Now that we got 7, I'll throw a little down as Duke tends to struggle in Raleigh at least since Kevin Keatts got there for NC State. Might be easy for the Blue Devils to be looking ahead to the regular-season finale at home vs. North Carolina. Duke is 11-16 ATS since 2012 in games when UNC is its next opponent. The Pack don't really have a signature win yet and that's why they aren't on the bubble -- but may at least close to said bubble with an upset here.

Duke is 1-3 in its last four visits down the highway to play NC State, and the Wolfpack should have their fastball with a Quad 1 opportunity in town and their NCAA Tournament hopes getting slimmer every game. We also have very different vibes between the teams with NC State maybe having an edge after a blown lead against UNC over the weekend while Duke was in cruise control for more than half of its 25-point win against Virginia.

There was a time, into mid-January, when NC State was showing up in many early mock brackets for the Big Dance. That was before ACC losses began to pile up, but even so, only one of those defeats (by 12 at Syracuse) was beyond single digits as the Wolfpack has, to the annoyance of its fan base, perfected the art of the combative loss. One more chance awaits here to salvage something vs nearby Tobacco Road rival Duke, now playing for seed position in the Dance. Kevin Keatts needs for bruising 6-9, 275-lb PF D.J. Burns to stay out of foul trouble (which he couldn't on Saturday vs. UNC) to slow down Kyle Filipowski, but the normal Wolfpack effort can keep this close. Play NCS