Can Duke win it all without Zion Williamson?

Zion Williamson is day-to-day with a Grade 1 knee sprain, but if he elects to sit out and prepare for the NBA, can Duke win it all without him?

Duke was shell-shocked after losing Zion Williamson less than a minute into the game vs. North Carolina and lost by 16 without the National Player of the Year front-runner. Williamson is day-to-day with a knee sprain, but if he decided to sit out and prep for the NBA Draft, could Duke cut down the nets without him?

According to the odds at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Duke’s odds to win the national title this year went from +200 to +250, dropping slightly. That being said, the slight change turned out to not make much of a difference, as the difference quickly went back up at Caesar’s Palace, jumping back to +200 shortly after.

For most gamblers, there isn’t much hesitation in the thought that Duke could still win the national title. Headlined by star freshmen like R.J. Barrett and Cam Reddish, along with a solid group of role-playing sophomores and juniors, and one of history’s greatest coaches in Mike Krzyzewski, Duke remains far and away the favorite to win the national title, coming in well ahead of Gonzaga’s +500 odds for this season.

Even though the odds may seem pretty good in Duke’s favor, we’ve seen stranger things happen, and the Blue Devils’ looked a shadow of their former selves without Williamson on the court. It will be interesting to see them regroup headed into this weekend, where they’ll start a road trip on the road against Syracuse.

Can the Duke Blue Devils still claim yet another national title at the end of this season? The oddsmakers sure seem to think so, and it looks like they’ll retain the highest odds to lift the trophy in Minneapolis at the end of the season, barring a catastrophic breakdown.