Duke vs Louisville Prediction 1/26/26 College Basketball Picks Today

The Louisville Cardinals and the Duke Blue Devils meet Monday in college basketball action from Cameron Indoor Stadium in Durham. Here’s a Duke vs Louisville prediction. We will look at this from a betting perspective and determine the best Duke vs Louisville pick.

Louisville Cardinals Betting Preview

The Cardinals jumped out to a very nice start this year, winning each of their first seven outings. Louisville took their first loss of the season versus Arkansas on December 3, then hit a 4-1 run from there that featured only a loss at Tennessee on December 16. After that came a 2-3 stretch featuring losses to Stanford, Duke and Virginia (with wins over Boston College and Pittsburgh). Over the first 18 games of the season, that would give Louisville a 13-5 overall record.

In the Virginia Tech matchup on Saturday, the Cardinals were looking up at a 37-22 lead on the scoreboard by the end of the first half. Louisville finished off with 48 more points from there and eventually took the win 85-71 at home. Leading the way was Mikel Brown with 20 points, six assists and three rebounds. Ryan Conwell had 15 points and Sananda Fru doubled up on 13 points with 10 rebounds and two assists in the winning effort.

Duke Blue Devils Betting Preview

Over on the Duke side, they opened up the year with a great start as well, taking wins over the likes of Texas, Kansas, Arkansas, Florida and Michigan State during an 11-0 run to kick things off. The Blue Devils would take their first loss to Texas Tech on December 20, then beat Georgia Tech, Florida State, Louisville, SMU, California and Stanford over the next half-dozen. In the first 18 games of the year, the Blue Devils put a 17-1 record in the books.

Matched up against Wake Forest over the weekend, Duke jumped out to a 42-31 lead by the end of the first half. The Blue Devils kept it going from there, hitting a 48-38 run the rest of the way toward a 90-69 victory at home. Tops in scoring during the winning effort was Cameron Boozer with 32 points, nine rebounds and four assists. Patrick Ngongba added 13 points with seven rebounds and two assists in 15 minutes of work as well.

Louisville Cardinals @ Duke Blue Devils Betting Trends: January 26, 2026

Why the Duke Blue Devils will win

• Duke has won each of its last 26 games at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
• Louisville has lost 16 of its last 18 night games against AP-ranked opponents.
• Duke has won the first half in each of its last 11 games as a top-5 AP-ranked team at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

Why the Louisville Cardinals will win

• Louisville has won 15 of its last 18 night games against Conference opponents.
• Duke has lost three of its last four games as a top-5 AP-ranked team against an AP-ranked team at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
• Louisville has won the first half in 17 of its last 19 night games against Conference opponents.

Duke vs Louisville Prediction

I’ll lean toward Duke, but you could probably call it either way. The Blue Devils took care of a decent Wake Forest team without too much difficulty on Saturday, hitting a nice 50 percent from the field and 87.5 percent (21-of-24) from the line alongside a dominant 42-16 rebounding edge. Duke also had a 48-16 advantage on points in the paint and just eight turnovers. That makes seven straight wins for the Blue Devils and they’ve scored 80 or more points in six of them (71 in the other).

These teams have already seen each other once this year, in an 84-73 road victory for the Blue Devils on January 6. In that one Duke shot a cool 50.9 percent from the field with a 40-26 edge on points in the paint and a reasonable 30.4 percent (7-of-23) from outside. The Blue Devils could have been better at the line however (19-of-28 for 67.9 percent) and had a 37-36 rebounding deficit with 12 turnovers. Still, it was a nice 11-point victory on the road against a tough team. Louisville won’t go away easily in the rematch; this should be a pretty good game to watch.