2008 Duke NCAA Basketball Tournament Odds

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The NCAA Tournament will be here before you know it so I am going to start looking at a few teams that we know will be dancing and their chances of cutting down the nets. The 2008 Duke Blue Devils odds to win the NCAA Tournament are not slim and none like most teams across the country. Anytime you have Coach K on the sidelines, you’re going to have a shot to win. The only things that really concern us about Duke is its lack of depth and soft inside game as it has experience and talent strongly in its favor.

Duke is the number two ranked team in the country behind Memphis and it is sitting at the top of the ACC with a 7-0 record, which is one game better than rival North Carolina with that matchup all set to take place this week. Duke is 19-1 on the year and an unstoppable 11-0 in home games, proving once again the Cameron Indoor is one of the toughest places in the country to visit.

While many sports bettors shy away from big name teams because oddsmakers usually set tighter lines for those games, Duke has been a solid covering team this season. At 12-6-1 ATS, Duke, usually a public favorite, is making its backers some nice change.

Duke has two dates with the Tar Heels still to go this season, but has a big edge over every other team remaining on its schedule in . However, because Duke punished these teams so badly on its home floor earlier in the conference season, they will be looking to return the favor when the Blue Devils visit. We anticipate much closer games at Miami, NC State, and Virginia in the back half of their conference schedule.

While Duke has been a strong covering team to this point, oddsmakers could overvalue them on the road in some of these late season games because of how badly it beat its opponents the first time it played them this year. And we know that it’s always tougher to win on an opponent’s home court.

Duke lost a talented player in Josh McRoberts, but with everyone else improving drastically, the Blue Devils are on pace to capture a number one seed in the NCAA Tournament. The play of guards DeMarcus Nelson and Greg Paulus is a big reason why. Nelson leads Duke in scoring with 15.2 ppg and Paulus leads the team in assists with 3.5 apg. What the loss of McRoberts did do is thing the Blue Devils out inside and that could be a big weakness for this team come tourney time. There’s no way that Nelson should be leading the team in rebounding from the guard position at just 5.9 rpg. Depth and being a little soft inside leaves the Devils susceptible if they aren’t able to shoot a high percentage in any given game. We feel like Duke has Final Four potential but likely won’t get there.

Odds to win the NCAA Tournament: 8/1

Take a look at our betting articles on other NCAA basketball teams:

• Maryland Terrapins

• Drake Bulldogs

• North Carolina Tar Heels

• Kansas Jayhawks

• Memphis Tigers

• UCLA Bruins

• Michigan State Spartans

• Tennessee Vols

• Butler Bulldogs

• Stanford Cardinal

February 5th, 2007