{"id":13609,"date":"2011-02-23T16:39:11","date_gmt":"2011-02-23T21:39:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=13609"},"modified":"2011-02-23T16:39:11","modified_gmt":"2011-02-23T21:39:11","slug":"ranked-team-battle-24-temple-owls-at-1-duke-blue-devils","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/ranked-team-battle-24-temple-owls-at-1-duke-blue-devils-13609\/","title":{"rendered":"Ranked Team Battle: #24 Temple Owls at #1 Duke Blue Devils"},"content":{"rendered":"

#24 Temple Owls at #1 Duke Blue Devils
\nFeb 23, 2011 at 7 PM EST,
\nCameron Indoor Stadium, Durham, NC
\nOpening Line:\u00a0 Duke -14
\nCurrent Line:\u00a0 Duke -13.5
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 138
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 139
\nOpening Moneyline:\u00a0 Duke -1200 \/ Temple +600
\nCurrent Moneyline:\u00a0 Duke -1500 \/ Temple +900<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"
Is Nolan Smith more Grant Hill or is he more Chris Duhon?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Tonight represents a big challenge to Duke, one that Duke guard Nolan Smith accepts.\u00a0 “We always use (games like this) to simulate the (NCAA) tournament, playing a team that’s going to be a high seed,” Smith said. “They’re a Top 25 team, and it’s going to help us stay focused. … It’s going to be a big-time game.”<\/p>\n

Duke has only lost two games all season; one to FSU and the other to St. John’s.\u00a0 They disposed of #4 Kansas by 14 points, and have beaten every ranked opponents they’ve played.\u00a0 One remarkable fact is that the Blue Devils havent’t lost to a non-conference team since a loss to Saint John’s on February 26, 2000.<\/p>\n

“They haven’t lost a non-conference game there in forever,” Temple Owls senior Lavoy Allen said. “It’s gonna be a great opportunity for us. It’s a tough place to play.”<\/p>\n

Some betting trends:<\/p>\n

Temple is 18-6 SU in their last 24 games on the road and 0-5 SU in their last 5 games on the road against the Blue Devils.<\/p>\n

Duke is 5-0 SU in their last 5 games and the total has gone UNDER in 5 of Duke’s last 6 games.\u00a0 Duke is 2-4 ATS in their last 6 at home and they are 5-0 SU in their last 5 at home.\u00a0 The total has gone UNDER in 4 of their last 6 home games and Duke is 5-0 SU in their last 5 games against Temple.\u00a0 Duke is also 5-0 SU in their last 5 home games against the Owls.<\/p>\n

Temple is led by 6’4″ junior guard Ramone Moore.\u00a0 Moore averages 15.4 points per game, 4.3 rebounds per game, and 3.2 assists per game.\u00a0 He’s more than doubled his scoring average from his second season at Temple and will likely return for a senior year.\u00a0 Moore is shooting 43.8% from the field and 39.5% from three and has scored in double figures in all but three Temple games, 2 of which Temple lost, which accounts\u00a0 for half their total losses.\u00a0 Moore has scored 20 or more in 3 of his last 5 games and he has launched double digit field goal attempts in all 4 of his last 4 games.\u00a0 If he continues to get up a lot of shots, as he has, he surely will score more than 20 tonight which will give Temple a decent shot at winning this game.<\/p>\n

Duke ranks near the top of every major statistical category.\u00a0 Their 83.0 points per game rank 7th in the nation, their 38.3 rebounds – 34th, 15.2 assists – 40th, and 47.5% FG – 24th.\u00a0 And Duke has been blowing out their opponents badly.\u00a0 Their point differential is +19.\u00a0 To score 83 a game while only giving up 64 shows a lot of outright dominance.\u00a0 Nolan Smith, Kyrie Irving, and Kyle Singler all combine to score 55.9 points per game (67% of Duke’s scoring).\u00a0 Smith puts up 21.7 points per game, along with 5.3 assists per game.\u00a0 He shoots 37% from three (46 of 122) and 48.2% from the field.\u00a0 This is his senior year at Duke, and where he goes in the draft is anybody’s guess.\u00a0 A lot of times players that play four years are penalized in the draft as not having any upside or being that much closer to being out of their prime.\u00a0 Look at what happened with Sam Young.\u00a0 He was 25 when drafted and it caused a first round talent to go in the middle of the second round.\u00a0 Nolan Smith could go anywhere.<\/p>\n

Duke’s dominance at home should be enough to shine through in this game and produce a win.\u00a0 They are near impossible to beat at Cameron Indoor Stadium and have one of the most raucous student bodies in the nation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

#24 Temple Owls at #1 Duke Blue Devils Feb 23, 2011 at 7 PM EST, Cameron Indoor Stadium, Durham, NC Opening Line:\u00a0 Duke -14 Current Line:\u00a0 Duke -13.5 Opening Total:\u00a0 138 Current Total:\u00a0 139 Opening Moneyline:\u00a0 Duke -1200 \/ Temple +600 Current Moneyline:\u00a0 Duke -1500 \/ Temple +900 Tonight represents a big challenge to Duke, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40250,"featured_media":9806,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1444],"tags":[652,1205,3000],"class_list":["post-13609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college-basketball","category-headlines","tag-duke","tag-nolan-smith","tag-temple"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40250"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13609"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13609\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13611,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13609\/revisions\/13611"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}