{"id":3930,"date":"2009-03-20T10:07:00","date_gmt":"2009-03-20T15:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/2009\/03\/duke-texas-march-madness-betting-preview\/"},"modified":"2009-03-20T10:07:00","modified_gmt":"2009-03-20T15:07:00","slug":"duke-texas-march-madness-betting-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/2009\/03\/duke-texas-march-madness-betting-preview\/","title":{"rendered":"Duke-Texas March Madness Betting Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=Section1>\n<p class=MsoBodyText><font size=3 face=\"Times New Roman\"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><a href=\"http:\/\/www.betonline.com\/\" title=\"March Madness betting\">March Madness betting<\/a> has so much parity this year that the blowouts may stop completely after round one. When East Region No. 2-seeded Duke takes on No. 7 Texas on Saturday, online betting fans should expect a very close contest. The starting lineup edge in the Duke <span class=SpellE>vs<\/span> <\/span><\/font><st1:State><st1:place>Texas<\/st1:place><\/st1:State> odds probably goes to Duke, which has been buoyed by strong guard play the last couple of months. <\/p>\n<p class=MsoBodyText><font size=3 face=\"Times New Roman\"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Jon <span class=SpellE>Scheyer<\/span> has been a total revelation since moving into the starting lineup in February and averaged 19.5 points per game over the Blue Devils&#8217; last six regular season contests; he joins swingman Gerald Henderson as a real difference-maker in the lineup and led Duke with 15 points in its opening-round rout of <span class=SpellE>Binghampton<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p> While Duke likely has the edge in scoring and shooting ability entering this sportsbook clash, <\/span><\/font><st1:State><st1:place>Texas<\/st1:place><\/st1:State> is probably the deeper, tougher squad, getting by with strong rebounding, overall athleticism and defense. Though the Longhorns aren&#8217;t considered strong offensive threats in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.betonline.com\/\" title=\"March Madness betting\" id=r5o6>March Madness betting<\/a>, they flashed some firepower against <st1:State><st1:place>Minnesota<\/st1:place><\/st1:State> in their 76-62 first-round win. <span class=SpellE>A.J<\/span>. Abrams was a force, dropping 26 points, and can be deadly when his shot is working. <\/p>\n<p class=MsoBodyText><font size=3 face=\"Times New Roman\"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Overall, though, Duke is a major step up from <\/span><\/font><st1:State><st1:place>Minnesota<\/st1:place><\/st1:State>. The Blue Devils are the better-coached team and have faced much tougher competition this season, so they should be better prepared. <st1:State><st1:place>Texas<\/st1:place><\/st1:State> relied on 11-of-20 three-point shooting to topple <st1:State><st1:place>Minnesota<\/st1:place><\/st1:State> and is unlikely to stay that hot against Duke. <span class=GramE>Bet on the Blue Devils to outclass <\/span><st1:State><st1:place><span class=GramE>Texas<\/span><\/st1:place><\/st1:State><span class=GramE> in this <a href=\"http:\/\/www.betonline.com\/\" title=\"March Madness betting\" id=hzve>March Madness betting<\/a> matchup.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=MsoBodyText><font size=3 face=\"Times New Roman\"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>For all the winners, it&#8217;s <b style='mso-bidi-font-weight: normal'><font color=blue><span style='color:blue;font-weight:bold;mso-bidi-font-weight: normal'><a href=\"http:\/\/www.offshoreinsiders.com\/\">OffshoreInsiders.com<\/a><\/span><\/font><\/b><span style='mso-spacerun:yes'>\u00a0 <\/span><span style='mso-spacerun:yes'>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"blogger-post-footer\"><a\nhref=\"http:\/\/www.offshoreinsiders.com\/\"><b style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'>OffshoreInsiders.com<\/b><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>March Madness betting has so much parity this year that the blowouts may stop completely after round one. When East Region No. 2-seeded Duke takes on No. 7 Texas on Saturday, online betting fans should expect a very close contest. The starting lineup edge in the Duke vs Texas odds probably goes to Duke, which &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/2009\/03\/duke-texas-march-madness-betting-preview\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Duke-Texas March Madness Betting Preview<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3930"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3930\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}