We are at that time of year when teams from the so-called "power" conferences are jockeying for position in an attempt to get at-large bids for the NCAA Tournament. One of those teams will be in action on Monday night, as the Virginia Tech Hokies play host to the Duke Blue Devils in an ACC game that begins at 7 PM ET. It will be televised by ESPN, and BetAnySports customers will have the opportunity to place wagers in real-time, even after the opening tip, as they access the state-of-the-art software from Live Betting Ultra.

Duke (24-5 SU, 18-9 ATS) is currently ranked fifth in both major polls, and once again they have plenty of freshman talent, which includes Gary Trent (14.7 ppg), Wendell Carter 14.6 ppg, 9.6 rpg) and of course, Marvin Bagley III, who could wind up being the first pick in the NBA Draft. Bagley is special, and had been sidelined with a knee sprain, although he came back nicely on Saturday against Syracuse.

Virginia Tech (20-9 straight-up, 15-10 against the basketball pointspread) has to be classified as a "bubble" team at the moment; they could be in or out of the NCAA Tournament field, depending on what happens in these remaining ACC games and the conference tourney. Maybe the suspense will last until Selection Sunday. One must admit that they have impressive wins over Virginia (#1 in the AP Poll) and North Carolina (defending national champs).

Meanwhile, Duke is quite obviously on a campaign to be one of the four #1 regional seeds.

In the ACC basketball betting odds that have been posted on this game by the folks at BetAnySports, the Blue Devils are laying points:

Duke Blue Devils -5.5
Virginia Tech Hokies +5.5

Over 158 points -110
Under 158 points -110

This is a payback attempt on the part of Virginia Tech, which suffered the indignity of a 74-52 loss at Cameron Indoor on February 14 - kind of a "St. Valentine's Day Massacre." if you will. Justin Robinson is one of the guys who has to be successful if the Hokies are going to succeed, and he hit only two field goals in ten tries. That isn't necessarily an accident; the Blue Devils looked like they were playing better defensively without Bagley.

Bagley has been a very artful offensive player, averaging a little over 21 points a game, but the objective observer would concede that he is not a defensive stopper, and holding him out of action gave Coach K a chance to establish a 2-3 zone that has really worked.

In fact, they have held the opposition below 40% in five of the last six games, and below 26% from the three-point arc in four of those. They have also covered five in a row.

And BetAnySports patrons saw that the results were there as they integrated the star freshman, who went only three years to high school but re-classified himself to get into this freshman class and thus do his "one and done" sooner. Bagley missed the first meeting, in which V-Tech shot a shade below 43% from the floor, and between him and Carter, they have a lot of length on the inside; the Blue Devils limited the 'Cuse to 31.5% shooting and only twelve points in the paint.

How will that influence what we do? It points us toward the "under," of course. That's where Duke has gone in five of its last six contests. And guess what? The Hokies are also on an "under" run - six consecutive times - even the 85-75 win over NC State on February 7.

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