Yale vs Duke NCAA Basketball Spread, Preview & Pick.

Yale vs Duke NCAA Basketball Spread, Preview & Pick

Written by on December 7, 2018

One of the best chants in any game at Duke is when the Cameron Crazies tell the other players that they were too dumb to get into Duke. Well, that chant won’t work on Saturday as Yale from the Ivy League visits the No. 3 Duke Blue Devils, who will be huge College Basketball Betting favorites at MyBookie Sportsbook.

How to Bet Yale vs Duke NCAA Basketball Spread & Game Info

  • When: Saturday, 5:30 PM ET
  • Where: Cameron Indoor Stadium
  • TV: ESPN
  • Live Stream: WatchESPN
  • Radio: TuneIn
  • NCAA Basketball Spread: TBA

All-Time Series

Duke leads 4-0. The teams last played in the 2016 NCAA Tournament. The Blue Devils prevailed 71-64. Grayson Allen had 29 points, including five 3-pointers. He’s in the NBA now. The West Region’s No. 4 seed, Duke led by as many as 27 points before seeing that dwindle to just three with less than a minute to play.

For this game, the Yale Undergraduate Sports Analytics Group model favors the Blue Devils by 23 points and gives Yale just a 2 percent chance to pull an upset.

Why Bet on Yale?

Obviously, the Bulldogs (4-2) won’t win, but they surely won’t beat themselves. Yale is favored to win the Ivy League and already beat ACC school Miami 77-73 last Saturday. Miye Oni scored a career-high 29 points and grabbed six rebounds, and Paul Atkinson added 17 points and five rebounds as the Bulldogs rallied from a 15-point second-half deficit to stun the Canes. UM led by 10 at the half, but in the second half Yale limited Miami to 30 percent shooting, 24 points and outrebounded the Hurricanes 26-14. The Hurricanes scored only two points over the final seven minutes.

The Bulldogs come off a 97-87 home win over Lehigh on Wednesday. Trey Phills and Oni each scored 20 points to lead six in double figures. Blake Reynolds (12 points, 10 rebounds) added a double-double, while Jordan Bruner (13), Alex Copeland (11) and Azar Swain (10) also were in double figures.

The game featured two of the top three-point shooting teams in the nation, and it lived up to the billing. The teams combined to make 26 treys. In the second half, Yale held Lehigh 34 percent shooting from the field and outscored the Mountain Hawks 46-36. Prior to Wednesday, Yale was one of only three Division I schools in the nation that had yet to play a home game.

On the offensive end, Yale has consistently shown good shot selection thus far and has excelled from beyond the arc. The Elis sport the nation’s sixth-highest effective field goal percentage (eFG%, field goal percentage that counts threes as more valuable). Yale also ranks 16th in the country in three-point percentage.

Why Bet on Duke?

Duke hasn’t lost a non-conference game in Cameron since 1999. It trounced Hartford 84-54 on Wednesday. A lethargic Blue Devil offensive attack allowed the Hawks to linger in the first half, and Duke entered the locker room leading by just nine points in a game the team entered as a 37.5-point favorite. Duke’s 33-point output in the first half marked its lowest total in a period of the season, surpassing its previous low of 39 points against No. 1 Gonzaga in the Maui Invitational championship game. The second half was a different story.

Freshman RJ Barrett had 27 points and a season-best 15 rebounds, Zion Williamson added 18 points and 12 rebounds, and Tre Jones and Javin Delaurier finished with 10 points apiece to help the Blue Devils (8-1) win their third straight. Duke shot 62 percent in the second half to more than make-up for hitting just five 3-pointers — matching a season-low. It is the 15th time in Duke history that multiple freshmen recorded a double-double in the same game (11 times came last season).

Yale vs Duke should be an easy victory for the Blue Devils.

Duke never did find the range from downtown, shooting 5-for-26 on 3s, with Cam Reddish a woeful 1-for-9. But Duke was 30-43 on 2-pointers and outscored Hartford 36-3 in fast-break points.

Duke, which entered the game leading the nation in blocked shots per game, blocked 10 in the game – its fifth game this season with double-digit blocks. Duke extended its streak of at least a three-pointer in a game to 1,030. It is the nation’s third-longest.

The Blue Devils have scored 78+ in every game this season, including 84+ eight of nine times. Duke’s home non-conference winning streak now stands at 144 games – the nation’s longest active streak.

Yale vs Duke NCAA Basketball Betting Trends

  • Yale is 8-3 ATS in its last 11 games
  • Yale is 11-4 SU in its last 15 games
  • The total has gone OVER in 4 of Yale’s last 5 games
  • Duke is 8-1 SU in its last 9 games
  • The total has gone UNDER in 7 of Duke’s last 8 games

Expert NCAA Basketball Prediction for Yale vs Duke

Yale is pretty good – take what will be 20-plus points.