Iowa vs. Duke Prediction and Odds for Tuesday, December 6 (Does Duke Have Enough Offense to Keep Pace?)
By Josh Yourish
The Jimmy V Classic is bringing us another exciting matchup on a Tuesday night. The No. 15 Duke Blue Devils, who are 8-2, will take on the 6-1 Iowa Hawkeyes. Duke got a win in its first ACC contest last week, 75-59, over Boston College, but its 1-1 against Big 10 teams this season with a blow-out loss to No. 5 Purdue. The Hawkeyes might be able to hand Jon Scheyer his third loss as the head coach of the Blue Devils at Madison Square Garden.
Duke is a favorite in the Jimmy V Classic, but Vegas thinks that the unranked Hawkeyes could keep it very close today.
Iowa vs. Duke Odds, Spread and Total
Iowa vs. Duke Prediction and Pick
It’s always the same story with Fran McCaffrey’s Iowa teams. They can score at a high level, but they struggle to get stops. This season, they’re averaging 86.4 points a game, while only shooting 34.4% from three as a team. Typically teams that score at that level do so because of hot shooting, but that’s not the case for Iowa, they earn a lot of possessions and attempt 24.4 free throws a game, which is 21st in the country. I trust their ability to score much more than Duke.
Kyle Filipowski is averaging 15.2 points and 9.3 rebounds. Yet outside of Filipowski and Jeremy Roach, Duke doesn’t have consistent scoring. That is a real worry for the Blue Devils in this game, but I’m not sure who on the Hawkeyes will be able to stop Filipowski inside. He could have 20 easily, but that probably isn’t enough to match Kris Murray.
Murray has really stepped into the void left by his brother Keegan, now in the NBA. Murray is averaging 21.0 points and 10.6 rebounds. Duke will probably have to rely on a freshman like Mark Mitchell to try and stop Murray and that’s a tough spot for a young player.
I’m going to trust offense and trust experience in this game, so give me Iowa on the moneyline.
Pick: Iowa ML +125
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Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change