College Hoops Sports Betting Line – Cavaliers look to get their biggest win of the season

The Virginia Cavaliers look to get their biggest win of the season despite being the rank outsider according to the current sports betting line, as they host the No. 5 Duke Blue Devils on Wednesday night.

#5 Duke (23-2, 10-1 ACC) at Virginia (12-12, 3-7 ACC)

Date/Time: Wednesday, February 16, 2011, 7:00 PM EST

Venue: John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville, VA.

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Broadcast: ESPN2

Money Line: Duke (-1600) Virginia (+900)

Spread: Duke -14 ½

Over/Under: 132 ½

It’s been a tough season for Virginia as they sit in 10th place in the ACC, 6 ½ games behind conference leaders Duke. The Cavs are 9-4 at home, but just 3-7 against conference foes and are 0-2 against teams ranked in the top 25.

They have been inconsistent for the most part, and have lost seven of their last nine and are currently riding a two-game losing skid including a losing sweep through Florida, falling to the Hurricanes in overtime and then to the Seminoles 63-56 seven days later.

The Cavaliers shot 31.7 percent Saturday for their lowest mark in ACC play this season. Things just haven’t been clicking offensively for Virginia as they average just 62.7 points per game and are shooting 42.3 percent, despite being one of the better 3-point shooting teams in the conference. However, they may want to reduce their reliance on the long ball after attempting a season-high 30 against Florida State, draining only 11.

Defensively Virginia is allowing 63.3 points per game as their opponents shoot 44 percent from the field and they are 110th in defensive rebounding.

Something the Blue Devils will look to exploit as they aim to earn their 16th win in 17 tries against the Cavaliers who they have beaten by an average margin of 18 points during a six-game series win streak.

Duke, who is the heavy sports betting line favorite in this one at -14 ½ points, has dominated Virginia including when the two teams met Jan. 15 in Durham, but it took a huge second half from the Blue Devils to pull away for a 76-60 win. Nolan Smith scored a game-high 29 points in that game, and continues to excel as the ACC’s leading scorer at 21.4 points per game, 23.3 per conference game.

The Blue Devils are a pale number one seed for the NCAA Tournament but they will need to finish the season strong to secure that spot, and losing to Virginia would not look good on their NCAA resume.

Virginia is 10-2 against the sports betting line in their last 12 ACC games, and 8-2 in their last 10 games overall, while Duke is 4-1 against the spread in their last five road games, including covering in four of their last five trips to Virginia.

Duke is clearly the far better team here, averaging 84.3 points per game while yielding just 65.

However, this is also simply way too many points to be laying on the road at this point in the season in a conference game.

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