Game Preview: Virginia At Duke

Virginia Cavaliers (17) vs. Duke Blue Devils (6): Tonight at 9:00 PM EST on ESPN.

This game will be Duke’s second game of the year against an ACC opponent; same goes for Virginia. Both of them are 1-0 in conference play so far. However, one of them will become 1-1 and the other will become 2-0 in the ACC.

Preview after the jump

Historically, Duke has always seemed to beat the Virginia Cavaliers. Out of the past 17 times the Blue Devils have played the Cavs, the Devils have won 16 of those games, 15 of which had been wins by 10 or more points.

But, I would think that this game wouldn’t be so one-sided. Virginia, who’s ranked #17, has won an incredible 12 straight games. They have great defensive game and discipline, and they could probably beat anybody by just doing well on defense.

A couple games ago, the Temple Owls shut down the Duke offense and beat the Blue Devils. I would think, that because of Virginia’s defense, they could do the same thing to the Dukies. We especially need freshman point guard Austin Rivers to step up tonight if we want to prevent that from happening. He has hit a wall the past couple of games and it would really be sweet of him to get back into a groove.

The game is at Cameron Indoor Stadium, so you would probably expect Duke to win. But even with the Cameron Crazies on our side, it still might be tough and Virginia may be able to shut us down…

I’m a pretty optimistic homer though… so I don’t believe that’ll happen.

The betting line, as of now; according to OddsShark.com, puts Duke at -9.5 and Virginia at +9.5.

Statistics:

• Heading into Thursday’s game, Duke and Virginia have met a total of 162 times.
• Duke is leading the all-time series 114-48.
• The Blue Devils are also 48-8 at Cameron Indoor Stadium when playing the Virginia Cavaliers.
• Mike Krzyzewski is 50-16 at Duke against Virginia. He has led the Dukies to a 24-4 mark at home against Virginia.
• Duke has scored at least 40 points in 13 of the last 14 halves. They rank ninth in the NCAA in scoring offense at 82.1 points per game.
• The Blue Devils have won 14 consecutive home games in the series (all by double-digit point values) and 24 of the last 26 games at Cameron Indoor Stadium against Virginia.

LGBD!