The college basketball season is officially underway, and we saw some great games on Monday night. Tuesday’s slate features a matchup between the Texas Longhorns and the Duke Blue Devils, being played in Charlotte, NC.
Here’s a college basketball pick for Tuesday’s game between Texas and Duke.
Texas vs. Duke (8:45 p.m. ET)
Duke enters the season with a lot of hype, specifically around the Boozer twins — the sons of former Blue Devil, Carlos Boozer. Cameron Boozer is one of the top prospects in the country, and has been impressive in Duke’s exhibition games. The Boozers will play alongside an insane freshman class that also feature top prospects in Dame Sarr, Nikolas Khamenia and Sebastian Wilkins.
While the youthful talent of the Blue Devils is undeniable, there’s also a clear void of returning talent. Maliq Brown, Caleb Foster and Isaiah Evans all have experience under their belts, but as role players. Without any clear-cut veteran stars, can the freshman class bring the star power that Duke will need? Throughout the course of the season I’m sure they can, but laying double digits to a team like Texas right out of the gate seems aggressive.
At DraftKings Sportsbook the Blue Devils opened up a 7.5-point favorite, and have been bet all the way up to 10.5-point favorites as of Tuesday afternoon. It reminds me a bit of BYU getting bet up from 7.5 to 9.5 on Monday against Villanova — a move that I agreed with. However, while BYU built a double-digit lead, Villanova also took a late lead and wound up losing by only five points.
I feel the gap between BYU and Villanova is even more than the gap between Duke and Texas, so I’m surprised to see this game move through 10 points. I don’t love Texas’ roster, but it clearly has more pieces than Villanova does. The Horns have a pair of 7-footers to go with veteran guard play — Jordan Pope, Simeon Wilcher and Chendall Weaver are all scrappy veteran wings. Then there’s Tramon Mark, who should be the engine that makes this team go. Mark is entering his sixth season of college hoops, with plenty of experience at Houston, Arkansas and familiarity with the Longhorns from his time in Austin last season.
While it’s scary to fade of of Duke’s talent, this is a roster that relies heavily on the success of freshman in their college basketball debut. While it’ll be a Duke-heavy crowd, Texas doesn’t have to deal with going to Cameron Indoor Stadium, which is also a plus — this is technically a neutral site in Charlotte. Give me the Longhorns to at least make a game of this.
