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Florida State vs. Duke
3/3/09
The college basketball regular season is two Games away from its end for Coach K and his troubled Duke Blue Devils. With only the number 24th ranked Florida State Seminoles and the number two ranked arch rival North Carolina Tar Heels left standing in their way.
Although pending the outcome of the final two Games of the regular season and the NCAA Tournament, this season for Duke has been a disappointment. You know the level of expectation for success is extremely high when you could possibly finish the season in the top five teams in the country and first or second in your Conference and still have your season considered a failure.
At the beginning of the year the Blue Devils looked tough and motivated to make something happen in the ACC and their ranking in the country. At one point they were the number one team, but that obviously didnt last very long.
Not only is Duke not going to win the ACC Conference this season, in my opinion, but people are already starting to count them out of the National Championship title race by putting North Carolina ahead of them. The Blue Devils are a great team, but they have definitely lost their intimidation factor this season.
Closing out the season will not be an easy task for the Blue Devils as they will face two tough ACC opponents in their final two Games. The bigger Game will definitely be against the Tar Heels, but they will have to get through the Seminoles first.
In their last meeting back on January 10th the Seminoles werent really that much of a challenge for Coach Ks Blue Devils as Duke cruised to a 66-58 victory over Florida State. since then the Seminoles have won nine of their last 13 Games including two huge wins over Clemson who just destroyed Duke back in early February.
The Blue Devils will be favored to win this match up and that they should be, but with the way the Seminoles handled the Clemson Tigers twice this season there could be a pretty big upset here which could increase Florida States chances of moving up the standings in the ACC Conference before it is all said and done.
Coach K will definitely have his Blue Devils ready for battle in the last two ACC showdowns against the Tar Heels and Seminoles, but where or not Duke can come up with these two wins remains to be seen.
One thing college basketball is famous for is the remarkable upsets and this just might be one of them. Although the Seminoles pretty much have no chance at the ACC title they will be playing for their NCAA Tournament lives and getting a win over Duke could potentially be huge for them.
I would give the chance of upset at about 60% as of right now, but it will all depend on the way the two teams come out in the first half. If Florida State gets on top of Duke early I dont think they will be able to comeback in the second half. 5dimes.com has Duke -12 with a total of 139.5
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