Michigan State Spartans at Duke Blue Devils Betting Preview

It's nights like this that make college basketball special and different from its cousin sport, college football. Rarely do two teams with championship aspirations from different conferences meet in the football regular season. The penalty for losing is too great and can end any and all dreams of winning a national title.

In college basketball, it happens regularly, as teams look to build a resume for the committee that ultimately decides if they are worthy of a top seed come March.

Tuesday night is one such night.

Betting Odds

It is the Michigan State Spartans that already have a notable win, beating Notre Dame 80-70 last weekend. In the Dunkel Index, which has been around longer than the NCAA Tournament, Michigan State is ranked higher - third overall (74.920) vs. 10th overall for Duke (72.651).

Yet the oddsmakers have installed Duke as the 4.5 favorites in Tuesday night's Champions Classic clash in Durham, NC.

Michigan State Spartans

The season is still very young - Michigan State has played just two games - but the Spartans are already in midseason form. Head coach Tom Izzo pointed out that in the win over Notre Dame, his team recorded 26 assists on 30 baskets, which tells him that everyone on the court is running the offense with understanding and efficiency.

This isn't too surprising when you consider the experience the Spartans boast. They return four players that started at least 16 games last season, and joining that mix is 6-9 transfer Joey Hauser. Hauser had to sit out last season, but as a freshman in 2018-19 at Marquette, he started 31 of 34 games.

Duke Blue Devils

Duke is on the opposite side of the coin, losing most of its weaponry from last year's 25-win team. Tre Jones, Vernon Carey, and Cassius Stanley were all selected in last month's NBA Draft. 
Before anyone weeps for Coach Mike Krzyzewski and the Duke faithful, they did land the third-ranked recruiting class this year with four five-star recruits. So talent-wise, this team is as loaded as it always seems to be.

It is, however, raw talent, as evidenced by the 22 turnovers Duke committed in its lone win of the new season, 81-71 over Coppin State. This team simply needs more game time together, which made the canceling of a game against Gardner-Webb because of COVID-19 unfortunate for the Blue Devils' growth.

The Pick

This game is in Durham, and in any other year, that might be enough to justify the 4.5-point spread in favor of Duke. But with no Cameron Crazies allowed in the stands, the normal Duke home-court advantage is severely muted.

The Dunkel Index has this right. At this point in the season, Michigan State is the better team. That may change by March, but right now, the experience of the Spartans is too much to think that they will lose this game by five or more points.

Take Michigan State and the points.