to come up big and they came though, both combing to score 49 points and making 9 shots behind the arc. Smith's 29 points was a career best, which also included a three pointer to give the Blue Devils the lead for good. Against West Virginia, the Blue Devils will need to make sure they don't just shoot the long ball like what the Wildcats did.

The Mountaineers knowing that the Wildcats are a shaky three point shooting team Coach Huggins had a game plan to play tight and saw the Wildcats shoot horribly to a 73 to 66 Mountaineer victory. Without Darryl Bryant Joe Mazzulla tied a career high with 17 points. With Mazzulla in foul trouble in the last game the West Virginia Mountaineers found they could rely on Devin Ebanks and Da'Sean Butler to handle the ball in case he isn’t in the game. The Blue Devils are a much better shooting team than the Wildcats and their backcourt is coming in hot. They have the talent and will to win, but they need to try to avoid foul trouble.

West Virginia's win against Kentucky just seems too much of an anomaly. All their points pretty much came from threes and nothing else. I don't see that happening from a team that shoots a 33.6 percent shooting behind the arc. Add to that, plus the fact the Mountaineers got handled on the offensive boards, where the Blue Devils make their living. Both teams defend well, but Duke plays more consistent on offense.

Sportsbook.com has the Duke Blue Devils has 2.5 point favorites over the West Virginia Mountaineers, while the over / under is at 131 points right now. When it comes to college basketball betting this is a tough. Normally bettors would think Duke is an easy bet, but West Virginia didn’t get to the final four on smoke and mirror.

West Virginia Mountaineers scored a big 45 points in the second half against the Kentucky Wildcats, this helped them go to the Final Four as well as cover the 4 point spread and also helped the OVER, which was at 134.

The Blue Devils beat Baylor 78 – 71 to cover the 5 point spread, coming out of the Elite 8. The total score of that game went OVER the 137.5 points. Key points for college basketball bettors to keep in mind.

Fun Facts to Consider:
Mountaineers are 5 - 0 straight up in its last 5 games
The total has gone under in 7 of West Virginia’s last 8 games
Mountaineers are 4 and 1 ATS in its last 5 games
Blue Devils are 5 - 0 straight up in its last 5 games
The total has gone under in 4 of Duke’s last 5 games
Blue Devils are 4-1 ATS in its last 5 games

These are two teams are evenly matched plus the fact that they have great coaches. I’m going with the Blue Devils ATS since their backcourt looks so good in the Elite 8 and their frontcourt has really become unstoppable.

Latest College Basketball News

Click here to read latest College Basketball news