Maryland Terrapins AT Duke Blue Devils
January 9th, 2011 at 8:00 PM EST
Opening Line: Duke -15
Current Line: Duke -15
Opening Total: 151.5
Current Total: 153
Opening Moneyline: Duke -1400 / Maryland +900
Current Moneyline: Duke -1600 / Maryland +950
Duke is currently ranked first in the Nation in both the AP top 25 and the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll. They are one of four remaining undefeated teams in the top 25 and will be taking on Maryland who is 10-4 and 9th in the ACC. Strangely enough, however, Duke’s last loss was to Maryland in March Madness, and since then they have reeled off 24 straight victories. But Maryland was ranked 22nd last year and after losing Grievis Vasquez, who scored 20 against Duke and hit the game winning basket, they are no longer a ranked team.
Another remarkable fact is that Duke has won FIFTY straight against unranked opponents at home at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Nolan Smith just became the 11th Duke player to reach 2000 points and Coach Krzyzewski called his performance “spectacular,” high praise from a coach that has coached the likes of Grant Hill and others.
“I think Nolan’s probably playing as well as anyone in the country right now,” said Coach K.
Maryland forward Jordan Williams, however, has been playing some pretty darn good ball in his own right and has notched eight straight double doubles and had 12 & 11 in the win over Colgate Tuesday night. But he knows it won’t come easy against Duke, saying “Going to Duke with a win is definitely huge for us. To come out and beat a team by 55 is not easy to do. It was a great test for our team, and we definitely passed the test.”
Some betting trends:
Maryland is 4-1 SU in their last 5 road games and are 2-3-1 ATS in their last 6 at Cameron Stadium. They are 1-5 SU in their last 6 there, as well, and the total has gone UNDER In 6 of their last 7 games on the road at Duke.
Duke is 5-0 SU in their last 5 games and 5-0 SU in their last 5 at home. They are 6-1 SU in their last 7 against Maryland and the total has gone UNDER in 5 of their last 6 games against Maryland and it has gone UNDER in 6 of their last 7 at home against Maryland as well.
Besides the great play of Nolan Smith, Duke also has received strong showings from freshman point guard Kyrie Iriving and Kyle Singer, both of whom are averaging greater than 17 points per game. Irving, however, has only played 8 games so far and is out indefinitely with a knee injury. Before the last two games, Singer had a stretch of three 20+ point games and has already had a 30 point game this year, too, against Oregon, a game which the Blue Devils won by 27.
Other than Jordan Other than Jordan Williams, Maryland has 6’6″ senior swingman Cliff Tucker averaging 11.1 points per game and shooting 36.7% from three and 6’1″ freshman guard Terrell Stoglin averaging 11 a game too, while shooting a blistering 42.5% from three. Duke shouldn’t have much of a problem getting a hand up on their shots though, and shutting down them is probably going to prove to be the key since Williams will get his, anyway.
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