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The Duquesne Dukes take on the Dayton Flyers. Check out our Atlantic 10 championship odds series for our Duquesne Dayton prediction and pick. Find how to watch Duquesne Dayton.
The Dayton Flyers lost star guard Malachi Smith at the start of their season. Smith was going to be their on-court general and their bucket-getter in the latter moments of big games. Dayton had a chance to become a very, very good team — top-20 good — and make a possible run at the Sweet 16 with Smith on the court. The injury limited what this team could do, and the results reflect that. Dayton, a likely Atlantic 10 regular-season champion with Smith, finished third in the conference and will carry a No. 3 seed to the A-10 Tournament for this quarterfinal game against Duquesne.
Duquesne is one of the more snake-bitten programs in men's major college basketball. You probably have heard very little about this program over the years because it has not qualified for the NCAA Tournament in a very long time. People who are under 45 years old have never been alive for a Duquesne NCAA Tournament game. The last time the Dukes made the Big Dance was 1977. Coach Keith Dambrot, who previously coached at Akron and is best known as LeBron James' high school basketball coach, took on the assignment at Duquesne in hopes of doing what no coach has done in nearly half a century. The Dukes have been moderately better in recent years comapred to the time before Dambrot took over, but a breakthrough does not appear to be in sight. Dayton represents a very tough draw for Duquesne, so the Dukes will be fighting an uphill battle against the odds, which basically sums up the past 47 years of their basketball existence.
Here are the Duquesne-Dayton Atlantic 10 Championship odds, courtesy of FanDuel.
Atlantic 10 Championship Odds: Duquesne-Dayton Odds
Duquesne Dukes: +5.5 (-110)
Dayton Flyers: -5.5 (-110)
Over: 134.5 (-115)
Under: 134.5 (-105)
How To Watch Duquesne vs Dayton
Time: 7:30 pm ET / 4:30 pm PT
TV: USA Network
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Stream: fuboTV (click for a free trial)*
Why Duquesne Could Cover the Spread
Dayton is without Malachi Smith. That is something which has existed for four months, not four weeks or four days. Yet, while this Dayton team should be seen as a product in which Smith is not part of the equation — meaning that we don't really consider his value to the team anymore, only the players who have been playing the whole season — we actually should, in fact, remember that Dayton is a diminished team without Smith. We explained as much in the introduction to this article. Dayton has high-level low-post scoring but doesn't have the same level of guard play it would have had with Smith. Dayton probably would have been the No. 1 seed at this Atlantic 10 Tournament with Smith. It is a No. 3 seed and a more vulnerable team without him. Dayton could have been a dominant A-10 team. Instead, it is merely a moderately good team which plays a lot of close games and is legitimately vulnerable. Duquesne has enough talent to keep this game close, even if it doesn't win outright.
Why Dayton Could Cover the Spread
The Flyers might not be a supremely reliable team, but if you follow Atlantic 10 basketball and college basketball, you know this much: Things don't go well for the Duquesne Dukes in March. Nearly 50 years have gone by since Duquesne's last NCAA Tournament. One March after another, the Dukes fail to put all the pieces together. Betting against Duquesne in March has — if done over a long period of time — netted bettors a good bit of money. Why stop now?
Final Duquesne-Dayton Prediction & Pick
Dayton probably wins, but the point spread is a much harder part of the equation. Stay away from this game.
Final Duquesne-Dayton Prediction & Pick: Dayton -5.5
