NCAAB Pick: Wake Forest +8.5 (-110) at BookMaker (visit our Bookmaker Review)
Duke should beat visiting Wake Forest in an ACC college basketball action matchup Tuesday night, but the Blue Devils might be giving too many points in a possible lookahead game.
Which side of the 8.5-point Spread has the best value at the top-rated online books? Read on as we also have a play on the Total.
Let’s review the NCAAB odds on this ACC college basketball clash and keep cashing our NCAAB picks!
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Wake Forest Demon Deacons vs. Duke Blue Devils
Tuesday, January 31, 2023 – 07:00 PM EST at Cameron Indoor Stadium
ESPN has Tuesday’s ACC matchup of unranked schools between Wake Forest and Duke because ESPN televises nearly every Duke game.
Can’t say I expected the Blue Devils to be unranked with the calendar close to turning to February, but things haven’t gone quite according to plan under first-year coach Jon Scheyer.
This concludes the regular-season series between the in-state rivals. On Dec. 20, Duke was ranked 14th in the country and a 6.5-point favorite on current odds when it visited Wake Forest and was spanked 81-70.
It was Wake’s first over a ranked opponent both this season and in the Coach Steve Forbes era (since had a second) and first over Duke since Feb. 25, 2020.
Five Deacons scored in double figures, led by Tyree Appleby's 18 points. He was 13-for-14 from the free-throw line while adding eight assists and four rebounds.
Wake Forest was 22-of-26 from the free throw line overall and outscored Duke by 12 points there. Jaylen Blakes led the Blue Devils with 17 points off the bench. They were without key players Dariq Whitehead and Dereck Lively II due to illness.
Duke leads the all-time series 178-80 and is 80-18 at home. The road team is 4-1 ATS in the past five meetings.
Demon Deacons Skidding
Wake Forest hasn’t reached the NCAA Tournament since 2017 when it lost in the First Four and is not a Big Dance team right now at 14-8 overall and 6-5 in the ACC.
CBS Sports doesn’t list the Deacons anywhere in its Bracketology, while ESPN has them among its Next Four Out with Penn State, Oklahoma, and Florida.
Coach Steve Forbes’ team has two quality wins. That first Duke game and an 87-77 home upset of then-No. 19 Clemson on Jan. 17 that was Wake’s fourth straight victory at the time. It has lost four in a row since and is off a tough 79-77 home defeat to NC State on Saturday.
Difficult Loss to WolfPack, But Wake Has Promise
Down 77-74 with 29 seconds left, Wake Forest's Damari Monsanto and Tyree Appleby missed three-pointers on the same possession and NC State’s Jarkel Joiner made two free throws with 11 seconds to go to clinch it. The Wolfpack hit just 7-for-16 from the foul line overall.
Monsanto led Wake Forest in scoring for the sixth time this season with 22 points. The team’s leading scorer on the season, Appleby (17.7 ppg), had 18 points and seven assists. He leads the ACC in helpers at 6.1 apg.
Appleby is eighth in the ACC with a free throw percentage of 82.6. He has gone 114-for-138 this season. His Appleby’s 138 attempts rank second in the ACC and 22nd nationally.
Almost hard to understand how Wake lost Saturday as it hit 18-for-22 from the charity stripe and tied its season-low in turnovers with six. It marked the fifth consecutive game that the team has had less than 10 turnovers.
In ACC action only, Wake is first among league teams in scoring (78.09 ppg), second in three-point shooting (38.4% and three-pointers made (108 total, 9.82 pg), third in turnover margin (+2.45) and fourth in overall shooting (46.1%).
The problem is that Wake is one of the ACC’s worst defensive teams allowing 73.0 ppg). The Deacons are 7-3 ATS in their past 10 games.
Will Whitehead Play For Duke?
Coach Jon Scheyer landed an incredible freshman class in recruiting and one of the jewels of that group was forward Dariq Whitehead.
He arrived at Duke as 247Sports' No. 2-ranked recruit and part of the recruiting class it ranked No. 1 in the nation.
Super-talented player but has disappointed so far in averaging just 8.4 points on 38.3% shooting and 2.3 rebounds. He sat out Saturday’s 86-43 blowout win at Georgia Tech with a left leg injury and is in doubt here.
Whitehead also missed the first three games of the season with an injury and also the December loss at Wake Forest with a non-COVID illness.
Duke (15-6 overall, 6-4 ACC) has alternated wins and losses over its past five following Saturday’s destruction of a bad Yellow Jackets squad. The 43-point margin of victory was Duke’s largest ever in an ACC road game and just the third 40-point ACC road win in school history.
Big Frosh Leading the Way
Freshman Kyle Filipowski scored a game-high 18 points in just 27 minutes as the Blue Devils shot a season-best 55.7% from the field.
Georgia Tech’s 43 points were a season low and Duke has now held 18 of 21 opponents this season to below their season scoring average, including eight to its season low. Duke held a 43-22 rebounding advantage, including a 13-5 edge on the offensive boards.
Duke is now 14-3 this season when out-rebounding the opponent and 12-3 with an advantage in offensive rebounds.
The Dukies rank fourth nationally in rebound margin (+9.1), ninth in offensive rebounds (13.6), and 13th in rebounds per game (39.7) -- leading the ACC in each. Duke has not finished as the ACC's leader in rebounds since 1998-99.
Filipowski was been named the ACC Rookie of the Week for the third week in a row and the seventh time this season. He is the only freshman nationally averaging better than 15 points (15.8) and nine rebounds (9.4) this season.
He leads all ACC freshmen in points per game in conference play (16.7) and rebounds per game (9.7).
The Pick
CBS Sports has the Blue Devils currently as a No. 7 seed in the NCAA Tournament and ESPN a No. 5.
Look, they are winning this game but it feels like a minor trap with bitter rival North Carolina visiting Durham on Saturday.
Duke is just 1-6 ATS in its past seven games.
There were 151 points scored in the first meeting so we’ll go over the lower Total here.
NCAAB Pick: Over 146.5 (-105) at BetOnline (visit our BetOnline Review)
*The line and/or odds on picks in this article might have moved since the content was commissioned. For updated line movements, visit BMR’s free betting odds product.
