The Duke Blue Devils are two-point college basketball betting favorites to defeat the Michigan State Spartans, which if they do, would allow head coach Mike Krzyzewski to tie Scheherazade’s record of 1,001 winning nights. Coach K already became the first Division I men’s basketball coach to reach 1,000 wins when Universitas Dukiana beat Utah Valley 99-69 on Saturday. The Champions Classic will pit No. 1 Duke against No. 2 Michigan State.
?: "It’s an amazing thing when you have great moments individually, but when you can share great moments, it’s the best. And I’ve had 1,000 moments to share with all of you. It’s been sensational."
WATCH: https://t.co/IjPASeTgTW (complete 1K ceremony) pic.twitter.com/F0WYi5kLIP
— Duke Basketball (@DukeMBB) November 12, 2017
- Date: Tuesday, 14th November
- Time: 7:00 PM
- Venue: United Center, Chicago, IL
- Online Sportsbook Odds for Fans Who Bet on College Basketball:
Michigan State +2 (-110) 157 (-110) +115
Duke -2 (-110) 157 (-110) -135
Classical Walpurgisnacht
It may not be 30 April or 1 May, but it’ll still be “a hell of a night” as Krzyzewski put it. “They had good old, really good old, and good new,” Coach K said of the Spartans. “And the guy coaching them [Tom Izzo], he’s older, not as old as me, but he’s pretty good.” Krzyzewski is not just older, but one might add, wiser than Izzo, whom he has defeated in 10 of the last 11 meetings between Duke and MSU (the Blue Devils have won their last 11 games against Big Ten teams as well), including last season, when the Devils beat (and covered) the Spartans 78-69, led by Grayson Allen’s game-high 24 points. Allen is averaging 20 points per game and shooting 57.7% but has to content himself with playing second fiddle to freshman sensation Marvin Bagley, who became the first freshman in school history to register a double-double in each of his first two collegiate games, and matched former Blue Devil Jabari Parker’s record for most points by a freshman in the first two games of his career. Duke is 3-1 against the college basketball betting spread in its last four games versus Michigan State.
H to the Izzo
The Spartans head coach told reporters in East Lansing on Monday that his 1-10 record against Coach K is something that bothers him “every day.” Izzo last defeated the Blue Devils in 2005, when MSU eliminated Duke in the NCAA tournament’s Sweet Sixteen. The Lansing State Journal, however, suggests that the Blue Devils only play the Spartans when Tom Izzo is bringing a knife to the gunfight, which is not the case at all this year, providing Izzo with a rare window of opportunity to improve his record against Krzyzewski. Izzo doesn’t buy it, though; “They’re all good excuses,” he said. “It doesn’t sit very well with me. The truth of it is, they’ve beaten us. We have to learn to win big games on big stages.” The Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer will take another crack at the Devils with a starting lineup of mostly sophomores, including preseason national player of the year guard Miles Bridges, who scored 20 points and had 10 rebounds and 3 blocks in Michigan State’s 98-66 win over North Florida on Friday. The college basketball betting total has gone over in seven of MSU’s last eight games against Duke.