There won’t be a traditional Cinderella in this year’s NCAA Tournament, but teams like Clemson and North Carolina State could pull off unexpected results and advance to the Elite 8 and even higher. .
There are only five games left in the 2023-24 season, with Sunday’s quarterfinals being the highlight.
Here’s how I bet on Duke NC State.
Duke University (-6.5) vs. North Carolina State University
It’s been a magical run for NC State, but I personally believe it’s the end.
The Wolfpack has been playing great basketball, there’s no denying that.
But this is also a team that has benefited from opponents’ inability to make open shots.
See how ShotQuality graded NC State’s win over Marquette.
The Golden Eagles were expected to win that game by 16 points!
But it was like I was sitting on the 3-point line and it was rattling around. Marquette finished 3rd out of 4 out of 31 (16%).
After overtime games against mid-major Oakland University and Texas Tech, the Wolfpack struggled from the perimeter (7 of 26, 22.6%) to advance to the Elite Eight.
I’m not going to get into what happened, but there are several reasons behind this madness.
No one can take a shot against them. Open or not. That’s until Sunday.
Duke was once again a 9.5-point favorite to win the ACC Tournament a few weeks ago, but then North Carolina State won on its way to a magical championship.
To me, not much has changed except for the public perception of the Wolfpack.
So getting the Blue Devils at (-6.5) is a buy for me.
Since March 1, Duke has been ranked as the No. 3 team in the country, according to Bart Torbic.
The Blue Devils sit behind powerhouses Connecticut and Houston, who just won without Jamal Shehed. They are in the top 15 in both offensive efficiency and defensive efficiency during that period.
Duke has the shooters to make up for North Carolina State’s defensive woes.
The Wolfpack ranks outside the top 140 in both 2-point and 3-point defense, and was 74th in defensive efficiency last month, Torbic said.
Do you want to bet on college basketball?
This team doesn’t force many turnovers and is average on the glass.
They rely too much on players like DJ Burns and DJ Horne for offensive creativity to compensate for their deficiencies on defense.
Or the opponent could miss every open shot from the perimeter.
But I believe the veteran leadership of Jeremy Roach and the borderline firepower of Jared McCain and Tyrese Proctor will get the job done.
The public is showing NC State a lot of love, so I’m going to spend Sunday with a much better team at Duke.
