Your 4-time Degenerates Champion (although I'm not doing so hot in the current contest) has taken Duke and the over tonight. I got a good number with Duke -2 but I think I still like the current price of Duke -4.5 because I expect us to win pretty comfortably tonight. I like that we had a "bye week" leading up to this game to integrate Jalen and install new stuff now that he's back, and I have a suspicion that he's going to be a boost to the defense. I've often felt in the past few games that we could use one more great athlete to help with the D, and whatever Jalen's warts are, he's likely our best athlete. I also think we can integrate him sensibly into the offense now that we know that our halfcourt offense should center around hyper-efficient Matthew first and foremost. (With Jalen, I think we should lean into the Ben Simmons comparison and have him focus on great defense, great transition offense while playing more of a distribution role in the halfcourt.)Quote:
Originally Posted by Pghdukie
I also like that we're coming off a loss (and that this game feels like a must-win) and that we got our first taste of a quality ACC opponent against VaTech following several previous games against the bottom of the ACC. We weren't ready for that level of play at the start against VaTech, but then we responded well and went toe to toe with them. I think we'll be ready at the start of this one, and I think we'll benefit for having gotten that experience against the Hokies under our belt.
Finally, I like that in ACC games, Duke has experienced horrible opponent shooting luck and Pitt has experienced great opponent shooting luck. Things don't necessarily have to reverse themselves and "return to the mean" immediately tonight, of course, but generally speaking, we should experience better luck going forward on the opponent shooting front (and Pitt should experience worse luck).
