The Duke Blue Devils play their final men’s basketball game of the calendar year on the final day of the calendar year with a Tuesday afternoon battle against Virginia Tech.
The first home conference game on the schedule shouldn’t be taken as a given because the Hokies are still an ACC opponent, but popular college basketball analytics site KenPom doesn’t see much of a path for the road team to pull off the upset. It gives the Blue Devils a 98% chance to win their seventh straight game, the highest number for any of Duke’s remaining 19 contests, with a predicted 24-point margin of victory in front of the Cameron Crazies.
Duke sits second on the site’s national rankings with the Hokies all the way down at No. 153, the explanation for the disparity. Virginia Tech won its first three games of the season, but it has lost seven of its nine battles since.
The Hokies gave Pittsburgh a scare, losing by just five points, but they did so on their home court. Each of their other losses came by at least 10, including a stunner at the hands of Jacksonville in November, and their best win came against Winthrop.
For what it’s worth, KenPom also favored the Blue Devils in both of their losses this season. However, it also predicted a Duke victory over the then-undefeated Auburn Tigers at the start of the month.