Mount St. Mary’s vs. Duke March Madness Preview and Prediction
In the No. 16 vs. No. 1 matchup in the NCAA Tournament East Region, the Mount St. Mary’s Mountaineers face the Duke Blue Devils in first-round action.
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How to Watch Mount St. Mary’s vs. Duke
When: 2:50 p.m. ET on Friday, March 21st
Where: Lenovo Center in Raleigh, North Carolina
Watch: CBS
Odds for Mount St. Mary’s vs. Duke
(odds current at time of publish)
Spread: Duke -31.5, Mount St. Mary’s +31.5
Total: Over 142.5 (-110), Under 142.5 (-110)
DraftKings Betting Splits | Live College Basketball Odds | Mount St. Mary’s vs. Duke Matchup Page
Mount St. Mary’s vs. Duke Preview & Prediction
The magical run for Mount St. Mary’s has gone from Atlantic City to Dayton and now Raleigh, as the Mountaineers take on Duke in what is sure to be very hostile territory. The Blue Devils basically have a home-court advantage during the regional, as Durham is about an hour down the road. But, hey, the No. 2 overall seed probably deserves some sort of preferential treatment, right?
Not only does Duke get the advantage of being close to home, but they draw a Mount St. Mary’s team that is certainly limited due to injury. You wouldn’t know it based on their three wins in three days in the MAAC Tournament and their 83-point outburst against American at UD Arena, but this is the type of game where the absences of Carmelo Pacheco and Terrell Ard Jr. are going to have a little more impact. Pacheco is nearly a 47% 3-point shooter and Ard averaged 10.9 PPG and 7.2 RPG.
It isn’t that those guys would have given the heavy underdogs a chance to pull the stunning upset. After all, Duke opened a 31.5-point favorite before the Mountaineers were all back in the locker room celebrating their win. But, they certainly could have helped the cause in terms of trying to cover what is the biggest spread we’ve seen in the NCAA Tournament to this point.
Reports are that Duke is targeting a Friday return for Wooden Award candidate Cooper Flagg, not that they need him against The Mount. After all, Duke won the ACC Tournament mostly without Flagg, who rolled his ankle in the team’s first game against Georgia Tech. We’ll see how quickly Jon Scheyer calls off the dogs with a big lead, especially with Flagg’s injury in the back of his mind, assuming that Duke is able to start fast and give the MAAC champions little reason to feel like an upset is possible.
While it is true that Donny Lind has done an incredible job pushing the Mountaineers this far, this will be their fifth very big, very emotional game in eight days and you can’t help but wonder if the gas tank creeps towards ‘E’ with a major step up in class as an elite team and a legitimate championship contender is now on the other sideline.
Estimated Score: Coming soon.
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