Louisville Cardinals vs. Duke Blue Devils: Prediction, Preview, Picks & Odds - 2/20/2023

Time: 7 p.m. ET

Venue: Cameron Indoor Stadium, Durham, NC

Where to watch: ESPN

DraftKings: Duke -18.5

FanDuel: Duke -18.5

BetMGM: Duke -18.5

Caesars: Duke -18.5

Louisville: 4-23 (2-14 ACC)

Duke: 19-8 (10-6 ACC)

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The Duke Blue Devils are certainly not where they once were. Clearly they’re not the best team like they once were during the Coach K days but they’re going to be competitive and they have a legit chance to win the ACC should everything bounce their way. The Blue Devils will try to secure another 20-win season on Monday when they face the bottom-of-the-standings Louisville Cardinals at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

Duke is coming into this one winners of two straight after losing to two ranked opponents in Miami and Virginia. This is the start of three straight home games to close the regular season, which will wrap up against North Carolina on March 4. But the Blue Devils are playing well at the right time with five wins in the last seven games.

Duke is coming off a 77-55 win over Syracuse that was dominant from start to finish. Jeremy Roach finished with 17 points on 6 od 10 shooting, and Kyle Filipowski had 14 points and 12 rebounds on 5 of 11 shooting.

It was a battle between two teams that are fighting for middle position in the ACC standings, and the Duke win put them right near the cluster at the top. The Blue Devils are still three games back of Virginia and 2.5 games behind Miami (FL) sitting at second place. There’s also Pittsburgh, Clemson and NC State still in the fray for Duke to surpass if they want a reasonable game to start the conference tournament in a few weeks.

As for Louisville, sitting at the bottom of the ACC with one of the worst seasons we’ve ever seen from a program that was at its highest prominence, is coming off a shocking 83-73 win at home against Clemson on Saturday that seemed to be the culmination of playing games that weren’t quite going their way. They had lost by 8 at Miami the week prior, and then followed that up with a 3-point loss to Virginia at home.

The work and persistence absolutely paid off with Louisville shooting 51 percent from the floor. El Ellis led the way with 28 points on 9 of 15 shooting, 3 of 6 from 3-point range, and 7 of 9 from the free-throw line. He had the only misses out of 28 attempts from the team. I’d call that an efficient game all throughout.

Louisville isn’t catching anyone and isn’t going to be a threat in the actual conference standings, but they’re at least playing hard down the stretch. That’s three straight covers with the outright win over Clemson and now you wonder if they’re turning the corner before the end of the season. Again, not as much to say they can upset a team in the conference tournament, but good enough to keep things entertaining.

Louisville should be commended for what it’s been able to do the last few games, but going into Cameron Indoor is another task entirely for this group that hasn’t done well on the road all year long. Duke should handle business fine. Duke 80, Louisville 60

Louisville is 11-16 ATS this season in all games.

Louisville is 5-1 ATS in February.

Duke is 4-12 ATS against conference opponents this season.

Duke is 36-43 ATS as a favorite the last 3 seasons.

PG: El Ellis

SG: Mike James

SF: J.J. Traynor

PF: Kamari Lands

C: Jae'Lyn Withers

PG: Jeremy Roach

SG: Tyrese Proctor

SF: Mark Mitchell Jr.

PF: Kyle Filipowski

C: Dereck Lively II

Points: El Ellis -- 18.0

Rebounds: Jae'Lyn Withers -- 5.3

Assists: El Ellis -- 4.6

Points: Kyle Filipowski -- 15.1

Rebounds: Kyle Filipowski -- 9.2

Assists: Tyrese Proctor -- 3.0