Wake Forest vs Duke Odds, Lines, and Spread

• The Wake Forest Demon Deacons (3-2) take on the 21st ranked Duke Blue Devils (4-2) at the Cameron Indoor Stadium at noon ET on January 9th
• The Demon Deacons are coming off of a loss while the Blue Devils have won two straight
• See the odds, spread, analysis, and best bet, below

Wake Forest will look to get their season back on track when they visit the Duke on Saturday afternoon. The Demon Deacons have lost their last two games most recently a 70-61 setback at Virginia. On the other side, Duke held off Boston College 83-82 Wednesday for their second straight win.

Wake Forest has covered two of the last three times these two schools have played including a thrilling 113-101 overtime win last season. The current odds show Duke as a 7 point favorite in this matchup.

Wake Forest vs Duke Odds

Odds as of January 8th at FanDuel.

Wake Forest Is Not a Pushover

The Demon Deacons are not a bad team despite their recent results against conference opponents. Their season has been severely disrupted by Covid-19 as they only played three games in all of November and December. Still, they rank 124 out of 343 teams according to KenPom and led a very good Virginia team after the first half of their last game before taking the loss.

HOOS WIN! Virginia tops Wake Forest 70-61.

🔶⚔️🔷 #GoHoos pic.twitter.com/aNZBCODEJ2

— Virginia Men's Basketball (@UVAMensHoops) January 7, 2021

Defense has been an issue for Wake Forest so far this season and that was their downfall against Virginia. The Demon Deacons are allowing opponents to shoot 45.2% which is not a great way to win basketball games. The Cavaliers shot 54% in their win which is their second highest output of the season. All five starters scored in double figures for Virginia.

Duke Is Still Finding Their Way

A month ago the Blue Devils looked dead in the water after after getting beaten by Michigan State and then getting their doors blown off by Illinois a week later. They have only played two games since the Illinois loss due to Covid issues but both were wins. More important, both were conference wins against quality opponents. Their most recent being an 83-82 win over Boston College.

Lookin like Duke Basketball this half so far

📺ACC Network
📲 https://t.co/8sXRTM2KkO pic.twitter.com/O69cypYRri

— Duke Men’s Basketball (@DukeMBB) January 7, 2021

Duke didn’t have Mike Krzyzewski on the sidelines due to COVID-19 protocols but assistant head coach and Duke alumni, Jon Scheyer, filled in admirably. One area of concern was the Blue Devils’ defense which has otherwise been decent all season. The Golden Eagles shot the lights out and nearly came away with a straight up win as double digit underdogs. Boston College connected on 56% of their attempts from the field including 56% from three-point land.

Best Betting Angle

Coach K should be back for the game on Saturday which is good news for the Blue Devils. Even so, it’s tough to lay the 12.5 points on a Duke team that has not looked very Duke-like this season. The market seems to agree since the Blue Devils opened as 13.5 point favorites only to get bet down to 12.5 immediately.

One area that seems to be a decent attack surface for this game is the total. Both of these two teams are right around 70 possessions per game, which is a moderately fast pace. Wake Forest just played the slowest team in the country in Virginia so their numbers are are skewed a bit as well.

A fast pace alone won’t get this game over the total. Only points can do that and there is reason to believe there will be some. So far this season, only 14 teams have a better effective field goal percentage than Wake Forest. They can score the ball and Duke has not shown themselves to be elite defensively so it’s not crazy to think this game will go over the low total.

Pick: Over 142.5 (-115)