Duke Blue Devils vs Louisville Cardinals Prediction, 12/8/2024 College Basketball Picks, Best Bets & Odds

Game: Duke Blue Devils vs Louisville Cardinals

Date: Sunday, December 8, 2024

Location: KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, KY

TV: ESPN+

The Duke Blue Devils (6-2) are hitting the road to KFC Yum! Center on Sunday where they will compete against the Louisville Cardinals (5-3).

The Duke Blue Devils took the court against Auburn and went home with a win by a final score of 84-78 in their last game. When talking about fouls, the Blue Devils ended up finishing with 14 while Auburn finished the game with 20 fouls. They knocked down 10 of 25 attempts from distance. Auburn finished 83.3% from the charity stripe by converting 10 of 12 attempts. Furthermore, Auburn snagged 34 rebounds (12 offensive, 22 defensive), but didn't notch a rejection. Auburn dished out 17 dimes and had 4 steals in this contest. Pertaining to defense, Duke allowed their opponent to shoot 45.3% from the floor on 29 out of 64 shooting. They also doled out 11 assists in this contest while creating 8 turnovers and earning 7 steals. In regard to rebounding, they earned 34 with 12 of them being on the offensive end. From the free throw line, the Blue Devils knocked down 17 of their 27 attempts for a rate of 63.0%. Duke finished with a 50.0% FG percentage (29 out of 58) and knocked down 9 out of their 22 3-pointers.

Cooper Flagg is a guy who was a major factor in this game. He finished the game shooting 38.9% from the floor and dished out 4 assists. He played for 38 minutes played and also snagged 11 boards. He accumulated 22 points on 7 of 18 shooting.

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Duke will enter this game with a win-loss record of 6-2 on the season. They average 81.1 points per game (76th in D-1) while hitting 46.7% from the field. The Blue Devils are shooting 36.6% on shots from beyond the arc (87 of 238) and 71.3% from the free throw line. As a team, Duke is collecting 40.4 rebounds per game and has 133 dimes so far this year, which ranks 120th in college hoops in terms of passing the rock. They turn the ball over 10.6 times per contest and as a group they commit 16.6 fouls per game.

On the defensive end, the Blue Devils have forced 14.0 turnovers on a nightly basis and they draw 16.3 personal fouls. They are ranked 132nd in college basketball in allowing assists to their opponents with 102 conceded for the season. The Blue Devils are giving up an opponent shooting percentage of 36.6% (169 of 462) and they surrender 33.5 boards per contest as a team. They are conceding 29.2% on shots from distance and they are 16th in the country in points per game allowed (61.0).

For their last game, the Louisville Cardinals took a loss by a score of 86-63 against Ole Miss. The Cardinals collected 21 defensive rebounds and 15 offensive rebounds for a total of 36 in this matchup. They also coughed up the ball 12 times, while earning 2 steals in this contest. Ole Miss earned 21 fouls in this contest which got the Cardinals to the charity stripe for a total of 30 attempts. They were able to bury 20 of those for a clip of 66.7%. When discussing shots from distance, Louisville buried 5 of 30 attempts (16.7%). When the final whistle blew, the Cardinals walked away from this one shooting 19 for 57 from the field which gave them a percentage of 33.3%. The Cardinals allowed Ole Miss to bury 34 out of 60 tries from the field which gave them a rate of 56.7% in this matchup. They shot 40.0% from behind the 3-point line by going 8 of 20 and ended up going 10 out of 13 from the free throw line (76.9%). When talking about how they cleaned up the glass, Louisville permitted Ole Miss to pull down 29 in total (4 offensive).

Chucky Hepburn ended up being important for the Cardinals in the matchup. He racked up 19 points in his 36 mins of playing time and accounted for 4 dimes for the matchup. He converted 5 out of 10 for the game for a field goal rate of 50.0%, and totaled 2 rebounds.

Louisville has a win-loss mark of 5-3 for the year. As an offense, the Cardinals are shooting 43.4% from the field, which ranks 252nd in the nation. Louisville has scored 619 pts for the season (77.4 per game) and they average 39.3 boards per game. They are assisting teammates 14.0 times per contest (195th in college hoops) and they cough up possession 13.1 times per contest. The Cardinals are committing 17.3 fouls every game and they go 70.1% from the free throw line.

The Cardinals are ranked 90th in college basketball in PPG given up with 67.1. They are forcing their opponents into 16.6 TO's per game and have allowed teams to shoot 41.9% from the floor (147th in college basketball). The Louisville defense gives up 33.9% on three-point shots (60 of 177) and their opponents are converting on 67.4% of their shots from the charity stripe. They give up 11.3 dimes and 34.6 boards every game, which ranks them 74th and 181st in college hoops.

Who will win tonight's NCAA basketball game against the spread?

Josh Schonwald's Pick: Take Louisville

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