Florida State (14-11) at Duke (22-4)
When: Saturday, February 19th 2022
Where: Cameron Indoor Stadium,
Durham, NC
Time: 6:00 ET | TV: ESPN
Opening Odds: Duke -14/142.5
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Injuries have killed the Florida State Seminoles season, but they do have a chance to sweep one of the nation’s best. The ‘Noles will head to Durham on Saturday to battle the No. 9 Duke Blue Devils at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Florida State was rolling along a month ago, beating Duke on Jan. 18 and Miami, FL four days later. Since then, the wheels have fallen off. The Seminoles lost their next six games and failed to cover the spread in any until an 81-80 home win over Clemson on Tuesday. Three Florida State starters from the win over Duke – Naheem McLeod, Caleb Mills and Anthony Polite – have been out with injuries as well as Malik Osborne. The visit to Duke marks the beginning of three consecutive road games for the Seminoles.
Duke has been rolling since that loss to the Seminoles and will be out for revenge. The Blue Devils have won eight of their last nine games to forge a tie with Notre Dame atop the ACC standings. They are coming off a wild 76-74 win over Wake Forest on Mark Williams’ putback dunk in the final second. Duke associate head coach Jon Scheyer filled in for Mike Krzyzewski in the second half after an illness kept the legendary coach in the locker room after halftime, although he met with the team afterward. Duke is just 1-3 ATS in their last four games overall and are heavy favorites in Saturday’s contest with Florida State. The Seminoles are an impressive 7-1 ATS in the last eight meetings with two outright wins.
Florida State will need to get some quality wins between now and Selection Sunday if they want to be considered for the Big Dance. A season sweep of Duke will definitely help the resume. Florida State forced the Blue Devils to commit a total of 15 turnovers to just five by the Seminoles in the first win. In ACC play this season, Florida State is No. 1 with a 7.9 steals percentage and is third in the league in opponents’ non-steal turnover rate (7.8%). The defense was solid in the win over Clemson on Tuesday, holding the Tigers to 38.6 percent shooting and 6-of-27 from 3-point territory. Rayquan Evans did the heavy lifting offensively with 28 points including 12-of-13 from the foul line. Cam’Ron Fletcher added 17 points and eight rebounds, while Matthew Cleveland chipped in 13 points.
The win over Wake Forest was one of many close games the Blue Devils have played this year including a 69-68 heartbreaking loss to Virginia two weeks ago. Paolo Banchero, who scored 13 points against Wake Forest, will look to come up big again versus Florida State. He had 20 points and 12 rebounds in the first meeting, but also had four turnovers. Mark Williams and Wendell Moore, Jr. led the way against the Demon Deacons with 16 points apiece, while AJ Griffin contributed 12 points. Williams has shot 78.4 percent (62-of-79) from the field in the last 11 games including 6-of-8 against Florida State.
This clearly isn’t the same Florida State team that beat Duke last month. The Blue Devils are out for revenge and first place in the ACC. I’ll lay the points.
Pick: Duke -14
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