Duke takes on Stephen Curry & Davidson
It’s David(son) vs. Goliath (Duke) on Wednesday night when Stephen Curry and the Wildcats travel to meet the Blue Devils in their annual in-state matchup. Can Curry feed off the energy of the Crazies?
It’s been a lopsided in-state rivalry for years now. One hundred years to be exact. But maybe, just maybe, Davidson can pull off the monster upset Wednesday night when the Wildcats trek into Durham to meet the Duke Blue Devils, newly anointed in the No. 2 hole of the latest polls.
Fresh off a dominating second half performance in their ACC opener against Virginia Tech, Duke (12-1, 1-0 ACC) plays the first of just three more non-ACC schools on their remaining regular season schedule. After Southern Conference leader Davidson tonight, the Blue Devils have two dates against a pair of Big East schools, Georgetown at home in 10 days and on the road at St. John’s on Feb 19. Two games against Michigan, splitting the pair, and one against Xavier have been Duke’s biggest challenges so far. And this one tonight will have a major challenge for the Devils’ defense as they face the leading scorer in the nation, Stephen Curry (Jr, 6-3), and a tough team in Davidson (10-2, 3-0 Southern) that could use an upset badly.
Davidson’s only two losses have come away from home against the only ranked teams on their schedule thus far. The College of Charleston and maybe Appalachian State are the toughest teams Bob McKillop & Co. will face the rest of the way after this one. The ‘Cats dropped a 76-58 decision to Purdue at a ‘neutral site’ in Indianapolis five days before Christmas, and then fell 82-78 at Norman to Blake Griffin and the Sooners back before Thanksgiving. They failed to get inside the +5 number against the Boilermakers but covered as 5½-point underdogs against OU.
Not that Davidson’s schedule is necessarily easy. Tonight’s game begins a run in which Davidson plays five games in a 10-day span (at Citadel and Appalachian State, home vs. Elon and then at Georgia Southern following Duke).
Curry leads the nation with a 29.2 average, topping 40 three times and thrice more posting a double-double in points and assists. Accenting that average is the fact he had one game in which he played 32 minutes and did not score a single point. He was more than happy to have that zero game, what should go down as one of the strangest this season, as Loyola-Maryland coach Jimmy Patsos put his defensive eggs in one basket and let his team pay the price for it in Davidson’s 78-48 laugher.
Speaking of Loyola-MD, the Greyhounds are a common opponent between the Wildcats and Blue Devils. Davidson’s 30-pointer against them on Nov 25 was followed up by Duke’s 41-point win on New Year’s Eve. I’d love to hear Patsos analyze this game.
Duke’s only loss so far came in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge against Michigan in Ann Arbor. The Wolverines delighted their fans at the Crisler Arena with an 81-73 win, as the Blue Devils netted just seven of their 33 from 3-point range. And though most Dukie Haters always point to them getting preferential treatment from the zebras in games, something that didn’t happen against the Maize and Blue as the officiating trio of Ed Hightower, John Hughes and Steve Olson only allowed the Devils to take six free throws in the contest back on Dec 6.
The loss to the Wolverines marked the first time in 31 games that Duke had fallen to an unranked school, a stretch that dated back to Jan 21, 2006, when the Blue Devils fell at Georgetown, 87-84, to suffer their first loss of that season after starting the campaign 17-0. Krzyzewski credited the crowd at Ann Arbor for the Dec 6 loss.
"It's party time every time we come to town, but this is a great school and they deserve this level of support for every game," Coach K. "Give Michigan credit. They played great and the crowd was fantastic."
There won’t be a raucous, anti-Duke crowd for this one as the Cameron Crazies will be all lathered up as usual. The Blue Devils are 30-1 at home against Davidson in this series. The Wildcats’ only win in Durham came in 1981, and Duke has reeled off 21-straight victories in this annual meeting between North Carolina foes. The Blue Devils won 79-73 last year in the game played in Charlotte, increasing their advantage to 86-17 in the series that first started in 1909.
The home team is also coming off a very well-played game defensively in their most recent outing, a 69-44 dubya against the Hokies in which the Devils limited Va Tech to just 13 points in the second half, outscoring them 26-7 over the final 15 minutes and 14 seconds as Duke pulled away. Virginia Tech never led and Duke’s biggest lead was at the final horn. The Blue Devils also went nuts at the free throw line, hitting 19 of 20.
Duke comes into this one 8-4 ATS on the year and running three straight covers. They are 5-7 O/U on the totals line, which has become an almost non-issue for me since books are too damn lazy to get them up at a decent time as far as I’m concerned. Davidson is 4-6 ATS and in four straight games, they have failed to cover. The Wildcats are 4-5 O/U.
There’s been some discussion about Curry’s availability after leaving the Wildcats’ last game with an ankle roll. It hurt, no doubt, but it was scarier for everyone more than it was hurter. Wait, is hurter a word?
Depending where you shop and play, this line opened from -13 to -14½ on Duke. It was -13 Tuesday evening at 5Dimes and has gone up to -14 as of rooster:30 this morning. All the while it started at -14½ at Bookmaker and has since dropped to 13½, so do some homework to get the best number either way.
I'm going to be rooting for Curry to have a big game and keep Davidson at least close, so the Wildcats plus as many as I can get will be the play.
