Duke vs Oral Roberts Pick – Basketball Predictions & Odds 3/16/23
Oral Roberts Golden Eagles (30-4) vs Duke Blue Devils (26-8)
March 16, 2023 7:10 pm EDT
The Line: Duke -6.5 / Oral Roberts +6.5 ; Over/Under: 145.5
(Get latest betting odds)
The Oral Roberts Golden Eagles and Duke Blue Devils meet Thursday in the college basketball NCAA Tournament First Round at the Amway Center. Let’s preview this game and give out a pick and prediction.
The Oral Roberts Golden Eagles are averaging 84.1 points on 48 percent shooting and allowing 70.4 points on 41.6 percent shooting. Max Abmas is averaging 22.2 points and 4.4 rebounds, while Connor Vanover is averaging 12.9 points and 7.2 rebounds. Issac McBride is the third double-digit scorer and Carlos Jurgens is grabbing 4.1 rebounds. The Oral Roberts Golden Eagles are shooting 37.3 percent from beyond the arc and 76.7 percent from the free throw line. The Oral Roberts Golden Eagles are allowing 35.2 percent shooting from deep and are grabbing 34.2 rebounds per game.
The Duke Blue Devils are averaging 71.8 points on 44.4 percent shooting and allowing 63.8 points on 41 percent shooting. Kyle Filipowski is averaging 15.4 points and 9 rebounds, while Jeremy Roach is averaging 13.3 points and 2.5 rebounds. Mark Mitchell is dishing 1.2 assists and Tyrese Proctor is grabbing 3.1 rebounds. The Duke Blue Devils are shooting 32.9 percent from beyond the arc and 76.8 percent from the free throw line. The Duke Blue Devils are allowing 30.8 percent shooting from deep and are grabbing 36.3 rebounds per game.
The Golden Eagles are 9-2 ATS in their last 11 neutral site games and 2-7 ATS in their last 9 games overall. The Blue Devils are 4-0 ATS in their last 4 neutral site games and 4-0 ATS in their last 4 games overall. The under is 7-1 in Golden Eagles last 8 overall. The over is 8-1 in Blue Devils last 9 Thursday games.
We saw the Oral Roberts Golden Eagles make a nice run in the tournament a couple of years ago, and Abmas is more experienced than he was back then. The problem is there’s time to develop a game plan to force others not named Abmas to beat you, and that’s where Oral Roberts may have issues. Duke is deep, healthy and playing its best ball of the season. Unless others step up for the Golden Eagles, Duke could pull away in the second half. I’ll lay the reasonable chalk with the Blue Devils.
