West Virginia Mountaineers (31-6) vs Duke Blue Devils (33-5)The Final Four Lucas Oil Stadium Indianapolis, INCollege Basketball NCAA Tournament: Saturday April 3, 2010 8:45 PM ESTThe Line: Duke - 3
It's game two of the 2010 Final Four as the Duke Blue Devils face the West Virginia Moutaineers. While Duke was rated the number three seed in the NCAA Tourney, many thought the Blue Devils didn't deserve and weren't worthy of a number one seed in the South. Now that most of the dust has settled, Duke is the only number one seed to make it to the Final Four. The Blue Devils were in an all out dog fight with Baylor as they trailed by three at the half but as a typical Duke team they hung in there. With Kyle Singler in early foul trouble and then never finding his range from three point territory, Nolan Smith stood up and and scored 29 points and Jon Scheyer had 20 going 50 percent from three point land. As a team Duke shot only 36.1 percent but from the free throw line Duke was 79.3 percent and the 11 more points from the charity stripe made the difference in a very competitive game. The Blue Devils had their lapses but in the end never lost confidence and prevailed. For the season Duke shot 44 percent from the field and were 23rd in offensive rebounding averaging 77.4 points per game. Defensively Mike Krzyzewski's team was rock solid allowing the opposition to shoot 40.2 percent from the floor while allowing just 61.1 points per game. Duke played the 10th toughest schedule in the country, were 7-3 against teams ranked in the top 25, and 4-0 in neutral site games. While Coach K is no stranger to the Final Four, it's been a while since he's been there. West Virginia has made their way through the first four rounds of the NCAA Tournament winning the East Region of the bracket. All told the Mountaineers have won 10 games in a row including the Big East Tournament. West Virginia went the entire first half of their game with Kentucky without hitting a two point basket but they kept moving forward hitting enough shots to demoralize the Wildcats and take a two point halftime lead. The Moutaineers frustrated Kentucky and held the Cats to 34.3 percent shooting including just 12.5 percent from beyond the three point line. WVU lost the battle of the boards but took the Cats out of their game to give the Mountaineers and Coach Bob Huggins a convincing win. West Virginia got some good news this week as injured point guard Truck Bryant will be ready to go for at least some action in this game. For the season West Virginia shot 43.1 percent but being 30th in offensive rebounding they were able to convert that into 72.8 points per game. Defensively WVU holds teams to 41.3 percent shooting and 63.1 points per game. West Virginia played the third toughest schedule in the nation as they were 5-0 in neutral site games and 7-4 against teams ranked in the top 25. Duke is 4-0 against the spread in their last four NCAA Tournament games, 4-0 against the spread in their last four games as a favorite but just 1-5-1 against the spread in their last seven games against Big East teams. West Virginia is 7-1 against the spread in their last eight games as a neutral site underdog, 12-2-1 against the spread in their last 15 NCAA Tournament games, and 5-1 against the spread in their last six games against ACC teams. Both of these teams can rebound and both can play defense and this one is going to come down to shooting and shooting from the free throw line. While I like the physical play of WVU, I have to go with Duke in this spot. Mitch's Pick: Duke -3 Check out all of our FREE 2010 Final Four Picks
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