NCAA Tournament Odds: California vs. Duke

Coach K's team looks for its second Sweet 16 appearance in a row. (AP Images)

The Pac-10 has been ripped all season and largely for good reason as there wasn’t a ranked team from the conference for most of the year. But that will all be forgotten quickly is California, the Pac-10’s regular season champ, was to upset No. 1 seed Duke on Sunday and join Washington in the Sweet 16. However, the Dukies have opened as 6.5-point favorites on Bodog’s college basketball odds.

Many people expected No. 8 seed Cal (24-10, 20-13 ATS) to lose to Louisville in the first round of the Big Dance. But the Bears played one of their best games of the season in beating the Cards 77-62 behind 21 points apiece from Pac-10 Player of the Year Jerome Randle and Theo Robertson. Cal is in the second round for the first time since 2003 but hasn’t been to the Sweet 16 since 1997.

South Region No. 1 seed Duke (30-5, 19-13-2 ATS) had no trouble at all in the first round, crushing play-in game winner Arkansas-Pine Bluff, 73- 44, behind Kyle Singler’s 22 points and 10 boards – Singler is averaging better than 21 points per game in the past 10. That improved the Blue Devils to 38-8 all-time as a top seed in the Big Dance. And the Dukies seem to love neutral site games (this one's in Jacksonville), having won eight in a row and going 16-1 at neutral sites over the last two seasons.

Really Sunday’s game will be about whichever trio plays better – Cal’s Randle, Robertson and Patrick Christopher or Duke’s Singler, Jon Scheyer and Nolan Smith. The Bears’ trio is tremendous from the three-point line, but Duke has held opponents to 27.9 percent shooting from 3-point range and has allowed more than five 3-pointers in just three of the past 24 games. Cal will need an excellent game from the perimeter because it gives up a ton of size to Duke.

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