Two marquee matchups are on tap for us Monday night. First, Cooper Flagg, Kon Knueppel, and the Duke Blue Devils travel to Charlottesville to take on the Virginia Cavaliers in what has historically been an extremely close matchup.
In Big 12 action, Arizona looks to bounce back from a two-game skid against the Baylor Bears, who are favored in this game. Expect Jaden Bradley and the Wildcats to head back to Tucson with the victory.
Historically, Virginia plays Duke tough. Outside of their last matchup in Durham, this series has gone back and forth in close games during the 2010s. Each matchup has been decided by 10 or less points since February 16th of 2011. Granted, Tony Bennett is no longer on the bench for Virginia and the Cavaliers are just 13-12 on the season.
Yes, Duke has been nearly unbeatable as of late dominating UNC, Syracuse, Cal, and Stanford outside of their lone ACC loss to Clemson on February 8th. Charlottesville will be rocking tonight and although this program will search for answers after this season, a matchup against Flagg and Duke will be one that UVA shows out for, especially as they look to extend their three-game winning streak.
Best Bet: Virginia +13.5
Scoring just 15 combined points in two blowout wins against Cal and Stanford this past week, Kon Knueppel will look to bounce back against ACC rival Virginia Monday night. Cooper Flagg will get plenty of attention from this Virginia defense and Knueppel, who has the green light from Coach Scheyer, won’t be afraid of the moment.
Kneuppel gets to the rim with ease and can knock down the 3-ball (37.7% on the year). In ACC play, Kon hasn’t gone three straight games without scoring 13 or more points and I don’t expect that streak to end tonight against UVA.
Looking at another streak, the Arizona Wildcats have not lost three games in a row since 2020. More specifically they lost it in Pauley Pavilion to UCLA in a game where Sean Miller completely lost it on the sideline en route to a second-half collapse. That won’t be the case tonight with Tommy Lloyd on the sideline. Lloyd hasn’t lost three straight since taking over in Tucson and although the Wildcats are nursing a two-game skid, they haven’t been horrible losses.
Houston is a Final Four contender while Arizona went 2-22 from deep against Kansas State. Expect Jaden Bradley and the Cats to get back on track tonight against the Bears, who allow opponents to shoot above 36% from beyond the arc. These are the types of games Arizona historically does not lose and I’d even put some money on the Cats to beat Baylor by an alternative spread while Jaden Bradley and freshman Carter Bryant lead the way in scoring.
Best Bet: Arizona Moneyline +102