What a night the Alabama Crimson Tide had Thursday evening in Newark.
Alabama (28-8 overall) punched a ticket to the Elite Eight for the second straight year in the NCAA Tournament with a 113-88 rout of the BYU Cougars in the East Region semifinal at Prudential Center.
It was a historic night for the Crimson Tide, who sank a March Madness record 25 3-pointers against BYU, with 10 coming from leading scorer Mark Sears, who finished with 34 points on 11-of-18 from the field. Aden Holloway did his part to light up the scoreboard with 23 points, making six of 13 attempts from beyond the arc.
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Alabama held BYU, the nation’s fourth-best scoring offense entering the night, to just 6-of-30 from 3-point range, including a 1-for-13 performance in the first half.
Nate Oats’ Crimson Tide will face the Duke Blue Devils (34-3) in a No. 1 vs. No. 2 showdown in the East Region final Saturday night at Prudential Center. Tipoff is scheduled for 7:49 p.m. CT. The game will be televised on TBS and simulcast on truTV.
Duke advanced to the Elite Eight with a 100-93 victory over No. 4 seed Arizona. Freshman sensation Cooper Flagg led the Blue Devils with 30 points, six rebounds and seven assists on 9-of-19 from the field and added nine of 10 from the free-throw line. Kon Knueppel had 20 points, and Duke won its 14th straight game since Feb. 8.
Ahead of Saturday’s Elite Eight matchup, ESPN Analytics and its Matchup Predictor have made their odds-based prediction for who will advance to the Final Four in San Antonio based on the popular College Basketball Power Index (or BPI) ratings.
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And it’s clear who those ratings and metrics favor. ESPN’s BPI gives Duke a 72.4 percent change of beating Alabama (27.6 percent) to reach the Final Four.
The Crimson Tide are No. 6 in BPI with an overall rating of 19.2 after their win over BYU (12.5 offense, 6.8 defense). Duke is No. 1 overall in BPI with a 24.7 rating (14.0 offensively, 10.8 defensively). ESPN’s predictions are “meant to be the best predictor of performance going forward” and represent “how many points above or below average a team is.”
Alabama is the top scoring offense in the nation, averaging 91.4 points per game. Duke is 12th at 83.6 PPG, but the Blue Devils far outshine the Tide in scoring defense. Jon Scheyer’s team ranks seventh nationally, holding opponents to an average 62.5 points per game. Opponents are averaging 81.2 PPG vs. Alabama this season. That ranks 347th nationally, or eighth to last among 355 Division I teams.
Alabama and Duke were both in the Elite Eight last season. The Crimson Tide defeated Clemson, 89-82, to capture the West Region of the NCAA Tournament and reach the Final Four for the first time in program history. Duke fell to NC State in the South Region final, 76-64.
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Brian Anderson (play-by-play) and Jim Jackson (analyst) will have the national TV call of Alabama vs. Duke for TBS Saturday night, with Allie LaForce reporting from the sidelines.
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This article originally appeared on Roll Tide Wire: Alabama basketball odds vs Duke in Elite Eight showdown, per ESPN
