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Ark. Pine-Bluff vs. Duke (-24)
The Golden Lions (18-15) are coached by George Ivory, who as a player at Mississippi Valley State was part of a No. 16 seed that gave Duke fits before losing by seven points in the opening round in 1986 — the first of 10 trips the Blue Devils have made to the Final Four under Krzyzewski.
Krzyzewski has taken Duke to 10 Final Fours, however none of his current players have been there.
The last appearance was 2004. The six years that have followed represents the longest drought the Blue Devils have had in over two decades.
“I think this group of guys, we just scared ourselves two years ago when we were a 2-seed and we had a really close game. We know better than everybody that you have to be ready for every game in this tournament,” Scheyer said.
“That’s one thing we’ve talked to the younger guys about a little bit.”
Thomas reiterated the Blue Devils will not look past anyone.
“Considering we haven’t been that far yet, we don’t have any preconceived notions of where we should be. This is a hungry team right now,” Thomas said.
“We’ve been working really hard all year. … We’re not trying to make up for what we did the past three years in this tournament. This is a new team, and we’re just going to take that and keep moving forward.”
My Pick: Duke (-24)
I just think the Blue devils big 3 in Scheyer, Smith, and Singler will be too strong here coming off of 5 days rest. The Golden Lions are used to travelling, but opened the year on an 0-11 start to the season, all road games. Look for Brian Zoubek to eat up a lot of boards this game and the Blue Devils to be in cruise control after the first 10 minutes.
Overall: 2-1
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