It’s David(son) vs. Goliath (Duke) on Wednesday night when Stephen Curry and the Wildcats travel to meet the Blue Devils in their annual in-state matchup. Can Curry feed off the energy of the Crazies?
It’s been a lopsided in-state rivalry for years now. One hundred years to be exact. But maybe, just maybe, Davidson can pull off the monster upset Wednesday night when the Wildcats trek into Durham to meet the Duke Blue Devils, newly anointed in the No. 2 hole of the latest polls.
Fresh off a dominating second half performance in their ACC opener against Virginia Tech, Duke (12-1, 1-0 ACC) plays the first of just three more non-ACC schools on their remaining regular season schedule. After Southern Conference leader Davidson tonight, the Blue Devils have two dates against a pair of Big East schools, Georgetown at home in 10 days and on the road at St. John’s on Feb 19. Two games against Michigan, splitting the pair, and one against Xavier have been Duke’s biggest challenges so far. And this one tonight will have a major challenge for the Devils’ defense as they face the leading scorer in the nation, Stephen Curry (Jr, 6-3), and a tough team in Davidson (10-2, 3-0 Southern) that could use an upset badly.
Davidson’s only two losses have come away from home against the only ranked teams on their schedule thus far. The College of Charleston and maybe Appalachian State are the toughest teams Bob McKillop & Co. will face the rest of the way after this one. The ‘Cats dropped a 76-58 decision to Purdue at a ‘neutral site’ in Indianapolis five days before Christmas, and then fell 82-78 at Norman to Blake Griffin and the Sooners back before Thanksgiving. They failed to get inside the +5 number against the Boilermakers but covered as 5½-point underdogs against OU.
Not that Davidson’s schedule is necessarily easy. Tonight’s game begins a run in which Davidson plays five games in a 10-day span (at Citadel and Appalachian State, home vs. Elon and then at Georgia Southern following Duke).
Curry leads the nation with a 29.2 average, topping 40 three times and thrice more posting a double-double in points and assists. Accenting that average is the fact he had one game in which he played 32 minutes and did not score a single point. He was more than happy to have that zero game, what should go down as one of the strangest this season, as Loyola-Maryland coach Jimmy Patsos put his defensive eggs in one basket and let his team pay the price for it in Davidson’s 78-48 laugher.
Speaking of Loyola-MD, the Greyhounds are a common opponent between the Wildcats and Blue Devils. Davidson’s 30-pointer against them on Nov 25 was followed up by Duke’s 41-point win on New Year’s Eve. I’d love to hear Patsos analyze this game.
Duke’s only loss so far came in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge against Michigan in Ann Arbor. The Wolverines delighted their fans at the Crisler Arena with an 81-73 win, as the Blue Devils netted just seven of their 33 from 3-point range. And though most Dukie Haters always point to them getting preferential treatment from the zebras in games, something that didn’t happen against the Maize and Blue as the officiating trio of Ed Hightower, John Hughes and Steve Olson only allowed the Devils to take six free throws in the contest back on Dec 6.
The loss to the Wolverines marked the first time in 31 games that Duke had fallen to an unranked school, a stretch that dated back to Jan 21, 2006, when the Blue Devils fell at Georgetown, 87-84, to suffer their first loss of that season after starting the campaign 17-0. Krzyzewski credited the crowd at Ann Arbor for the Dec 6 loss.
"It's party time every time we come to town, but this is a great school and they deserve this level of support for every game," Coach K. "Give Michigan credit. They played great and the crowd was fantastic."
There won’t be a raucous, anti-Duke crowd for this one as the Cameron Crazies will be all lathered up as usual. The Blue Devils are 30-1 at home against Davidson in this series. The Wildcats’ only win in Durham came in 1981, and Duke has reeled off 21-straight victories in this annual meeting between North Carolina foes. The Blue Devils won 79-73 last year in the game played in Charlotte, increasing their advantage to 86-17 in the series that first started in 1909.
The home team is also coming off a very well-played game defensively in their most recent outing, a 69-44 dubya against the Hokies in which the Devils limited Va Tech to just 13 points in the second half, outscoring them 26-7 over the final 15 minutes and 14 seconds as Duke pulled away. Virginia Tech never led and Duke’s biggest lead was at the final horn. The Blue Devils also went nuts at the free throw line, hitting 19 of 20.
Duke comes into this one 8-4 ATS on the year and running three straight covers. They are 5-7 O/U on the totals line, which has become an almost non-issue for me since books are too damn lazy to get them up at a decent time as far as I’m concerned. Davidson is 4-6 ATS and in four straight games, they have failed to cover. The Wildcats are 4-5 O/U.
There’s been some discussion about Curry’s availability after leaving the Wildcats’ last game with an ankle roll. It hurt, no doubt, but it was scarier for everyone more than it was hurter. Wait, is hurter a word?
Depending where you shop and play, this line opened from -13 to -14½ on Duke. It was -13 Tuesday evening at 5Dimes and has gone up to -14 as of rooster:30 this morning. All the while it started at -14½ at Bookmaker and has since dropped to 13½, so do some homework to get the best number either way.
I'm going to be rooting for Curry to have a big game and keep Davidson at least close, so the Wildcats plus as many as I can get will be the play.
