Duke vs. Wake Forest odds, prediction: How to bet and watch online

With the ACC in the midst of a down year, the Duke Blue Devils will look to keep racking up wins as they play host to Wake Forest on Saturday night.

Most of the time in college basketball the ACC is one of the nation’s best conferences. That has not been the case this season, with injuries crushing North Carolina and some uncharacteristically down years from schools like Syracuse, Notre Dame, and Miami keeping the conference as a middle-tier unit.

In the latest edition of Joe Lunardi’s Bracketology for ESPN, the ACC is only projected to place five teams in the field of 68, with one of them (North Carolina State) locked into a First Four game. One of the league’s most successful teams has been Duke, which is off to a 14-1 start this season.

The Blue Devils’ lone defeat came by a bucket in the non-conference season, a rare home defeat to Stephen F. Austin, but Duke has been cruising since then. Four different Duke players scored in double figures in Wednesday’s 73-64 win over Georgia Tech, with Tre Jones leading the way with 16 points, eight rebounds, seven assists and four steals.

The victory helped Duke improve to 4-0 in ACC play, putting them a half-game up on Florida State for first place in the conference. The Blue Devils will look to make it an even 5-0 in the ACC and nine straight victories overall as they return home to Cameron Indoor for a matchup with one of their in-state rivals, Wake Forest.

The Demon Deacons are off to a 1-3 start in league play, but they have had a few high water marks this season, including a two-point win against Xavier, which was ranked at the time of the matchup. The key player for Wake Forest this season has been senior guard Brandon Childress, who leads the team in scoring (16.0 points per game), assists (4.6 dimes a night), and steals (1.3 per game).

This series has been incredibly one-sided of late, with Duke winning 23 of the last 27 meetings between the two schools dating back to the 2004-2005 season. Given the tracks the schools are on this season, it wouldn’t be at all surprising to see Duke pick up its 10th straight win over Wake Forest.

How to watch Wake Forest at Duke

• Date: Saturday, Jan. 11
• Time: 8:00 p.m. ET
• Location: Durham, NC
• Venue: Cameron Indoor Stadium
• TV: ACC Network
• Live Stream: WatchESPN
• Odds: The Action Network
• Prediction: Duke