Posted at 1:30 PM EST. Odds subject to change.

Pinnacle  +7 -102 BET365  +7 -110 Sportsinteraction   +7 -110  888Sport  +7 -110

Cameron Indoor Stadium, Durham, NC

Wake Forest +7 over Duke

Streaming: ESPN

7:00 PM EST. The Demon Deacons of Wake Forest are quietly putting together a nice season, and they are on the bubble for the tournament. On the surface, that might seem like a solid place to be this time of the year, but a deeper dive shows that the Deacs are being disrespected by the pundits and the pollsters. You see, Wake Forest is unranked, but that does not mean they are not a quality outfit, as they do rank 28th in the power rankings, which is a far more accurate reflection of their quality. However, that disrespect has Wake Forest flying under the radar as a dangerous out, and it has Steve Forbes's team playing with a huge chip on its shoulder.

There are many boxes to check here, but the big one is that we hope to catch the Blue Devils in a difficult scheduling spot, as Duke will play its second game in three days after waffling Boston College 80-65 on Saturday. That win was the Blue Devils' second in a row and their fourth in their last six games. Furthermore, Duke is a blue-blood program that is playing in a nationally televised prime-time game, which is going to get a ton of eyes and therefore lots of action.

Not only is Duke, Duke, but the Blue Devils are also ranked #9 in the polls and sport an 18-5 record, with a 9-3 mark in the ACC. It looks like Duke is primed for a deep run into the NCAA Tournament, and perhaps it is, but the Blue Devils have played a relatively weak non-conference schedule that graded as the 214th (of 362) most difficult in the nation. Duke has a handful of weak wins, including those over Dartmouth (341), Bucknell (Bucknell), La Salle (245), Southern Indiana (328), Hofstra (141), and Queens University (non-Division I school). Duke losses have come to ranked competition (North Carolina, Arizona), but they also lost games to non-elite teams like Pittsburgh (63), Georgia Tech (138), and Arkansas (117). The situation and the price present us with great potential to profit in a game that the Deacs are very capable of winning. However, we will gladly scoop up the inflated points and put them in our back pockets.

Sherwood

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