The NCAA Tournament will be here before you know it so College Basketball Expert Handicapper Dave Price has decided to start looking at a few teams that Point-Spreads.com readers know will be dancing and their chances of cutting down the nets. SportsBetting.com has made the Duke Blue Devils 35 to 1 odds to win the 2008 NCAA Basketball National Championship.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 concerns 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 9-0 record, which is two game's better than rival North Carolina. Duke is 21-1 on the year and an unstoppable 12-0 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 13-7-1 ATS, Duke, usually a public favorite, is making its backers some nice change.
Duke has one date with the Tar Heels still to go this season, but has a big edge over every other team remaining on its schedule. 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 hang the Blue Devils out to dry 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.
SportsBetting.com has posted the college basketball betting odds to win the 2008 NCAA Basketball Championship:
Air Force 300 – 1
Akron 300 – 1
Alabama 300 – 1
Arizona 50 – 1
Arizona St 300 – 1
Arkansas 75 – 1
Auburn 300 – 1
BYU 200 – 1
Boston College 200 – 1
Bradley 300 – 1
Butler 100 – 1
California 100 – 1
Clemson 75 – 1
Colorado St 300 – 1
Creighton 300 – 1
DePaul 200 – 1
Drexel 300 – 1
Duke 35 – 1
Florida 50 – 1
Florida St 300 – 1
Fresno St 300 – 1
George Washington 300 – 1
Georgetown 15 – 1
Georgia 100 – 1
Georgia Tech 100 – 1
George Mason 100 – 1
Gonzaga 50 – 1
Hofstra 300 – 1
Houston 200 – 1
Illinois 300 – 1
Illinois St 300 – 1
Indiana 20 – 1
Iowa 300 – 1
Kansas 10 – 1
Kansas St 60 – 1
Kent St 300 – 1
Kentucky 40 – 1
LSU 300 – 1
Louisville 15 – 1
Marquette 40 – 1
Maryland 50 – 1
Memphis 7 – 1
Miami FL 300 – 1
Miami OH 300 – 1
Michigan 300 – 1
Michigan St 20 – 1
Minnesota 300 – 1
Mississippi 300 – 1
Mississippi St 100 – 1
Missouri 200 – 1
Missouri St 300 – 1
Nevada 200 – 1
New Mexico 300 – 1
New Mexico St 200 – 1
North Carolina 6 – 1
North Carolina St 60 – 1
Notre Dame 200 – 1
Ohio St 50 – 1
Oklahoma 100 – 1
Oklahoma St 300 – 1
Old Dominion 300 – 1
Oregon 40 – 1
Oregon St 300 – 1
Pittsburgh 200 – 1
Providence 300 – 1
Purdue 100 – 1
San Diego St 300 – 1
South Carolina 300 – 1
Southern Illinois 75 – 1
St Johns 300 – 1
St Josephs 200 – 1
Stanford 100 – 1
Syracuse 40 – 1
Temple 300 – 1
Tennessee 12 – 1
Texas 75 – 1
Texas A&M 50 – 1
Texas Tech 100 – 1
Toledo 300 – 1
U CONN 50 – 1
U MASS 300 – 1
UCLA 6 – 1
UCSB 300 – 1
UNLV 300 – 1
USC 75 – 1
Utah 300 – 1
Utah St 300 – 1
VA Commonwealth 100 – 1
Vanderbilt 200 – 1
Villanova 60 – 1
Virginia 100 – 1
Virginia Tech 300 – 1
Wake Forest 300 – 1
Washington 100 – 1
Washington St 40 – 1
West Virginia 100 – 1
Wichita St 300 – 1
Wisconsin 100 – 1
Xavier 100 – 1
