Duke vs Houston Prediction, Preview & Odds: NCAA Tournament Final Four

Duke vs Houston How To Watch

Date: Saturday, April 5
Venue: Alamodome, San Antonio, TX
Time: COMING
TV: CBS
Teams: (1) Houston (34-4), (1) Duke (35-3)
NCAA Tournament Schedule, Predictions, Previews

Why Houston Will Win

Defense, defense, defense.

The Cougars get a week to rest up figure out how to take out the Duke perimeter. It’s a huge Blue Devil team - more on that in a moment - but Job One is to push around Cooper Flagg and keep him from getting a good look. Job Two is to hold up on the inside.

Job Three is to hope the Blue Devils just aren’t hitting their shots.

Few teams move the ball around as well or as effectively as the Blue Devils, but the No. 1 Cougar scoring defense knows how to make offenses uncomfortable. No one is more active, and no one does a better job of challenging absolutely everything.

And again, Houston has an offense. It doesn’t take a ton of threes, but it’s No. 1 in the nation at hitting them. This bunch can run well when needed, lives on attacking the offensive glass, and Duke has to match the energy and intensity for a full 40 minutes. However …

Why Duke Will Win

SIZE.

Houston makes up for its lack of height by incredible quickness, athleticism, and positioning, but the regular deep rotation averages around 6-4. Duke doesn’t play a guy under 6-5.

How did Duke stop Alabama? It’s easy - send your NBA lottery picks to handle the perimeter and guide everyone inside to deal with 7-2 Khaman Maluach, 6-11 Patrick Ngongba, and the rest of the team’s bulk.

The Tide lived off of bulk threes, and they only hit eight of 32 tries. Houston will at least get challenged more than normal from the outside, and it won’t come up with enough rebounds to get the second-change points needed.

Alabama led the nation in offensive boards and got ten - it didn’t matter.

Duke vs Houston: Who Will Win?

Houston has the hard-nosed style to give everyone problems, and it won’t be easy for Duke to go on big runs or get anything easy offensively, but Jon Scheyer’s bunch is too big, too talented, and too deep.

It’ll be more methodical than amazing, but once again, everyone will come for the Duke O, and the Duke D will get this done.

Duke vs Houston Prediction, Betting Lines

Prediction: Duke 74, Houston 66
Duke vs Houston Betting Lines
BetMGM Line: COMING
DraftKings Line: COMING
FanDuel Line: COMING
ATS Confidence out of 5: COMING
Fiu Bluesky | CFN Bluesky | CFN X | CFN FB

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