By Charles Jay
In this day and age in college basketball, there are marquee matchups created before the start of the conference seasons for the sake of television. Because of that, we’ve got a little information to go on when it comes to the national championship game between the Duke Blue Devils and the Wisconsin Badgers, which will get underway at 9:20 PM ET at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. Once that jump ball takes place, customers at Vietbet will be able to make wagers on the side, total and props while the game is happening through the facilities of Live Betting Extra.
Duke is 34-4 straight-up on the season. They did not win the ACC title, but they were a #1 seed in their region nonetheless. They are 24-14 against the basketball pointspread. Wisconsin was the Big Ten champion, defeating Michigan State in that conference tournament, and in fact holding the Spartans scoreless in an overtime session to seal away that victory. They are also a #1 seed, and have built their record to 36-3 straight-up, as well as 21-17 ATS. Of course, the Badgers pulled off what some thought was a shocker by ruining Kentucky’s undefeated season on Saturday night by the score of 71-64. Duke was once again dominant over an opponent, holding Michigan State to 40% shooting in a 81-61 runaway victory.
In the college basketball odds that have been established on this championship game at Vietbet, Wisconsin is a very slight favorite:
Wisconsin Badgers -1
Duke Blue Devils +1
Over 139.5 points -110
Under 139.5 points -110
Duke has been to nine national championship games under Coach K, going 4-4 in the previous eight. But they were in this stadium back in 2010 when they beat Butler in what was a thrilling contest. They don’t exactly have anybody around from that period, and in fact they are starting three freshmen on Monday night. The team that has the experience in this one is Wisconsin, with four returning starters from last year’s team, and you can imagine with the precision coaching of Bo Ryan, these guys are very finely meshed. Wisconsin turns the ball over less than any team in the country, and that leads to them topping the national rankings as far as offensive efficiency is concerned. This is a highly disciplined team we are talking about; they block out on the defensive boards, pulling down 76% of their rebounding opportunities (fourth best in the nation), they commit fewer personal fouls than any team in almost two decades, and they are second-best in terms of the ratio of assists to turnovers. Needless to say, if you are going to beat them, you have to play a very fundamentally-sound game.
Duke seems to have the ability to do that; they have really tightened themselves up on the defensive end, as Vietbet customers have observed. This is a team that allowed opponents to shoot 42.2% in the regular season, and the only time that figure has been exceeded in this tournament was by the nation’s top shooting team, Gonzaga, who hit 44% from the field. However, that paled in comparison with their overall percentage of 52.4%. So clearly these Blue Devils have done an outstanding job in foiling their opponent’s offensive scheme.
Wisconsin comes with something called the “swing” offense, which relies on big men being able to work effectively out on the perimeter and the smaller guys being able to post up on opponents and cut to the basket. There are some similarities to the “triangle” approach used by Phil Jackson for many years with the Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers. It requires discipline, and the Badgers execute along those lines. They also have the guy who may be the best player on the floor in Frank Kaminsky, who not only scores inside and can rebound, but also hits 41% of his three-point attempts. Kaminski has recently been named player of the year, just beating out Duke’s talented freshman, Jahlil Okafor.
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