The 2019-2020 college basketball season begins on Tuesday and it starts with the top four teams playing each other in the State Farm Champions Classic at Madison Square Garden on ESPN. The first game has the No. 3 Kansas Jayhawks taking on the No. 4 Duke Blue Devils at 7:00 p.m. Eastern and is followed by the No. 1 Michigan State Spartans taking on the No. 2 Kentucky Wildcats. Let’s look at the game between Kansas and Duke and college basketball picks.
Don’t miss the action from Madison Square Garden at 7:00 p.m. Eastern on Tuesday, November 5, 2019. Catch every moment of the game live on ESPN.
We’ll have NCAA basketball odds at BookMaker.eu for this and every game on the Tuesday college basketball schedule.
Kansas Player to Watch
There is no question that the player to watch for Kansas will be center Udoka Azubuike. The Jayhawks lost leading scorer Dedric Lawson from last year’s team and they also lost starter Quentin Grimes, but they do have Azubuike and a good backcourt of Devon Dotson and Ochai Agbaji. Azubuike played in just nine games last season and averaged 13.4 points and 6.8 rebounds per contest. Azubuike has been voted as the preseason Big 12 player of the year and he is expected to dominate this season, if he can stay healthy.
Duke Player to Watch
Duke lost a lot of talent in the off-season, but they are still ranked No. 4 in the country heading into this season. They have to replace Zion Williamson, Cam Reddish and RJ Barrett. The good news for Duke is that they have Tre Jones returning. He will be the first Duke point guard to start in two straight seasons since Quin Cook four years ago. Jones is an outstanding defender and he will be counted on to direct the offense this season.
Key Stats
The Jayhawks are 6-2 ATS in their last 8 vs. the ACC. The Blue Devils are 9-4 ATS in their last 13 vs. the Big 12. The Blue Devils are 0-4 ATS in their last 4 neutral site games. The Jayhawks are 5-1 ATS in the last 6 meetings in this series.
Looking at the total, the Over is 13-5-1 in the Jayhawks last 19 non-conference games. The Under is 12-3-1 in the Blue Devils last 16 non-conference games.
Free College Basketball ATS Picks
Kansas and Duke have played some exhibition games to start the season, but none of those games tells us anything. This will be the first true test of the season for each squad and we don’t know much right now. Both teams are working in a lot of new players and neither team has an idea of their true identity, The Jayhawks are supposed to be improved this season, but they have to keep Azubuike healthy and so far in his young career the big center has had trouble staying on the floor. On the other side, Duke has to replace a ton of talent and they could have some trouble on offense early in the season. What we do know about both teams is that they can play defense. Neither team has a superstar scorer, but both teams have defensive stoppers. I think this will be a lower scorer game than most people think. The question is where the oddsmakers will set the total. I suspect we will see a total around 150 and I think that is way too high. I see a game where each team struggles to get to 70 points, so I will take the game under the total.
College Basketball Odds: Duke 71, Kansas 68
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